Heading into the opening night of the regular season on Friday, the Columbia Bible College basketball teams have high hopes for a bounce-back campaign.

Both the Bearcats men's and women's hoop teams missed the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association (BCCAA) playoffs last season, but with an infusion of young talent, optimism abounds.

Even the Bearcats women, who haven't won a BCCAA regular season game in two years, have designs on a postseason berth after head coach Jay Duke reeled in an excellent recruiting class.

"(Making the playoffs) is a bold statement," Duke acknowledged, "but I think we can do it from the physical standpoint of the game. The challenge for us is going to be the mental part. We're a very young team."

Indeed, Duke's charges are youthful – nine of the 10 players on the roster are rookies. Among those rookies, local products Nikki Andres (MEI) and Cleo Lanyero (W.J. Mouat) figure to be instant impact players. Lanyero, a freakish athlete, sets the tone for the team defensively, while point guard Andres will have a huge influence at the offensive end.

"We need her to set the tempo," Duke said of Andres. "If she's doing well, we're going to be doing really well."

Nicole Duke, the coach's sister, is the lone returnee, and rookies Laine Dagneau and Meghan Carr round out the starting lineup.

The CBC men's squad follows much the same blueprint as the women – not a lot of size, but speed to burn.

The Bearcats boast a quartet of versatile first-year guards in Karl Toews, Blair Penner, Marcus Krahn and Tyler Anderson. Toews will start at the point, but the other three players figure to take their turns handling the ball.

Up front, first-year man Chris Thompson has been a revelation in the preseason. The lanky six-foot-five forward from Fresno, Calif. has been piling up the points and shooting a high percentage.

"He's really taking advantage of his speed and his ability to beat bigger guys off the dribble," CBC men's coach Mike McLaverty noted.

Key returnees for the 'Cats include sophomore forwards Matt Wirch and Justin Thoutenhoofd.

Due to a lack of height, fans can expect the Bearcats to play an up-tempo style and rely on a committee approach to rebounding. The lone true centre on the roster, six-foot-seven Nathan Waltman, missed over a month of the preseason due to shin splints and the flu before returning to practice on Monday.

"We've got enough talent to make the playoffs," McLaverty opined. "We've just got to come together as a team. A lot of our guys were the main scorers on their high school teams, so they have to realize that it's more important for the team to win than individual success. We haven't quite figured that out totally."

The Bearcats are at home against the Camosun Chargers on opening weekend. The women play at 6 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday, while the men tip off at 8 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday.