VANCOUVER — You’re the head coach of a Canada West men’s or women’s basketball program, and as the most disjointed regular-season campaign in conference history does its best to wind towards an organized conclusion, one question seems to keeping topping all others in terms of relevancy.Between re-scheduled games and extended byes, what’s the best way […]
Tag: Kevin Hanson
Buchanan Cup 2021: The rivalry returns as a sell-out crowd of 1,600 packs Simon Fraser’s West Gym to watch the hosts top UBC Thunderbirds 90-82!
BURNABY MOUNTAIN — As Steve Hanson made his way across campus Saturday evening for the biggest men’s basketball game at SFU in recent memory, he just knew that nobody was in for an ordinary night.“When I got here at 5:45 (p.m.), I could already hear the 400 people who lined up,” Simon Fraser’s head coach […]
UBC men’s hoops 2021-22: A new season tips off Thursday with game-ready additions as defending Canada West champ ‘Birds ready for small-ball or tall-ball!
VANCOUVER — They are not exactly a team shrouded in mystery, yet on the night of the final sleep before opening the 2021-22 Canada West men’s basketball season, it’s impossible to have a genuine handle on just what kind of team the UBC Thunderbirds are going to be.And you can take that right down to […]
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 […]
Grant Audu: UBC basketball’s rising leader vows to soak up his pro experience with the Fraser Valley Bandits
VANCOUVER — There is so much that Grant Audu can do on a basketball court, that for his entire university career, he’s been cast in a series of demanding roles.The UBC Thunderbirds’ rising fourth-year forward has not only made each of those his own, in the process of doing so he’s shown himself to be […]
A Sunday Read: Why Dec. 1, 1990 – the day the UNLV Rebels came to town – was the day Vancouver came of age as a basketball city!
VANCOUVER — I can still remember the day that the late, great Jim Taylor, the newspaper sports columnist of my youth and later a co-worker at The Province newspaper, invited me over to his Vancouver home so that I might conduct an interview for a feature story I wanted to write on him for my […]
A Sunday Read: How the storytellers of UBC men’s basketball wrote their own history and strengthened bonds in a time of disconnect!
VANCOUVER — In these most disconnected and fractured of times, when our most basic instinct of reaching out to others in an act of the heart is so often compromised by the frustration of new realities, here is a story about finding connection.“Early in COVID, I would be out on my walks… I was doing […]
UBC men’s basketball: Pandemic may have nixed UCLA Bruins visit to War Gym, yet despite uncertain times, ‘Birds plan with hope!
VANCOUVER — The Canada West’s winter conference seasons had a start date late enough to dodge the hammer of COVID-19 cancellations which fell hard last week on its fall sports cousins in football, men’s and women’s soccer, field hockey and women’s rugby 15sYet with the deadline for official word on a best-case Jan. 1 conference […]
Bill Stebbings 1949-2020: The architect of Seaquam Seahawks boys basketball always saw the big picture first
NORTH DELTA — He was a basketball coach who wanted the world for his players.And in the end, Bill Stebbings helped them find it by showing them that their commitment to the game was redeemable in later life in the form of wisdom and a deeper appreciation for the value of family and friends.On Tuesday, […]
Garrett Rooker: How the UBC Thunderbirds found a Texas 6A-tier football/basketball standout in time for the 2020-21 season!
VANCOUVER — UBC reputation as one of the world’s great universities is certainly no secret to academia’s global community.On Friday, however, that same reputation not only earned the the school a top-flight entrant into its kinesiology program, but a blue-chip high school senior from Texas with the ability to be a difference maker both barking […]