UBC's Fareed Shittu squares up his release against Victoria's Ethan Boag Thursday in the provincial capital. The host Vikes would later take a 90-88 win over the Thunderbirds at the buzzer on a Boag jumper. (Photo by Justin Morash/JustinM Photography courtesy of Victoria Vikes athletics 2025. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

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, […]

Derek Christiansen was one of the UBC Thunderbirds' top scorers during its 1990-91 season, including its No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown in Victoria. (Photo property of UBC Athletics 1991. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

What? It’s been 33 years! Indeed, it’s been since Jan. of 1991 that UBC has faced Victoria in a No. 1 vs. No. 2! Ahead of weekend clash, let’s all take a trip in Howie’s Hoops Time Machine!

VANCOUVER — If you asked the basketball gods to describe the perfect weekend of men’s university basketball in the province of British Columbia, they would tell you it’s beyond words.But they’d also let you know that if  you want to see it live and in-person, all you’ve got to do is head to UBC’s historic […]

UBC's pure freshman guard Keira Daly (left) has been a huge addition to the Thunderbirds' already talented backcourt rotation. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

With its first national ranking in six years, No. 3 UBC women host arch-rival Victoria in rematch of last season’s Vikes’ playoff win! Newcomers set to bolster Thunderbirds’ deep roster!

VANCOUVER — Last season, during her debut at the helm of UBC Thunderbirds’ women’s basketball program, Isabel Ormond took what can only be described as an impressive first trip around the block with her young charges.It was one of those journeys where everything they encountered — both good and bad — was grist for the […]

Guy MacPherson and your author after a great day of strumming this past November. (Photo courtesy MacPherson family 2024. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

Guy MacPherson (1962-2024) To my basketball-writing brother: I’ll miss you at the B.C.’s this week… but I know you will be watching!

VANCOUVER — “Hey Howard, I’ve got someone you have to meet” my friend, the former Victoria Times-Colonist basketball writer Jeff Rud said, finding me in my customary position, slumped over my laptop while transcribing an interview during one of the frequent media gatherings called by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the run-up to their first season […]

Spectrum's Justin Hinrichsen (left), battling in the paint with West Vancouver's Malcolm Lotz at the 2022 B.C. junior boys Sweet 16 at the LEC, has come into his own as a 10th grader on the senior varsity Thunder, in town to play in the Tsumura Basketball Invitational beginning Wednesday at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

Tsumura Basketball 2022: A chip off the old hoops block, Grade 10 Justin Hinrichsen helps lead Spectrum Thunder precisely 30 seasons after dad Eric’s B.C. title with Carihi Tyees!

Justin Hinrichsen doesn’t spent a whole lot of time thinking about it.“It just happens,” the 6-foot-3, 165-pound Grade 10 guard/forward with Victoria’s Spectrum Thunder admits when asked how his rare combination of athleticism, talent and instinct has managed to intersect in such a timely fashion just weeks into his first season of senior varsity hoops.“I’ve […]

Claremont's Izzy Helman (left) has enjoyed a tremendous senior season for his Victoria-based Spartans, averaging just shy of 30 points per game. Pictured here at the 2021 TBI on Dec. 11, he drives against St. Thomas More's Marcus Morales. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball

“Be quick, but don’t hurry!”: Claremont Spartans’ dynamic guard Izzy Helman runs his hardcourt race at a different pace!

Look at Izzy Helman’s scoring numbers over his last four games, and the natural reaction is to imagine that the Claremont Spartans’ point guard has somehow shifted his game to yet another gear.In-between dual 37 point outings in tough losses to first Mark Isfeld, and then Brentwood College, the 6-foot-3 senior poured home 35 and […]

The Trinity Western Spartans headed into their Canada West bye week with a perfect 4-0 conference record. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Basketball

Off to a perfect 4-0 start, Trinity Western Spartans women’s hoops reaps rewards of studious work during 2020’s cancelled campaign!

LANGLEY — They are the kinds of numbers which, through the real-life rigours of a cancelled COVID campaign, seem even more distant and faded than they really are.Yet ask Trinity Western women’s head basketball coach Cheryl Jean-Paul about the early signposts she has spotted with her Spartans’ club in the formative stages of the Canada […]

After a redshirt transfer season in 2019 and the COVID-cancelled 2020 campaign, North Delta native Brittany Costa ends a near three-year drought from Canada West play this Friday when she captains the Fraser Valley Cascades at Rotary Stadium against the Victoria Vikes. (Photo by Dan Kinvig property of University of the Fraser Valley athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Soccer

How long is 1,055 days? As Friday’s UFV soccer opener approaches, Cascades’ Brittany Costa reflects on wisdom gained over her near three-year Canada West drought!

ABBOTSFORD — Inform Brittany Costa just how long it’s been since she last played a meaningful soccer game, and the silence on the other end of the phone line speaks volumes.In her case, the waiting has indeed the hardest part.“It just feels like I have been training for so long that I don’t even know […]

Thirty years ago this month, UBC's J.D. Jackson (centre) played on the same floor at B.C. Place Stadium as UNLV superstars Stacey Augmon (left) and Larry Johnson. (Photo graphic by Gabriel Lynn property of Varsity Letters 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

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 […]

This week, the Varsity Letters podcasts welcomes UBC's Wilson Wong and ex-UVic basketball PxP voice Guy MacPherson.
Feature Podcast

09.30.19: Varsity Letters-The Podcast gets historical with UBC’s Wilson Wong, ex-UVic Vikes radio man Guy MacPherson

Varsity Letters — The Podcast is back on the air. Looking back isn’t our usual habit, but with the pandemic shutting down what would normally be a frenetic fall season of high school and university sports, we’re going to be heavy on history this week. UBC’s manager of Sports Information Wilson Wong joins us off […]