UBC's Nikola Guzina drives to the basket against the Trinity Western Spartans in Canada West action Nov. 3 at War Memorial Gymnasium. After losing the 2023-24 season to a brain injury, the 6-foot-10 standout is playing a huge role in UBC's drive to the Final 8 national championships this March. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

Bright lights, brighter future: After losing last season to concussion, ‘Birds 6-foot-10 standout Nikola Guzina can see clearly now as UBC gears up to host 2025 U SPORTS Final 8 nationals!

VANCOUVER — Nikola Guzina’s basketball dream had always been to play under the bright lights at UBC’s hallowed War Memorial Gymnasium

And coming off an amazing two-season stretch at nearby King George Secondary School, where over his Grade 11 and 12 seasons combined (2018-20) he averaged an NBA 2K-like 30.7 points, 14.1 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game with the Dragons, you’d have been right in assuming he’d done everything in his power to make that dream come true.

This Friday (7:30 p.m.), those lights will be shining as bright as ever when the fourth-year Guzina hears his name called in the starting line-up for the host and No. 5-ranked Thunderbirds (11-5) who begin a two-game weekend series against the UBC Okanagan Heat (4-12).

The No. 6-ranked UBC women’s team (14-2) opens action Friday (5:30 p.m.) against the Heat (6-10).

On Saturday each series resumes with the women tipping at 4 p.m. and the men following at 6 p.m.

In the case of Guzina, there is a big-picture story with a scope far more all-encompassing than the impressive numbers (13.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game) that UBC’s ultra-versatile, 6-foot-10, 225-pound big man has posted this season on a Thunderbirds’ team that regularly goes 12-plus deep with its player rotation.

And that story starts about 15 months ago at a time in Guzina’s life when the lights suddenly got too bright, so much so that War Memorial Gym had ceased to become the safe haven it had become over his first three seasons on the Point Grey campus.

On Nov. 3 of last season, the opening night of the Canada West’s 2023-24 conference schedule, Guzina suffered a concussion during UBC’s 98-76 home-floor win over the Lethbridge Pronghorns.

He didn’t know it that day, but it would wind up costing him the entire season, one which he had spent three dues-paying campaigns preparing for.

“And that’s the interesting thing about a concussion because it’s a little different than an ankle injury where you can just do your exercises,” begins Guzina of a more standard, timeline-based rehabilitation process.

“Last year was rough because I got the injury right at the start of the season and I had to battle,” he continues. “And my eyes were always the issue. I was getting double vision. It was getting blurry. I wasn’t even able to go watch practice because of the lights, and just tracking the ball was too much for my eyes. It was a rough process getting back because it felt like I was getting better, and then it would get worse.”

At his lowest ebb, Guzina began to doubt he’d ever get back onto the court.

“About four or five months into it, the season had ended, I wasn’t doing much, I wasn’t seeing the team and I almost fell out of rhythm with basketball in a way. I wasn’t even touching the ball because I didn’t know how long it was going to take and I wasn’t going to wait a couple of years for this.”

UBC’s Nikola Guzina has relished getting back on the court this season following a concussion which cost him his entire 2023-24 Canada West season. (Photo by Rich Lam property of UBC Athletics 2025. All Rights Reserved)

INSTANT IMPACT

Fast-forward just over 14 months later, to Jan. 17 of this year, and Guzina is, for the first season of his UBC career, hearing his name being called in pre-game as a regular member of the ‘Birds starting five.

That night, in a 100-70 win over visiting Fraser Valley, the true depth of Guzina’s impact on a game is felt over the first 1:12 of the second quarter, a span in which he impacts the flow of play at both ends of the floor during a 7-0 run by the home team.

First, through his mere action of moving into position for a high screen-and-roll in the half court, he helps create an open lane to the basket for a driving lay-in by speedy UBC guard Brendan Sullivan.

Guzina then goes right back down the floor and rejects UFV scoring leader Dario Lopez in the paint. The block keys a Sullivan fast-break dish to rookie Nylan Roberts who in turn finds Micah Jessie for a catch-and-shoot baseline corner  triple.

Then finally, a signature moment.

Guzina grabs a rebound under his own basket, dribbles the full 94 feet with the kind of long-striding, five-bounce fluidity a 6-foot-10 player has no business exhibiting, before playing through the contact at the rim for an and-one opportunity.

After all of that, UBC was suddenly in front 32-18, and the only thing Guzina didn’t do was complete the three-point play.

It was like watching the King George version of Nikola Guzina, the kid who grew up as a guard, but between ninth and 10th grade went from 5-foot-11 to 6-foot-5, realizing after the spurt was over that he had maintained all of his more dextrous ball-handling ability and his overall agility.

It also was the surest sign that the old Guzina, the one who over his high school years under his former head coach Darko Kulic regularly played every position on the floor, was indeed healthy and in the midst of summoning those same gifts at the U SPORTS level.

UBC head men’s basketball coach Kevin Hanson was keen to show extreme care in bringing star forward Nikola Guzina back into the fold after sitting out the 2023-24 season after suffering a concussion. (Photo by Jacob Mallari property UBC Athletics 2025. All Rights Reserved)

“Playing (positions) one through five and bringing the ball up… I think that all of those skills that Darko entrusted in him, he has certainly come around,” continued Hanson. “He wasn’t even cleared by the doctors to train until September. And any time someone takes a full year off, they usually come back pretty rusty. 

Yet somehow, not Guzina.

After 10 months of near-complete inactivity, he opened the non-conference season with three straight double-digit scoring performances, including 14 points, eight rebounds and three steals against the Carleton Ravens, and 21 points against the Saskatchewan Huskies.

Then, when then-No. 2 UBC lost 96-89 loss to then-No. 3 Calgary at home on Nov. 22, Guzina scored a career-high 27 points to go along with a nine-rebound performance that featured six offensive boards.

But the toughest hurdle to overcome on the journey back to normal was just getting to the point where Guzina could trust himself enough to know that it was once again time to throw himself back into the fray.

To that end, the first step came through Hanson’s keen understanding that Guzina needed to ease himself back into the team dynamic before he could do the same on the court.

The Thunderbirds had already planned a five-game tour of Mexico Aug. 22-27, and while Guzina wasn’t yet ready to don the blue-and-gold, Hanson could tell he was yearning to reconnect with his basketball brothers.

“He had to get over a little stage fright, so it was a mutually agreed process,” said Hanson of the fact that Guzina would rejoin his team on the tour, but not play.

“It’s his life and his future and so he had to be comfortable,” the coach added.

Guzina credits it as being a key in his return.

“It was an amazing opportunity to see the team vibe build… to rebuild the chemistry because I wasn’t there for so long, and I got to give it to Kev on that one, because a lot of times when  a coach has an injured player… you take someone else.”

Back in March of 2020, King George’s Nikola Guzina (left) was a 6-foot-8, 205-pound senior who announced he was joining thethe UBC Thunderbirds for what would be the COVID-cancelled 2020-21 campaign. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2020. All Rights Reserved)

LEAN ON ME

King George Dragons’ head coach Darko Kulic hasn’t missed a game that Nikola Guzina has played at UBC, and that’s saying something when you’re still coaching your own high school team, and you’ve started a young family.

And while he’s only seen about 12 of them in person, he’s still watched them all via his CanadaWest.TV subscription package.

“But it’s always muted because I watch the games at 1 (a.m.) in bed when my wife and the little ones are sleeping,” explains Kulic.

Make no mistake, there is a bond between Guzina and Kulic that is truly special, and it stems from a commonality that goes beyond coach and player.

“When I was 19, I had a horrible concussion,” Kulic reveals. “I stopped playing for three years, so I could really feel what he was feeling.”

Kulic says the pair still communicate just about every day, and during Guzina’s recovery, they’d often meet for walks and talks.

“He’s always wanted more for himself,” continued Kulic of Guzina. “Covid really threw him some wrenches, and it was really mentally tough when he got that concussion because he was really starting to feel his way out towards becoming a Top 10 player in Canada, I believe.”

For his part, with both Hanson and Kulic at his side for additional advice and counsel, Guzina was finally able to step out of his doldrums.

“When I got back to the (current) season, when I started doing non-contact stuff, it was tough because I would maybe overthink my symptoms a bit,” he admitted. “So it took me a little bit to just forget about that. Obviously if it was still bad, I would be safe and not play, but then to a certain extent I thought that maybe I’m creating my own symptoms in my head a little bit. So then I was like, let’s just play free and not worry about it because if I am going to play, I am going to play. And now I am feeling much better.”

Victorious King George coach Darko Kulic celebrates in a sea of fans after his Dragons put on a record-setting defensive clinic to beat Brentwood College during final day action at the B.C. senior boys high school basketball championships, March 11, 2023.(Photo by Mark Steffens property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2023. All Rights Reserved)

Kulic’s concussion happened prior to the 2006-7 season during a scrimmage in North Vancouver in front of coaches from both Capilano and Langara.

While fine today, its impacts can still be triggered in the areas related to understanding the entirety of the trauma that a concussion carries.

“It’s tough on people, how mentally tough (a concussion) can be,” Kulic began. “You see the world moving and you’re kind of stuck. So for me, looking at it as a brother, it’s the mental health side of it, too. A concussion is not just (about) sports. It affects your way of living and thinking.”

It also brings equal measures of perspective and gratitude to the table.

“Last year was my year that I thought I was going to break through, and then boom… the injury,” Guzina adds. “So I just feel lucky that I am able to play, the team is playing well and I am able to contribute and impact our winning.”

With the U SPORTS Final 8 national championships set for UBC this coming March, Guzina will get to test his stuff against the best in the nation. (For information and ticketing to the U SPORTS Final 8 men’s and women’s national championships at UBC March 13-16, CLICK HERE.

And while his offensive numbers may seem modest, so much of that is due to the fact that the Thunderbirds play with as deep a rotation as any team in Canada.

UBC’s Nikola Guzina extends for a shot attempt against the Trinity Western Spartans in Canada West action Nov. 3 at War Memorial Gymnasium. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2024. All Rights Reserved)

An interesting way to look at just how effective he has been as a 6-foot-10 post-forward-guard whose 13.9 points-per-game scoring average has come over an average of 21.6 minutes per game?

While the 40-minute projected output of any player can be deceiving based on weaknesses in other parts of said player’s game which may emerge over extended action, Guzina’s two-way play actually makes him a candidate for more time.

And so if you look at the Canada West’s Top 5 players in the 40-minute-per-game projections, you’ll see that Guzina sits fifth overall.

UVic’s Diego Maffia (32.8 points) and Renaldo Robinson (30.9), Calgary’s Nate Petrone (29.5) and Mt. Royal’s Keivonte Watts (24.8) are positioned one through four. All are true guards, making Guzina, fifth at 24.7 points, the top front court scorer per-40 minutes in the Canada West.

“He’s been a handful for everyone we’ve played,” Hanson said. “And you have to give him full credit. He was in a dark place, but he’s been a workhorse in the mornings and the late nights, coming in and shooting… and we’re all reaping the benefits.”

For Nikola Guzina, the best part of all is getting the chance to see so clearly now just great life can be under the bright lights.

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