T-Birds hoping this is their year
UBC once again has firepower to contend for elusive national title
For Kevin Hanson, it’s compliment and curse.
Hanson is the longtime coach of the UBC Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds are one of a small handful of U Sports men’s basketball teams in this country that both expect and are expected to contend for a national title every season.
It’s Hanson’s 18th campaign at the helm of the Point Grey crew. He’s led UBC to nationals 11 times already. They’ve never won it all under his watch, though, and for some, that’s the rub.
You chat with people in the basketball community about the T-Birds in any given year, and you’ll routinely get a sentence that begins with “Yeah, but …”
Tony Gallagher, the longtime Province columnist, penned a story in March 2013 about Hanson’s run at the T-Birds’ first national title since 1972 that featured the headline “Basketball bridesmaids for too long; Decades since UBC last won title.”
“The bar is set very high here,” Hanson admitted.
There’s reason to suggest the basketball gods are on UBC’s side this year. The T-Birds, after a 17-3 regular season, are the No. 3 seeds out of Canada West and were slated to open the best-of-three quarter-finals against the No. 7 Manitoba Bisons on Thursday at War Memorial Gymnasium.
The T-Birds were upset in this round last season. They were the No. 4 seeds. They lost to a No. 5 Manitoba squad in two straight games at War Memorial.
UBC star Conor Morgan was battling ankle trouble, but there’s an argument UBC still had the firepower to advance.
Regardless, they get a reboot now. Hanson says last year isn’t on his mind. He says he hasn’t discussed it with his players. Maybe. Maybe not. He’s certainly savvy enough that he’s not going to offer up any sort of
motivation for the Bisons.
“I think we’re playing so well as a team right now,” Hanson explained. “I’m going to stay on the positive side of things.
“We’ve had a great season so far. We haven’t played our best basketball yet but we’re getting there.”
Morgan is in his fifth and final season of eligibility. He completed his kinesiology degree last year and the 6-9 forward had some opportunities to play professionally this season in Europe. He opted to return to UBC and begin work on a master’s degree, in large part because he felt the team had unfinished business.
Morgan is once again a national player of the year candidate considering that, as of Thursday morning, he was fifth in the country in scoring (23.9 points per game) and fifth in rebounding (9.7 per game).
Hanson also had one of his better summers recruiting, with his incoming class including forward Grant Shephard, a Kelowna native who attended a Florida prep school for Grade 12 and seemed destined for the NCAA.
The T-Birds went into Thursday leading the country in scoring, averaging 94.2 points per game.
Maybe this is the year the “Yeah, but …” comes to an end.
“We do have a lot of offensive weapons,” Hanson said. “We have to take care of the basketball. We have to limit turnovers. We have to be more aggressive defensively. Since December, we’ve been doing it. I like where we are going.”