By Howard TsumuraVarsity LettersBURNABY — Sophie Bergeron is fun to watch but almost impossible to describe.And really, what could be better?She arrived last season to the Simon Fraser Red Leafs as an athletic prodigy, yet proceeded to demonstrate the need for the kind of seasoning which was as much about the cerebral part of the […]
University
The story of UBC’s Cerys Merton: How a penchant for defence, inspired by a late high school teammate, has helped ‘Birds guard become her program’s all-time steals-per-game leader!
By Howard TsumuraVANCOUVER — Thumb through the pages of Cerys Merton’s own basketball dictionary, and you’ll discover that the definition of the term ‘skill set’ includes at least one discipline not commonly clustered with the likes of the game’s time-honoured standards of shooting, passing and dribbling.“I think the biggest thing is just constantly bringing that […]
A Sunday Read, TBI 2025 edition: The path of Victoria’s Diego Maffia from the depths of his 11th-hour torn ACL, to a Vikes’ national title, and now his return to the LEC as Oak Bay’s new head coach!
LANGLEY — Diego Maffia never thought basketball could break his heart.Once, in his Grade 12 season (2018-19) with Victoria’s Oak Bay Bays, he poured home 94 points in a 114-88 win over Edmonton’s Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds, the greatest single-game scoring performance in B.C. boys high school basketball history.And over a university career with his hometown […]
Buchanan Cup 2025: As UBC beats Simon Fraser in the 38th edition of the ‘Crosstown Clash’, we celebrate the Brothers Maric as a symbol of the game’s enduring ties to the B.C. hoops community!
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 […]
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 […]