By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caBURNABY MOUNTAIN — No word yet if Toni Maric ever let the Buchanan Cup out of his hands on Saturday night after he and his UBC Thunderbirds topped the host Simon Fraser Red Leafs 66-54 in the 38th edition of the crosstown basketball brouhaha.Who knows? Maybe the ‘Birds 6-foot-8 fifth-year forward took it […]
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Q-&-A with Tayla Jackson: As she finishes her first round of chemotherapy, former Brookswood, SFU hoops star, 28, speaks to her battle, and to the truth of hardcourt lessons worth leaning on!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caLANGLEY — If you’re a member of B.C.’s tight-knit basketball community, you may well already have heard the gist of her story.Two weeks ago, former Brookswood Secondary and Simon Fraser hoops standout Tayla Jackson wasn’t feeling herself.At the time, with the start of hoops season just around the corner, she was in the […]
With poise and big-game flair, Victoria’s 18-year-old point guard Avery Geddes delivers in Vikes’ upset win over No. 4 UBC! Former SMUS star, BC 2-A MVP plays above her U SPORTS rookie status!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caVANCOUVER — When you perform within basketball’s most sacred space, you earn the most special moniker of having played like you were ‘unconscious’.On its own, hitting 6-of-8 three-pointers in a game doesn’t necessarily qualify as such, yet it certainly makes a case for itself when so early in your university career, just weeks […]
SFU Women’s Hoops: As its new team identity takes root and Red Leafs prep for California weekend, junior guard Rachel Loukes confident ‘blue collar’ mindset is something team can lean on!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caLANGLEY — On the eve of her team’s participation in the season-opening Canadian Tip-Off Classic earlier this month, Rachel Loukes thought long and hard about how her Simon Fraser Red Leafs were being labelled as a working-class basketball team.And when the three-day event concluded on Nov. 2 at the Langley Events Centre following […]
A SUNDAY READ: UBC stuns No. 1-ranked, defending national champ Victoria, snapping Vikes’ 33-game win streak with stoic resilience and improved prowess in the paint!
By Howard TsumuraVarsityLetters.caVANCOUVER — Was the biggest surprise on Friday night the way in which the UBC Thunderbirds turned in one of their most inspired and complete team performances in recent memory en route to defeating the No. 1-ranked team in the country?Or was it, upon hearing the final horn sound in its 93-87 win […]
Adversity has prepared UBC’s fifth-year senior guard Olivia Weekes for the ‘gravity’ of any situation! U SPORTS’ No. 4-ranked ‘Birds renew cross-water rivalry Friday vs. Victoria Vikes!
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]