The biggest name among Canadian players in NCAA hoops will start the season on the sidelines but remains the best hope for significant Canadian content in the Final Four.
When the Associated Press announced the pre-season First-Team All-Americans, the lineup was all American with one exception: Dillon Brooks of the University of Oregon. The six-foot-seven junior forward from Mississauga, Ont., was a cornerstone for the Ducks who advanced to the Elite Eight last season. Brooks averaged 16.7 points a game but saved his best for March, absolutely shredding Duke in the Sweet Sixteen and in the process making ever-the-sportsman Coach K look pretty petulant.
Because of off-season foot surgery, Brooks won’t be in the Ducks’ lineup when they open their non-conference schedule against Army. His absence will have zero impact on that game—Oregon is stacked and ranked No. 5 in AP’s pre-season poll.
Two other Canadians figure large in the mix for the Ducks: Power forward Chris Boucher from Montreal and Brampton’s Dylan Ennis, a guard who transferred to Oregon from Villanova and older brother of Tyler Ennis of the Houston Rockets.
The Oregon administrators had to file a fair bit of paperwork and tap-dance in front of the NCAA to get a ruling that made Boucher and Ennis eligible for the 2016–17 season.
Still, the hopes of a Pac-12 title and a No. 1 seed for the second consecutive season ride on Brooks’s return.
While Oregon will likely be the team that most Canadian college-hoop fans follow with interest this season, a number of schools with CanCon will vie for a spot in the Top 25. Kentucky lost Brampton’s Jamal Murray to the Denver Nuggets but still have Mychal Mulder, a guard from Windsor, Ont., who transferred to UK from Vincennes University. Mulder struggled to get minutes last year as a junior and how he figures in the Wildcats mix is to be determined—he’s not going to get minutes from the returning Isaiah Briscoe and per usual Coach Cal ordered up prep All-Americans to fill his backcourt. Given UK’s profile we’ll at least have a chance to see that unfold.
Virginia landed a No. 1 seed out of the ACC last year and looked like they would be safely in the Final Four when they matched up against they-have-no-business-in-the-field No. 10-seed Syracuse in the regional final. The Cavs went down to the Orange in one of the tournament’s biggest upsets last March. Virginia’s candidate for POY last season, guard Malcolm Brogdon, graduated and is with the Milwaukee Bucks and that figures to be a big opportunity for Marial Shayok, a six-foot-five junior guard from Ottawa.
Shayok had a couple of big games in the tournament, 12 points coming off the bench in a tough second-round game against Butler. His first chance to make an impression comes Friday night in the Cavs opener at UNC Greensboro.
Another Canadian player who’s looking to establish himself with a Top 10 team is guard Grant Mullins, a senior from Burlington, Ont. Like Dylan Ennis, Mullins is a graduate transfer—he averaged 13.3 points and 3.3 assists for Columbia last year and was much pursued by several Top 25 teams. Of the schools chasing him, California gave Mullins an opportunity to play with the best big man: Ivan Rabb, who would have been a certain first-rounder if he had come out last spring after his freshman year.
The Canadian frosh who’ll get the most attention is Toronto’s Justin Jackson, a forward out of Findlay Prep who will be in the rotation for the Maryland Terrapins. While at Findlay in Henderson, Nev., the six-foot-seven Jackson committed to UNLV but had a change of heart this spring after a fair bit of turmoil (including two coaching changes) in the Runnin’ Rebels program.
