The Canadian Senior Men’s National Basketball Team clinched their spot in the 2023 FIBA World Cup last night after a dominant 94-56 win over Venezuela, becoming the first team from the Americas to qualify for next summer’s world cup.
With this window of qualifiers coming in the middle of the NBA season — when familiar faces such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Kelly Olynyk are busy lighting it up for their NBA teams — Team Canada had to source their talent elsewhere. So, just like they always have for winter qualification windows, they sought out the best Canadian ballers outside of the NBA, most of whom play in professional leagues abroad.
But unlike in previous winter windows, where Canadian teams have been hit or miss, this is one of the most competitive and deep teams to date. And it just so happens that the majority of the players developed their basketball talents internally, right here in Canada.
Phil and Thomas Scrubb (Carleton), Aaron Best and Jean-Victor Mukama (TMU formerly Ryerson), Conor Morgan (UBC), Owen Klassen (Acadia) and Thomas Kennedy (Windsor) represent the seven current or former U SPORTS players representing Canada this window. Lloyd Pandi and Kadre Gray are two additional former U SPORTS players who participated in training camp in Edmonton, but were ultimately cut from the team.
While most of these nine athletes had scholarship offers to go to the United States and play NCAA Division 1 basketball, all of them chose to stay home in Canada for their university careers. And despite the allure of the NCAA and the ongoing stigma against playing university hoops in Canada, they were rewarded for their choices, moving on to have successful professional careers and to play for their national team, ultimately helping Canada clinch a spot in the world cup on home soil last night.
“I decided to go to Carleton mostly because my brother Tommy was there. And he came back after his first year and I saw how much better he got,” Phil Scrubb said about his decision to play university hoops at Carleton University, where he won five straight national championships and became the only player to be a three-time recipient of the Mike Moser Memorial Trophy as the Most Outstanding Player in the country.
“My goal was to play professional basketball after school and I thought Carlteon would be a great experience to get better and also to play right away and play against good competition at practice and games every day. So it was just the best decision for me.”
After Thomas and Phill Scrubb graduated from Carelton in 2015, both went on to have extremely successful professional careers abroad, playing in top leagues in Italy, France, Russia, and now Spain, where they play together for Monbus Obradoiro of the Liga ACB. Plus, when they aren't playing for Canada, they now spend their summers playing in the Canadian Elite Basketball League, a new avenue for development within the country.
“I think U SPORTS is still a little bit [underrated],” 30-year-old Phil Scrubb said. “Usually, when I go play with Americans or other teammates overseas, they're surprised that I didn't go to an NCAA school or that I came from a Canadian school, and none of them have ever really heard of U SPORTS or Carleton or anything like that.” Nevertheless, the Ravens have won 10 of the previous 11 national championships and continue to be a powerhouse in men’s basketball.
“I think more and more guys are starting to play professionally and have success coming out of U SPORTS. So hopefully that [stigma] changes at some point.”
Fifth-year Windsor Lancer forward Thomas Kennedy is one of the many current U SPORTS players following in the Scrubb brothers’ footsteps, helping change the way Canadian hoops are perceived.
Kennedy grew up in Windsor, Ontario, where his father, James, instilled a love of basketball in him after playing with the Lancers himself from 1980-85. Growing up, Thomas would go to every Wednesday and Saturday night home game at the Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse in Windsor, watching the Scrubb brothers dominate his local team. Since those days, Kennedy has noticed a sea of change within Canadian hoops, including a major increase in the depth of talent across Canadian university teams, as well as rising attendance numbers and media coverage.
“It's my first time playing the Scrubb brothers, but not my first time watching them,” said Kennedy, who was named the U SPORTS player of the year for the 2022 CEBL season. “Now I get to follow in their footsteps. Coming from the U SPORTS route, I'm definitely talking to them a lot about the steps that they took and what worked for them.”
One thing Kennedy seems to have taken from the Scrubb brothers — who are mainstays within the Canadian national program, playing a combined 80 games with the senior team since 2015 — is jumping at every opportunity he gets to represent Canada.
Kennedy spent this past summer playing in the inaugural GLOBL JAM tournament with Canada’s under-23 team and then flew to Brazil to participate in the FIBA AmeriCup, his first time representing the country at the senior level. Despite being a young, developmental team, Canada placed fourth in the tournament and helped Canada jump from 18th to 15th in the world rankings.
“The AmeriCup team, we definitely heard all that talk about people not expecting us to do well,” Kennedy said. “But we went in with the mindset that we are representing our country, and our country has a standard now of being excellent in the national game for basketball. So we knew we had to carry that on.”
Kennedy says both the AmeriCup and this window of qualification are chances to showcase the depth of talent that Canada has to offer. “Just really showing that Canada's talent is not only at the top of basketball [in the NBA], but it's growing throughout all levels,” Kennedy said.
As trailblazer for Canadian hoops, Scrubb said “it means a lot” that nine U SPORTS players are representing Canada this window. “It means a lot that kids can see that you can have long professional careers coming out of U SPORTS. And you'll still get opportunities to come home and play for the national team during the year.” Phil and Thomas were two of three players (along with Kassius Robertson) to play all 9 qualification games for Canada so far this cycle.
“I think those are really, really great opportunities for guys,” Scrubb adds. “So I think it looks good on U SPORTS and It looks good on Canada Basketball that we kind of continue to have guys that have that experience in the system and get time to play.”
Canada’s win over Venezuela in Edmonton was significant not only because of how they did it, but also because of who they did it with. After all, the only thing sweeter than clinching a spot in the World Cup on home soil, is doing it with a bunch of players who chose to stay in Canada for university and developed in the country they call home.
