Tuff’s grown into basketball, in more ways than one
After sprouting eight inches in a year, St. John’s teen has gone from being an off-court official to key player for NL men’s team in Winnipeg
It’s a common acknowledgement by coaches in most sports: you can’t teach size.
So when Blair White was made aware of Nick Tuff, and later saw the big kid sit sitting at the scorer’s table one day, the Canada Games men’s basketball coach invited Tuff to come out to practice.
“I didn’t know Nick Tuff existed,” White said Friday, following a Newfoundland and Labrador workout at the University of Winnipeg, where the 2017 Summer Games open today.
“(Local coach) Paulette Hardiman pointed him out to me in the gym one day.”
Tuff, a 16-year-old from St. John’s who will be entering Grade 12 at Waterford Valley High in September, is six-footeight, and a key player for the Newfoundland and Labrador men’s basketball team at these Games.
He is, according to White, the proverbial late bloomer.
“He grew a ton, apparently eight inches in six months in Grade 10,” White said. “But he’s not just about size. He’s got great hands, good feet.”
Basketball has changed, many will tell you. In the pros, smaller players are getting their chance to play. Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry is 6-3. The Boston Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas is only 5-9.
True, but it’s still basketball, and it’s a game where size matters.
“You still have to rebound,” White said. “And it’s in this youth stuff where size is really important.
“You need to be able to guard the bigs, and you have to rebound. Manitoba is big, Alberta is fairly big, Ontario and Quebec are really big. If you’re going to compete, you need size. You can’t put a 6-2 guy against a 6-8, 6-9 guy. It doesn’t work. “That’s where Nick comes in.” White started the 2017 Games program three years ago with 56 kids. Tuff wasn’t one of them. He’s only been with the team since January of 2016.
Prior to last season, he had never played basketball beyond the junior high level. While friends and opponents were
making provincial teams, Tuff was scoring games, trying, he said, to pick up some pocket money.
“I never thought I’d get there, to making a provincial team,” he said.
His first stint with a Newfoundland and Labrador team or all-star squad came last summer at the national U17 championship here in Winnipeg.
“The one nice thing about the late guys (to the game) is they don’t have the bad habits that you have to get rid of,” White said. “It’s all new to them.
“Nick still has to learn the game, and he’s a bit behind the guys because he is a latebloomer. He doesn’t quite know the five-on-five game yet, but he’s had a great summer, and to
tell you the truth, he was good as anybody in the country all summer.
“We played nine games on the road a little while ago against seven of these provinces, and he was dominant in every game.”
Tuff moves very well for a big man, and has a nice shot from long range to go with his inside game. But that wasn’t always the case.
“Maybe my skills improved with height … but I wasn’t very good starting out last year,” he said. “There’s been a lot of development this year, and I think that’s because of all the hard work in practice.
“I’ve never been to an event like this. I went to nationals last year, but it wasn’t like this.”
“Nick still has to learn the game, and he’s a bit behind the guys because he is a late-bloomer. But he’s had a great summer, and to tell you the truth, he was good as anybody in the country all summer.”
NL men’s basketball coach Blair White
As for White, he’s excited to get going in Winnipeg. A member of the 1989 Canada Summer Games men’s team before he went to star for St. Francis Xavier X-men, White started coaching Holy Heart high school 15 years ago, at the urging of Andrew Hickey, “to try it for a year.
“I love this summer stuff,” he said. “It’s filled the void of playing. I lost that itch a while ago.”
Newfoundland and Labrador plays its first game 8:30 this morning (11 a.m. NL time) against P.E.I.
As with all sports in the Games, the game will be webcast live. Log on to www.canadagames.ca/2017