Eight has to be enough for UBC
Injuries have devastated the Thunderbirds, who are facing a tough weekend
The injury situation is so ridiculous these days with the UBC Thunderbirds men’s basketball team that head coach Kevin Hanson can only laugh at it.
Except Hansen won’t laugh, and not because he’s had to do nothing shy of roaming the hallways of the Point Grey campus looking for players. With his team’s luck, he’s worried he might pull a rib-cage muscle that would keep him off the floor, thus preventing his team from even running five-on-five drills in practice. It’s that bad. “To say the least, it’s been very challenging, something I have never seen before in my career,” said Hanson, 14 seasons into his tenure as ‘Birds bench boss, 23 as a head coach overall, and a combined 30-plus seasons going back to his playing career in high school, college and university.
“You really have to pull out all of your coaching skills. We are all just hoping this is a blip in our basketball lives.”
By Wednesday evening all Hanson could confirm was that he would have the same eight players he travelled with to last weekend’s Canada West conference openers at Regina and Brandon, as UBC (1-1) opens the home portion of its regular season at War Memorial Gym against archrival Trinity Western Spartans (1-1) on Friday (8 p.m.) and Saturday (7 p.m.).
Already this season, both Hanson and first-year lead assistant Spencer McKay have had to join the group just to run half-court drills, and at a 7 a.m. Wednesday practice, the team actually got 12 on the floor for the first time since August by not only inviting ex-Birds’ standout Jordan Yu and former Langara player Max Archie to the practice, but the team’s video man Chris Chan as well.
But that’s what happens when a full, healthy roster enters basketball’s version of The Twilight Zone.
On the injury front, there have been so many ailments that Hansen has trouble remembering who got hurt first and what their woes are.
Point guard Isaiah Solomon has been lost to the team with a herniated disc in his back.
Versatile forward Conor Morgan has suffered a nagging stress fracture in his foot.
Newcomer Bret Macdonald, the former Terry Fox standout combo guard, who transferred from UBC Okanagan, is on the limp following a foot injury (torn plantar fascia).
Highly-touted freshman forward Luka “The Bazooka” Zaharijevic is still on the mend from meniscus surgery in the summer.
Newcomer Kedar Wright suffered a strained MCL, but he may be healthy enough to return this weekend.
And veteran Geoff Pippus and touted newcomer Adam Jespersen both decided to quit the team during the exhibition season.
That’s seven players, but unfortunately for the T-Birds, it’s not the entire story.
The team’s most dynamic player, 6-foot-7 San Jose State transfer Brylle Kamen, is on the mend from having a tumour removed from his femur. Although Kamen joined the team last weekend for its Friday loss at Regina and its Saturday win at Brandon, he is under doctor’s orders to play just 20 minutes a game.
The result? Like a starving student having to throw together every ingredient in the dorm fridge just to make some kind of palatable stew, this team that will clash with the Spartans is a hodgepodge of players having to not only play extended minutes, but do so in positions largely outside their natural comfort zones. The recipe? With Kamen available for just half of each game, forwards Tommy Nixon and David Wagner and guard Jordan Jensen-Whyte barely left the floor last weekend. They have been joined by transfers Andrew McGuinness, a sharpshooting guard, and Tonner Jackson, the former Trinity Western forward, who transferred to UBC to enrol in a Master’s program. The other two on the roster, energy players Michael Steele and Harpreet Randhawa, have arrived in blue-and-gold via tryouts with the team.
“You look at these injuries and so many of them are not the traditional basketball injuries,” said Hanson, pointing to Kamen and Morgan.
“But injuries are a part of the game and we can’t feel sorry for ourselves.”
And that makes match in gup against a Spartans team that like to push tempo in all instances, a tough one.
“It has to be our eight or nine guys all ready to buy in and play a team defence style,” Hansen said.
“It’s going to be a challenge, but it’s going to be all about dictating tempo.”