Cascades guard goes the distance
Confident Manny Dulay is leading the nation in three-point baskets as a fifth-year player
The Manny Moment happens in a split second.
It happens even when you know it’s coming, but just as often, it comes straight out of the blue.
Thirteen times over two games this past weekend, Fraser Valley Cascades senior point guard Manny Dulay rose off the court at Edmonton’s Saville Community Sports Centre to bury three-point baskets against the Alberta Golden Bears.
They came off the dribble, off stepback fades, off the catch-and-shoot and off double-pumps.
So prolific has the former high school star from Surrey’s Tamanawis Secondary been, that as the playoff-hungry Cascades prepare to host Kamloops’ Thompson Rivers WolfPack this weekend, Dulay is leading the nation in made triples this season with 55.
So what’s been behind The Manny Moment? Countless hours of practice, of course, but perhaps most important a mental shift to a place where the consequence of missing no longer constrains his actions.
“One of the biggest things with Manny was that he only wanted to shoot a shot if it was a high-percentage one,” begins Cascades’ head coach Adam Friesen. “It took some convincing that for him, shooting any time was a high-percentage shot. Manny needed the confidence to know that the outcome of his shot wasn’t going to matter to anyone, and that when you can let go of outcome, some pretty special things can happen.”
It’s unintentional on Friesen’s part, but he sounds like something straight out of the pages of Zen and Art of Archery, a book about a Japanese form of archery where the arrow is said to reside in the bull’seye before it is even released.
The new Dulay is putting up more shots from distance than ever. But instead of watching his percentages dip, they have climbed, just as they have in every one of his four previous campaigns.
This season, the Manny Moment is clicking at an ultra-effective 43.7 per cent, and besides the flurry of treys, Dulay sits tied for second in the Canada West in assists at 4.6 points-per-game and 12th in scoring at 16.9 points-per-game.
“I think nowadays I actually don’t need to get into the gym as much because I have put so much work in,” says Dulay, who nonetheless focuses much his own practice time on hitting specific types of shots.
“For me, it’s just all been about confidence. Adam has really helped me with that. Some of those shots I take might look like they’re forced, but that’s the kind of stuff I practice.”
Doing things the Dulay way, in fact, has helped open Fraser Valley up to an entirely new style of play, one in which the ball is constantly moving, with the point guard serving as the linchpin, forcing opposition defenders to guess what’s coming.
“So now, when guys jump on his pump fake, or two guys come at him off a screen, he is drawing all the attention,” continues Friesen. “And Manny is very good at finding guys that are wide open.”
Still, the threat of the three is what The Manny Moment is all about.
Last weekend’s split against Alberta kept the Cascades at 6-8 and tied for the final playoff spot in the conference.
And with six more regular-season games remaining, Dulay is treading on some pretty hallowed Canada West ground.
His 219 career three-pointers have him in fifth place all-time, right behind a trio of three players tied for third with 239, including former UBC superstar Casey Archibald. Ex-Cascade Sam Freeman is second all-time with 254, while Regina’s Jeff Lukomski leads at 308.
“All of that stuff has been in the back of mind,” Dulay admits, “but the No. 1 goal is for the team to do well in the playoffs. It would have been nice to catch Sam, but he’s a little out of reach.”
In terms of three-pointers, yes, but not in terms of mentorship and influence.
“I’ve been lucky that I have played with some great fifth-year players in my time at UFV,” Dulay adds, reeling off a long list that includes the likes of Freeman, Kevon Parchment, Kyle Grewal and Jasper Moedt. “And I always wanted to be a player of their calibre when I reached my fifth year. Now it’s here.”
Manny’s moment has arrived and he’s making the best of it.