Brentwood boys the team to beat
Double-A squad has already defeated the top-ranked quad-A school during tournament play
The second most interesting thing about Brentwood College is the double-A boys basketball squad beat the top-ranked quad-A team earlier this season.
The most interesting thing is guessing what their mindset might be when they get to the double-A provincial championships in March and whether they might get a little ahead of themselves.
Teams from lower tiers winning exhibition games against squads from higher tiers is rare enough that double-A No. 1 Brentwood’s 89-85 triumph over the quad-A No. 1 Oak Bay Bays at the UVic tournament Dec. 30 had high school basketball people reminiscing about the 1994-95 Aldergrove double-A team that beat three of four teams that went to the triple-A semifinals in exhibitions before winning the double-A provincial crown.
Double-A teams also had a strong run against higher competition during the 2011-12 campaign.
Stories about such things are limited after that, though.
“We’re just trying to be consistent in our approach when we step on the floor every time,” said Blake Gage, coach of Brentwood, a boarding school in Mill Bay.
“We’ll see what we’re like at the provincials. We’re not playing a lot of double-A teams until the playoffs. We’re playing predominantly quad-A teams until we get there. But we’re trying to repeat as double-A provincial champions and there will be an excitement with that, because repeating is fairly rare. And we do realize that there are a lot of very good double-A teams across the province.”
Gage says Brentwood is a “pretty cerebral bunch,” and contends “their level of understanding is way ahead of where it would be normally.” He says there’s a chemistry and connection there, something he admits is helped along by the players living together.
“That probably makes a huge difference,” he said.
Brentwood returned nine players who saw considerable playing time from last year’s squad that beat the St. Michaels University School Blue Jags 54-44 in the title game. Gage admits Brentwood contemplated last winter about moving to quad-A for this season, but were told it was a two-year commitment and they felt it was better long-term to stay in double-A.
This weekend they’re at Abbotsford Senior’s Snowball tournament, along with three of the top seven teams in Howard Tsumura’s quad-A rankings: the No. 3 Burnaby South Rebels, No. 5 Walnut Grove Gators and No. 7 W.J. Mouat Hawks. The final at 8 p.m. at Abby Senior. For more on the rankings, check out Tsumura’s varsityletters.ca.