A summer without playoffs: it’s a feeling the Saskatchewan Rattlers have faced since last making the dance in 2022 and will now reflect on again.
The Rattlers were officially eliminated from Canadian Elite Basketball League playoff contention last Friday, dropping a 100-79 decision on the road to the Vancouver Bandits.
“It’s tough not going to to the playoffs for I think it’s the third consecutive year,” Rattlers guard Devontè Bandoo said. “I think we just got to finish the season strong, just show the fans that there’s hope in the future. Hopefully I can be here next year in the beginning and things can be better than how we started.”
The loss to Vancouver dropped Saskatchewan’s record on the 2025 season to a sobering 4-14, which has the Snakes sitting dead last in the CEBL’s Western Conference.
With the Winnipeg Sea Bears (7-10) already taking up one of four playoff spots in the West as hosts for CEBL Championship Weekend, the Rattlers would have needed to catch the Edmonton Stingers (11-7) for third place to qualify.
It’s the latest in a string of disappointing finishes to the regular season for Saskatchewan, with its last playoff game coming on Aug. 7, 2022 in a 108-96 loss to the Scarborough Shooting Stars.
“Yeah, it’s frustrating,” Rattlers head coach Eric Magdanz said. “We’re all in this business to try to win, so to not have that opportunity to go for a championship is frustrating. We’re trying to build a level of culture and a level of consistency, I think that’s one of the reasons why I was brought in this year was to give some consistency to the coaching staff. So it’s something we’re going to look at moving forward.”
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Thanks to the league’s expanded schedule of 24 games this season, the Rattlers will have some extra time to reflect on the end to their campaign with six games left on their schedule.
Even though playoffs are no longer in the cards this summer, Magdanz is confident his team won’t take a mental dip down the stretch and take its foot off the pedal with valuable professional contracts still on the line.
“We’re going to make sure that we set them up to the best position possible,” Magdanz said. “The best way to get a good contract is to win and to compete hard, because everybody is looking for those type of players. I’m not concerned about our level of effort or consistency down the stretch here, it’s sort of ingrained in who we are.”
For towering forward Grant Anticevich, it’s been a challenging first season in the CEBL coming over from his home country of Australia and not seeing the wins pile up this year.
When asked about what will be driving him down the final six games of the regular season, however, he credited the team’s overall fight and desire to improve as they close off the year.
“It’s always difficult when you’re not making playoffs and necessarily not playing for anything,” Anticevich said. “It can sometimes be hard to keep motivation, but we do want to get better as individuals and as a team. We love playing with each other, so I feel like we owe it to each other. No one is going to cave in, or give in, or not care the last part of the season. We’ve battled throughout the whole season, no one really wants to take the foot off the pedal.”
One bright spot for Saskatchewan over its stretch drive to end the season will be the return of guard Jordan Bowden to the lineup, beginning this weekend in Ottawa.
Bowden was among the Rattlers’ top offensive producers during his tenure before leaving the team earlier this month due to personal reasons, averaging over 17 points per game and recording a 40-point showing in a 93-90 victory over the Blackjacks on July 5.
“Jordan is just another offensive threat, another guy you can give the ball to when you need a bucket,” Magdanz said. “We refer to it as gravity on the floor, the defence just shifts in his direction whether he has the ball or not because he’s such a threat out there. Just another guy who is going to cause the defence to change, adjust and hopefully open up some things for other guys.”
For veterans like Bandoo, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer who returned to the court mid-season for the Rattlers for the first time since 2022, this final stretch will indicate what kind of team they really haven and how hard they’ll play for one another with their goal of playoff basketball once again not coming to fruition.
“I think a lot of us were focused on individual things right now and I think that’s what is hurting our nature and our character,” Bandoo said. “When we practice together as a team, we’re a phenomenal team and it’s just being consistent with it. I think our goal is just to keep playing the right way for the next six games.”
The Rattlers will head to Ottawa for a tilt against the Blackjacks on Saturday afternoon, with a noon tipoff, Saskatchewan time.
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