Defence wins championships — and tournaments — as the Vancouver club tops the competition in annual tournament
Nolan Richardson coined it first: 40 minutes of hell. A turbocharged, relentless, aggressive defensive system that took his Arkansas Razorbacks to the pinnacle of NCAA basketball in 1994. Behind a player nicknamed "Big Nasty," they dethroned the college darlings, Grant Hill and his Duke Blue Devils in the title game.
"There's one thing that was the common denominator of all the teams I coached," Richardson told Sports Illustrated about the origins of his philosophy.
"You'd better be prepared to play and you'd better be prepared to be in shape, because they're going to play you hard. You won't find any team that will play you harder than his team. ... Fatigue will make cowards of us all and I have been able to prove that."
Thirty years later, Vancouver's University Preparatory (UPrep) Basketball Club is riding the same Razorbacks mentality.
"It's a key for us in all the games we play: our defensive intensity and controlling the pace on offence," said UPrep boys coach Dwayne Selby. "Our style of basketball, that's what we practice for. We play at a really fast pace on both ends of the floor, because we believe our conditioning is going to take over in the second half. And especially being summer AAU basketball, there's not a lot of programs or players who focus on the conditioning side to be able to sustain at a high level for that long. So we really bank on pulling away in the second half in games, when our conditioning takes over."
And they needed every bit of that intensity in the B.C. Cup Tournament, as they were missing their two big forwards — one 6-foot-9, the other 6-7 — and three more Saskatchewan-based players that suit up for them on the Puma Hoops AAU circuit.
They were undermanned and undersized — they ran a five-guard lineup at times — but were far from overwhelmed.
PoCo-based Excel Basketball was the first to fall (77-63) to UPrep, before they met neighbourhood rivals Split Second in the second round. With enough players to field a starting five, and that's about it, they squeezed past Split 67-65. Surrey's Venom Sports Academy was the next to fall, 81-68, and they were in the final.
On the other side of the bracket, North Vancouver's 3D Basketball was on cruise control. They’d sped through their B.C. Cup competition with relative ease, beating every opponent in the club tournament by double digits: AthElite 102-55; Raincity, 85-52; and B.C. Bounce 81-64.
The BC Cup, new for this year, is modeled after the NBA's new in-season tournament; teams are drawn into a single-game knockout bracket. The PrimeTime Sports event has a goal of providing a different style of competition outside of tournament or league play, along with teams playing home and away games in front of their peers. The organizers hope to add a girls side and other age brackets in the coming years.
This year, it was UPrep and 3D who met last weekend at the Langley Events Centre with the inaugural title on the line. The winner got bragging rights, as well a box to watch the Vancouver Bandits game, which followed after their championship match.
"Most of these teams are not very structured, so it's not a big deal playing against most of the them. But then, when you have a team who has a system and structure like UPrep, then ... it's not so easy," 3D coach Luka Vukalovic said of his team's run to the final.
"I knew it was going to be trouble. But the kids, you know, are so laid back. They think it's going to be easy, but then they had a rude awakening. We were just totally unprepared."
Vukalovic took the responsibility on his shoulders, saying he should have had his team on point. But with three of his key players missing his practices to train with the university teams they're suiting up for this fall, and others having grad responsibilities, he didn't have his starting lineup at practice the week before the game.
Selby had his own worries coming in, the least of which was running his high-intensity defence with just eight players.
"Our big kid was still missing, which we were really nervous about, because obviously, 3D is a really big team," he said. "They go like, 6-10, 6-8, 6-6, 6-4, with some of their starters there. And all those kids, they got like, four University commits already. They're a really, really, really good program that we have a lot of respect for."
And it was 3D coming out of the gates hot, taking a 12-point lead during the second quarter, but only went into the half nursing a four-point advantage. Vukalovic, unhappy with his team's mistakes, laced into them during halftime, but it didn't slow the momentum — UPrep opened the third quarter on a 15-0 run.
They held a sizable buffer until the final four minutes, when 6-7 swing Ashton Bain led the charge and 3D tied the score from the line. The Queen's University-bound player out of Handsworth had a monster game, scoring 37 points on 10-of-13 shooting, along with 14 of 19 from the line.
"We were up consistently about six to 10 points until about four minutes to go, and then 3D made their push. It was really exciting," said Selby. "I remember just standing there as I was coaching, just thinking to myself, 'Man, I don't even want this game to end. This is so fun to coach in.'
"As the boys were coming into the huddle before they started overtime, just being really positive and clapping. I was really excited that we got to extend the game and play these guys a little bit more."
It was back and forth in the overtime period until Andres Garcia hit a dagger three from 25 feet out to put UPrep in front by three. Then the defence kicked it into an extra gear, holding 3D without a decent look at the hoop, and pulling out the 77-74 victory.
Garcia, UPrep's six-foot point guard, led his team with 26 points, nine assists and five rebounds.
3D's Luka Subotic had 18 points (5/11 shooting) and 10 boards, but turnovers and erratic shooting from behind the arc undercut their efforts. They were just 4-for-23 from behind the arc were 19-of-27 from the line, while turning the ball over 20 times.
"We dropped the ball, just going too soft into the game. Too soft," said Vukalovic. "You win a game in practice, that's where you win a game. ... Stepping on that court you kind of have to earn the W and we just didn't earn it. That's what happened. Very simple.
"When you put yourself in a position where one three is going to decide your whole game, then there's something more wrong than just that."
A disappointed 3D squad didn't stick around to watch the Bandits game from the stands, while UPrep took the victor's vantage point from the luxury box, and watched as the CEBL side beat the Saskatchewan Rattlers 98-85.
"We were able to pull it out with only eight guys, led by our point guard there (Garcia), but everybody was able to contribute. Which was really, really huge for us," said Selby. "(The Bandits game) was a really, really cool experience for a lot of our kids. I would say probably about a third of our kids haven't gotten to play in provincials with their high school team, so just for them to be able to play on that floor and be in that environment, and then be able to be in a box for some of them, that was their first time ... it's just a really cool experiences that we were able to give these kids through wonderful events like this. It was really awesome."
Of 3D's five Grade 12 players, 6-10 centre Malcolm Tyler has committed to the UFV Cascades next year, while Subotic will be joining the Langara Falcons. Bain is joining a Queen's program that was runners-up to Laval Rouge et Or for the 2024 USports championship. 6-9 forward Avi Barha will be playing for the University of Guelph Gryphons.
UPrep only had one graduating player this year, 6-5 PG Ashton Uwamaliya, who's headed to the University of Winnipeg. 6-3 guard Thomas Manganini is moving on to Canada Topflight Academy (West) in Calgary for prep school.
Selby is confident in the Grade 11-heavy group he has, most of whom have been training with him since sixth grade, though UPrep only came into existence three years ago.
"The continuity that we've been able to build just by having that loyalty and commitment from the families and the players has really, really come to fruition this year," he said. "They're a really, really good defensive team. I can be biased at times, but I really believe they could end up being ... one of the best club teams to ever come out of BC."
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