It wasn’t the best news Capilano Blues men’s basketball coach Cassidy Kannemeyer had ever heard. The timing wasn’t so great either.
On the eve of the new season, Kannemeyer learned that his starting backcourt from the year before – PacWest league-leading scorer Martin Bogajev and point guard Brendan Bailey – would both be out for the 2016-17 season due to eligibility issues. The team had spent the entire summer and preseason gearing up to play with sharp-shooting Bogajev and speedy Bailey leading the way, and in a flash they were both gone.
“We had an intrasquad scrimmage with both of them, and then the next day I found out that both of them (were out),” said Kannemeyer. “The day before the season started.”
They weren’t the only departures either. A captain from the previous year’s squad was now in firefighter training. A few more players were cut or moved on. When the season tipped off, there were only four players left from the 2015-16 team. So how did they handle all the turmoil and turnover?
Impeccably, it turns out.
The Blues have ripped off a 7-1 record so far in PacWest play, blasting to the top of the league standings while cracking the top-10 national rankings. Their record includes one close loss at Quest University as well as road victories over powerhouse teams from Langara College and Vancouver Island University.
So what’s carried them all this way? Their legs, said coach Kannemeyer.
“We play really hard, and we maintain that level of intensity, especially into the second half,” he said. “I think that as teams begin to get tired, we continue to just go all out. … We just keep doing it, we keep diving for loose balls, we keep trying to take charges, we keep contesting shots at every spot on the floor, we keep getting critical rebounds. Those little things, I think they wear teams down. All those little possessions that we gain by playing well defensively, knowing the scout, knowing the plays of the opposing teams – it just doesn’t stop. We just keep coming with it.”
Kannemeyer credited one player in particular with ratcheting up the intensity for the whole team. Third-year forward Greet Gill, an Osoyoos native, transferred to Capilano this year after playing two seasons of U Sports ball with UBC Okanagan. Through eight games Gill is averaging 23 points and 10.9 rebounds per game, both marks placing him top-three on the league’s leaderboards. His contributions, however, go deeper than the numbers, said Kannemeyer.
“All week he is a very tenacious practice player,” he said. “Our practices were really competitive last year, but it’s just at another level now. We knew that Greet was that kind of player. When one of your best players is also your hardest worker, it’s infectious.”
The 6-foot-4 forward also knows when to take the team into high gear during games, said Kannemeyer.
“He feels when the game is ready to be grabbed by the horns. He has that sort of instinct,” he said. “Tie game or down two, he makes three plays in a row and boom, we have the lead. He has that timing to do that.”
The Blues got more bad news to start the winter term as second leading scorer Caden Rowland, an Iowa native, didn’t qualify academically and has left the team. The wins have kept coming, however, as the Blues opened the second term with victories over Douglas College Friday at home and against Columbia Bible College on the road on Saturday. Capilano has taken a committee approach to filling in the gaps left by departed players, with several players stepping up each game. EJ Mabone, currently sidelined by injury, and Wayne (Wowie) Untalan slid into the starting guard spots, while several others have stepped up throughout the season. Overall the Blues lost some talent, especially in the shooting department with Rowland and Bogajev missing, but they’ve added a lot of size and athleticism throughout the lineup.
“I would never say that last year we didn’t work hard, we just didn’t have the size that we do this year,” said Kannemeyer.
The proof is in the results. The Blues have several impressive wins, none more so than a 70-67 road victory in Nanaimo against VIU.
“We’re the first team to win at VIU since Langara did (in the 2013-14 season), and Langara won the national championship when they won at VIU,” said Kannemeyer. “It’s a credit to the guys. In a million years I wouldn’t think that our team would win that game. You just don’t win there. They’re so good there. All week I tell the guys ‘You’re not going to get any calls. Don’t talk to the refs. Don’t think anything is going to go your way, because it never does.’ I basically tell them they’re going to lose, all week. And then they went over there and won.”
The Blues have thrived while playing a tough schedule as well, with six of their first eight games coming on the road. They’ll start a five-game homestand this weekend with games against Camosun Friday night and VIU Saturday afternoon at the Sportsplex.
Capilano is in top spot now, and could stay there if they perform well on their home floor, but Kannemeyer hasn’t set any championship-or-bust goals, and he’s not going to anytime soon.
“My goal is just to keep working hard,” he said. “I think with our athleticism and our team speed and our leadership, if we work hard we can put ourselves in a position to compete with anybody in the league.”
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It was a clean sweep for Capilano teams as the men’s and women’s volleyball and basketball teams went 8-0 in PacWest play to open the second term.
The Blues women are also on fire on the basketball court, sitting in top spot with a perfect 8-0 record this season. This Friday the action starts with the women taking on Camosun at 6 p.m. followed by the men at 8 p.m. On Saturday the Blues women will hit the floor against VIU starting at noon followed by the men at 2 p.m.
The Capilano volleyball teams will also be in action at home on Saturday with the University of the Fraser Valley coming to town. The women will start things off at 6 p.m. with the men to follow at approximately 8 p.m.
