Morris is ready to lead the charge
Knights standout looking to become vocal on-court presence as future awaits at UBC
In the B.C. high school basketball world, with his vast array of scoring moves, it’s easy to say that Cam Morris has already established his signature.
As he enters his senior season with Burnaby’s St. Thomas More Collegiate Knights, he wants to find his voice.
“My No. 1 goal is to be more vocal on the court,” said the soft-spoken, 6-foot-6 multi-positional whiz. He leads his B.C. triple-A, No. 3-ranked Knights into battle Thursday (5:45 p.m.) at the Langley Events Centre against Surrey’s quad-A Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers in an opening-round game at the Tsumura Basketball Invitational.
“It’s what I have to do to be a better leader and to bring more energy to my team and it’s something I am going to have to work very hard on.”
Every player experiences eye-opening moments. For Morris, one of them came a few weeks back when he officially committed to a collegiate career beginning next season with the UBC Thunderbirds.
“We went to a UBC practice together and his eyes were bugging out,” said Aaron Mitchell, Morris’s coach at STM. “We have always talked about communicating on the court and it was good for him to see that level of play in a practice with the size, the strength, the energy and the way all the guys were talking.”
Mitchell then dangled a carrot in front of his senior.
“I leaned over and I said, ‘That’s Conor (Morgan). That’s the guy you’re going to be checking in practice next season.’”
Morgan, the University of B.C.’s star forward, has developed into one of the most dominant university players in the country four seasons into his five-year window of eligibility and it’s unfair to compare him with anyone, let alone a high school senior.
Yet take Morgan back to his senior year at Victoria’s Mount Douglas Secondary and the base tools of height, extended wingspan and long-range shooting ability are very similar. And Morgan himself has learned to become a more vocal presence.
So therein lies the intrigue. What can Morris become? Right now, the biggest thing the two have in common is a shared set of initials.
“It isn’t fair to compare Cam to Conor because Conor is on another level; he is a beast,” Mitchell said. “But we all need a standard, so why not the guy that you’re going to bang against everyday in practice as you try to improve?”
All of that said, Morris, a true student of the game, brings what UBC assistant coach Spencer McKay best describes as a gunny sack full of nuance.
“He is a guy who the more you watch him, the better he gets,” said McKay, who notes that one game isn’t enough time to witness the myriad ways in which Morris is able to score at the high school level. “He is a sneaky scorer. The three-pointers. The slashes. The finishes with both hands. I think by his second year, he could see significant minutes. And by his fifth, he could potentially be an All-Canadian-type guy.”
If you’ve watched any amount of UBC basketball, that could just as well have been a projection about Morgan heading into his freshman year.
Yet ask McKay, a former Victoria Vikes star who went mano e mano against UBC for five seasons beginning in the mid-1980s, who Morris reminds him of and his answer comes from first-hand experience.
“I kind of compare him a bit to J.D. Jackson and I know that is going back a ways,” said McKay, referencing the UBC Hall of Famer. “He can score from multiple positions and if one of his shots is not going in, he can score in other ways and he is a smart player.”
Both Mitchell and McKay know full well that definitive conclusions can’t be drawn until thousands of hours of dedication are expended. Even then, there are no guarantees.
Yet if you’ve spent enough time around the high school game’s more-reserved types, you know once they find their voice, they discover potential waiting to be unlocked.
And Cam Morris is serious when he says he wants to find his voice.