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 […]
Tag: Canada West basketball
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 […]
No. 1 Victora 90 No. 2 UBC 88: Buzzer-beating jumper keeps Vikes perfect, falls like a dagger through UBC hearts!
BY HOWARD TSUMURA (VaristyLetters.ca)Regardless of your rooting interest, one thing was clear Thursday night in the provincial capital.The basketball gods give as well as they take.Ethan Boag’s baseline corner jumper from just inside the three-point arc dropped through the irons at Ken and Kathy Shields’ place just as the final buzzer sounded, giving the hometown, […]
UBC men’s basketball 2024-25: With its “equal-opportunity system” thriving, No. 2 Thunderbirds clash with visiting, No. 1 Vikes as eyes of Canadian university hoop world focus on War Memorial Gym!
VANCOUVER — It’s mid-November, his UBC Thunderbirds have already played 16 games… and won them all.“But I still don’t know who our best five guys are when it comes to playing the best together,” head coach Kevin Hanson explained following practice Wednesday.With his No. 2 nationally-ranked ‘Birds set to play host to the No. 1-ranked […]
Buchanan Cup 2022: For UBC’s James Woods, a career defined by beating the odds makes ‘Boy Wonder’ a well-earned nickname!
VANCOUVER — Deep down in his basketball soul, James Woods has always been Boy Wonder.It’s the nickname he picked up before he was old enough to shave, before he even started to play high school basketball for Langley’s Walnut Grove Gators.And on Friday night (7:30 p.m.), when he pulls on his No. 11 UBC jersey […]
Trinity Western opens its 2021-21 men’s U SPORTS season Thursday vs. Calgary! Debut for Spartans’ dynamic backcourt of Ja’Qualyn Gilbreath and Mason Bourcier!
LANGLEY — The longest dry spell in the history of U SPORTS basketball is set to end on Thursday.“I think we’re (one of) the first U SPORTS team in the country to play,” says Trinity Western Spartans’ men’s basketball coach Trevor Pridie, looking ahead to Thursday’s limited capacity pre-season exhibition opener against the powerhouse Calgary […]
Simon Fraser vs. UBC: The classic men’s B.C. university basketball rivalry is re-born! Mark down Nov. 20 at SFU for a rowdy Buchanan Cup tip-off!
BURNABY — For once in a long while the basketball stars at Simon Fraser and UBC have aligned.The end result?The Lower Mainland’s longest standing men’s basketball rivals have agreed to make Saturday, Nov. 20 the date for the resumption of the classic Buchanan Cup series, this edition seeing the Thunderbirds traveling up Burnaby Mountain to […]
UFV Cascades’ never-say-die defence enough to top UBC and show just how tough one Canada West win can be, let alone 313!
ABBOTSFORD — On a night when one of the biggest coaching records in Canadian university basketball sat on the precipice of falling, a home underdog determined to have a night of its own dug deep and played the role of spoiler, in the process illuminating just how hard it actually is to win games in […]
UFV Women’s Basketball: Forget the Fab Five! Cascades’ freshman-filled Fab Four combine for 50 points in win over UBC
ABBOTSFORD — Don’t hold it against Jessica Parker just because she doesn’t know the history of the Fab Five.After all, the Fraser Valley Cascades’ high-scoring pure freshman guard wasn’t even born when Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King arrived on the scene, baggy shorts and all, way back in 1991, […]
Varsity Letters B.C. Recruits List 2019: Where 88 boys basketball prospects are headed this coming season
LANGLEY — Even over an offseason in which the majority of local university programs are not brining in big classes, there almost 100 names to note provincially in the world of high school-to-post-secondary men’s basketball. All told, that adds up to 182 names between our boys and girls lists, among the most we’ve ever had.