He attended Vancouver Grizzlies games as a kid, then went on to play in the NBA for the Los Angeles Lakers.And through it all, it’s hard to think of anyone who has more passionately repped B.C.’s Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley regions as rightful professional basketball territory than Robert Sacre.With all of that in mind, […]
University Men’s Basketball
VL Podcast 03.10.21: Simon Fraser coach Steve Hanson reflects on what March Madness means to him, including a thrilling B.C. AAA title in 2012 at Terry Fox!
Welcome back to Varsity Letters-The Podcast! This week, as the Langley Events Centre re-plays classic B.C. boys basketball championship finals, we have a guest who has coached in one of the most memorable finishes ever. Before he assumed the head role with SFU men’s basketball in 2016-17, Steve Hanson was the co-coach of the Terry […]
Richmond’s rebounder for the ages: A craving for caroms has Utah Valley’s Fardaws Aimaq treading on historic NCAA Div. 1 hardwood!
As the NCAA men’s Div. 1 regular season draws towards its completion, the microscope trained one of B.C.’s high school basketball’s most remarkable grads has continued to intensify.Yet nothing is slowing down the per-game rebounding average of former Steveston-London grad Fardaws Aimaq, the 6-foot-11, 260-pound redshirt sophomore centre with the Utah Valley Wolverines.With four more […]
A Sunday Read: After making the biggest shot of his life, UFV Cascades’ guard Jordyn Sekhon reflects on the power of preparation!
It was the late, great John Wooden who once quipped: “When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.”Delivered a full half-century ago, in an era where catchphrases weren’t so immediately fated to become commercialized cliches, the wise words of the Wizard of Westwood have retained a dignity and a depth of meaning so instantly relevant […]
‘Q’ the comeback! As TWU preps for Shoot for the Cure fundraiser, Spartans’ coach Pridie can’t hide pride for resilient superstar guard Ja’Qualyn Gilbreath!
LANGLEY — One year later, it’s time to cue the comeback… or should that be ‘Q’ the comeback?Fans of the men’s basketball team at Trinity Western University are clearly hoping so.On Thursday, the Spartans faithful as well as Canada West hoops afficionados will have their first opportunity since the early days of 2020 to watch […]
It’s a continental hoops cuisine! Matt McKay’s virtual Sands Basketball Clinics unite B.C. & North American coaches in the name of the game!
NORTH DELTA — They say that silence is deafening, and in perhaps the cruelest of ways, that was the auditory state most common among both high school basketball players and their coaches as each began 2021 by walking into gymnasiums normally teeming with the activity of a season in progress.“We all realized that last Wednesday […]
Fardaws Aimaq: From Steveston-London to the top of the NCAA D-1 rebounding charts at Utah Valley…is the NBA next for B.C.’s rising 6-foot-11 star?
Look up… look way up!Okay B.C. basketball fans, do you see that name right at the very tip-top of the list of the leading rebounders this season for all of NCAA Div. 1 men’s basketball?In case you were wondering just where the winding basketball roads had taken Fardaws Aimaq ever since the 6-foot-11 centre took […]
A SUNDAY READ: It’s no fable! In 1952, before his 11 NBA championship rings, a 17-year-old Bill Russell toured B.C. high schools and discovered his hoops identity!
Malcolm Reid had heard the story many, many basketball moons ago.Last week, the head coach of the Vernon Panthers’ senior boys basketball team recounted it to me, and just like the day he first heard it from a man named Dick Abbott, it almost sounded like a fable.Earlier this month, Abbott — the father-in-law of […]
A Sunday Read: In 1958, UBC hosted the greatest group of NBA talent in B.C. history! Here’s how 15 future Hall of Famers hit the parquet at War Memorial Gym!
VANCOUVER — Cloudy, sunny periods, scattered showers, and a chance of … a lifetime.Excuse my indulgences today as I supplement the weather forecast of a certain spring day here almost 63 years ago because through the gift of hindsight, it all seems especially apropos.April 21, 1958.That’s the day on which perhaps the most amazing collection […]
VL Podcast 12.10.20: Basketball B.C. prez Stu Graham on the culture of hoops in his early-1970s North Delta Huskies neighbourhood and beyond!
The Varsity Letters time machine spins the knobs and dials and heads back to the year 1971 to celebrate (a wee bit early) a very special 50th anniversary BC high school moment! Our guest? Basketball B.C. president Stu Graham has worn so many hats, and he brings the entire rack to the fore as he […]