VANCOUVER — Start with his agility, length and power.
Then consider that it all comes within a 6-foot-7, 195-pound frame.
Those who have seen forward/guard Frank Linder grow into his position as one of the top seniors in B.C. high school basketball over the past few seasons with Nanaimo’s Dover Bay Dolphins know all too well that his skill set is, in and of itself, its own unique strand of hoops DNA.
So after UBC head coach Kevin Hanson announced Thursday that Linder would be joining the Thunderbirds as a foundational piece of the program’s future beginning next season, it was hard to resist asking both the player and the coach to use their imagination a bit and speculate on what the journey ahead may look like.
“He’s got a way when he slashes,” began Hanson of Linder, the second oldest of six basketball-playing siblings, “and when he attacks, he finishes. You think there’s going to be a charge call, but he finds a way to slither and either dunk or find unique ways to finish.
“He can shoot the three, but right now he is doing more of the grunt work inside with his high school team,” Hanson added. “He’s playing 40 minutes a game and he is defending bigs.”
This season, Linder is averaging 23 points and 13 rebounds, with single-game highs of 40 points and 19 rebounds.
He led the Dolphins to first place at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational’s showcase Super 16 pool en route to being selected tournament MVP in early December.
Last season, he was named the MVP after leading Dover Bay to the B.C. Triple-A championship title.
Adds Darren Seaman, the Dover Bay head coach: “He will fit in great because he can play multiple positions, but also because of his ability to rebound. He is so strong and physical I think he could contribute right away rebounding at the four.”

Over the course of a game with his Quad-A B.C. No. 3-ranked Dolphins, Linder incorporates little pieces of all five of the games 1-2-3-4-5 spots from point guard to centre, yet with his Grade 10 brother Joe Linder well-ensconced at point guard and fellow 6-foot-7 senior Hudson Trood holding down the pivot, Linder has focussed his familiarity largely on the core chores of the shooting guard, and the two forward spots.
“Coach Hanson was saying that I could possibly come in and play the 2-3-4, and maybe by fourth or fifth year become the five or the one,” Linder said. “So having all of those options is great. For me, if the team needs a two, I will be the two. If our team needs a four, I can be the four. It’s whatever the team needs.”
What is certain is that you can project three young, 6-foot-7, 200-plus pound players next season as part of UBC’s core rotation in rising third-year Adam Olsen (Surrey-Elgin Park), rising second-year Nylan Roberts (Abbotsford-Yale) and freshman Linder.
The closest UBC comparable from a similarly-sized, multi-skilled player of the Hanson era?
It’s probably the 2014-15 senior season for 6-foot-6, 215-pound forward Tommy Nixon, who that year not only shot 45 per cent from three (41-of-91) but also averaged 17.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists. He also averaged over seven free throw trips per game while averaging 82 per cent shooting from the stripe.
“Larry Street was one of the first guys to call me and tell me what an incredible get he thought Frank was for us,” Hanson said of the longtime head coach at Courtenay’s G.P. Vanier Secondary Towhees. “Larry fights for (Vancouver) Island players all the time, and I asked him who he thought (Linder) reminded him of.”

Street’s two comparables?
One was the 6-foot-6 forward Bob Hieltjes out of Burnaby’s St. Thomas More Collegiate who played at Simon Fraser from 1983-87.
The other was Mike Jaeckel, the 6-foot-7 small forward from Argyle Secondary in North Vancouver, who also played at SFU (1978-82) before becoming the leading all-time scorer upon his retirement from Germany’s top-tiered Basketball Bundesliga.
“If you’re a mixture of those two guys, you’re that long and lanky guy that can play multiple positions at the university level,” explained Hanson. “And like them, (Linder) has incredible body control.
“I think there’s maybe only 10 per cent of your readers left who know those two references,” Hanson laughed.
UBC fans, however, can rest assured because Linder is old-school in ways that resemble both Hieltjes and Jaeckel.
For example, as Hanson relates, one of the first things Linder did when he arrived for his visit last was ask to see the school’s weight room and if he could have a chance to talk with the team’s strength and conditioning coach Joe McCullum.
And ask Linder what it means that he will beginning his UBC career at the same time that Victoria-area stars Tyler Felt and Justin Hinrichsen of No. 1-ranked Spectrum, and Toren Franklin of No. 3-ranked Oak Bay will be beginning theirs with the Victoria Vikes and the competitive fires in Linder that UBC is so happy to have can be heard to crackle and to pop.
“I love the culture in B.C. basketball and just being able to play against my rivals now… I just want to compete against them,” Linder said, speaking not to just next season but to the battles just over the horizon at the Vancouver Island and potentially, the B.C. championships against Spectrum and Oak Bay.
“It’s respect. I love competing against those guys. I just can’t wait.”

As well, he has grown up in a hoops family with four basketball-playing brothers (older brother Luke, Grade 10 Joe, Grade 6 Eric, Grade 4 Nicholas) and Grade 8 sister Beth who is coached on the Dover Bay junior team by mom Adrienne. Dad Michael is the assistant coach on the Dover Bay senior boys team.
Frank Linder’s decision to come to UBC?
Last Friday, he was on the UBC campus making the first recruiting visit of his senior season.
“I was there Friday by myself with the whole team,” he said. “I loved the culture. I went to lunch with some of the older players. I had dinner with the rookies. The way they all treated me, and the way they treated each other… it was like a big family and I loved it.
“Then I got the offer,” he continued. “I called my dad and I said ‘Is there any point in waiting two weeks to commit?”
Linder’s mom and dad, and brother Eric, the latter on the Lower Mainland with his club team, were all planning on joining Linder to watch UBC’s Saturday game.
And after the family watched the ‘Birds 88-59 win over the UNBC Timberwolves, Hanson came over to thank Frank and the whole family for the visit.
“I don’t know if they had it in their minds or they knew he would commit that night, but he came here, he loved the situation, met our guys and thought it was a great fit for him,” began Hanson.
“And sure enough, after the game, what a surprise. I waked down to the floor and said ‘Have a great weekend and thanks for coming over, and Frank says ‘I am committed to UBC’, so what a great way to walk off the floor.”
UBC is back to action Friday when it opens another homestand weekend, tipping off against the Fraser Valley Cascades. Friday’s game begins at 7:30 p.m. while Saturday’s tips off at 6 p.m. The UBC women also face the Cascades with respective Friday and Saturday tips at 5:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.
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