By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caVANCOUVER — Olivia Weekes can do so many different things on the basketball court so well, perhaps it’s no surprise that in recorded UBC Thunderbirds’ program history, she sits in the Top 15 of 10 different major statistical categories.And along the way what has been most clear are the ways in which the […]
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Buchanan Cup 2025: As the timeless SFU vs. UBC men’s basketball rivalry gets Nov. 15 re-start atop Burnaby Mountain, it’s time to examine the weird, wonderful origin story 1968’s debut crosstown clash!
By Howard Tsumura(VarsityLetters.ca and Special for Simon Fraser Athletics)BURNABY — If the Buchanan Cup could speak, the first thing you’d hear would be a chuckle most identifiable as a last laugh.Too many times a pawn in the machinations of the Lower Mainland’s two most enduring university athletic programs, it has nonetheless aged with dignity to […]
Tsumura Basketball Invitational ’25 draw release: Here are all four senior boys and girls brackets for our 2025 TBI tournaments set to tip off in December at the Langley Event Centre!
LANGLEY — The very best of B.C. senior boys and girls high school basketball is on its way to the Langley Events Centre over the first two weeks of December.Today, we present the four draws which will make up the Super 16 and Select 16 draws as the 2025 Tsumura Basketball Invitationals.All of the precise […]
AS SFU women’s hoops tips off Friday at LEC heavy grad tolls create early questions on offence! Newly-focussed Red Leafs look to build cornerstone identity with hustle stats by the bushel!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caBURNABY — The last time the women’s basketball team at the top of Burnaby Mountain went through this kind of change, they were first celebrating a national championship, then preparing to make the move from what is now known as U SPORTS to the ranks of the NCAA.All of that took place in […]
Simon Fraser men’s hoops: As Canadian Tip-Off Classic nears at the LEC, new head coach Barnaby Craddock melds newcomers and holdovers in build-up to 2025-26 GNAC season!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caBURNABY — With a brand new coaching staff and half of its roster new to the fulltime climes of Burnaby Mountain, it’s no stretch to say that Simon Fraser Red Leafs men’s basketball is set to open a new chapter in its program’s history.And page one of that treatise will begin write itself […]
UBC-Trinity Western men’s hoops: Fifth-year vet Tobi Akinkunmi earns kudos for new three-point prowess! Thunderbirds unleash long-bomb barrage early to top host Spartans in early-season crosstown clash at LEC!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caLANGLEY — The UBC Thunderbirds may only be one weekend into the new Canada West men’s season, but they’re shooting the basketball from distance like they’re in mid-season form.On Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre, the Birds came bursting out of the gates behind the three-point shooting of fifth-year forward Tobi Akinkunmi, […]
Musing on the Magic of Miracle Comebacks: At the confluence of down, distance and desperation, UBC’s youthful football ‘Birds shed tackles and tropes with miraculous playoff-clinching OT win at Regina!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caWhen you’ve marched out the kind of young core that the 2025 UBC Thunderbirds have this season, on both offence and defence, and you’ve made a commitment to keep those student-athletes engaged in that day-to-day, game-to-game development space, you have to expect that the downs may initially outweigh the ups.Yet while the process […]
From Kevin Hanson to Phil Jalalpoor, examining how torch-passing former point guards pay forward a coaching legacy which beats strong at the heart and history of UBC men’s basketball!
BY HOWARD TSUMURA(VarsityLetters.ca)VANCOUVER — First as a player, then later as an assistant coach, Phil Jalalpoor cut his teeth in the university hoops world under the mentorship of one of the most successful head coaches in the history of Canadian university basketball.Kevin Hanson, the hard-nosed former UBC point guard who went on to forge the […]
Trinity Western women’s hoops: With Victoria and UBC providing a challenging opening-weekend slate, Spartans open Canada West play ready to make every lesson count!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caLANGLEY — The Trinity Western Spartans did not qualify for last season’s U SPORTS women’s national championship tournament held across town at UBC.Yet none of that means the Spartans went into this past off-season unaware of what it’s like to play the country’s best with both team’s seasons on the line.“We played Saskatchewan […]
A Sunday Read: Meet Dave Taylor! With 2025-26 season set for Friday tip, UBC’s new women’s basketball coach finds connection through player empowerment & paying homage to Thunderbirds hoops history!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caVANCOUVER — If you believe in the unseen forces of the basketball universe, then maybe you can better understand the kind of pressure the game’s mythical matchmakers were under this past summer when it came time to finding the next head coach of the UBC Thunderbirds women’s basketball team.Their task?Could they pair what […]