Canucks in NCAA tournament

[BBallfanJ]

I thought we should have a thread following different Canadian players in the NCAA tournament.

Today, Tristan Thompson of Brampton, Ontario led Texas to a first round win over Oakland. Thompson had 17 points, 10 rebounds and 7 blocks (a Texas NCAA tournament record).

[Federoy]

Robert Sacre, from Vancouver, scored 9 pts. and grabbed 9 rebounds in 31 minutes of play, helping the Gonzaga Bulldogs defeat St. John's 86-71 at the Pepsi Center in Denver. Next opponent for the Zags will be Brigham Young University from Utah.

[BBallfanJ]

Sacre scored 17 points to go with 7 rebounds and 4 blocks in a losing effort against BYU.

[lrangels]

I didn't know Sacre is a Canadian. I thought he's from the Latin Americas. He was really superb against BYU, but the three ball always beat the inside game. Anyway, that was a very good piece of information... thanks for sharing.

[JGX]

Junior Cadougan's Marquette team was eliminated last night. Wasn't he extremely highly touted at one point? Hasn't developed into a star.

[sagenas]

My little interview with Nick Stauskas, prospect ofr 2012 NCAA class..:

Probably some of Lithuanians feel really frustrated seeing countrymen emigrants who represent other countries in sports very well. During the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey many people heard story of Lithuanian emigrants Andy and Leo Rautins who represent Canada.

Also last year in Lithuanian media it was very common to see a name of Tim Abromaitis who had great season in the NCAA playing for Notre Dame university. This summer Tim was invited to the camp of students national team of USA what is real acknowledgement.

Nevertheless, there are much more players like that and one of them – Nikolas Stauskas. 199cm tall small forward who is about to turn 18 years old this summer knows his origin and started to play basketball in Toronto, in sports club of Lithuanian emigrants “Aušra”.

This youngster’s had already played for Canada in under 16 years old (U-16) competition “2009 FIBA Americas U16 Championship”. Player who was seen by coaches of Canada’s U-16 national team lately got more and more attention from scouts of the NCAA universities. Right now high school player of St.Marks prep. school is rated at “Yahoo Rivals” as 99th prospect in class of 2012 (100th in ESPN) and 20th among small forwards.

For comparison, two players of Canada’s U-19 national team, Negus Webster-Chan and Sim Bhullar are rated respectively as 137th and 148th. Known as good player offensively, Nikolas had got many offers from such a known universities as Kansas and Wake Forest but he already commit to play for Michigan where he will represent “Wolverines”.

Family-type guy, who can speak in Lithuanian very hardly but understands language pretty well shared his thoughts with GreenHoops.zxq.net. As he says himself, he loves to spend time with his family and everything else is just basketball.


- “Aušra” was your first team. Were you seen by that time when you were playing or it?

- I first played for “Aušra” when I was 7 so I was not seen then.

- What type of player you are?

- I’m known as a shooter but I have a very good ball handling and I get to the basket well. Also I have a good basketball IQ and know how to get my teammates involved.

- Who is your basketball idol?

- My basketball idol is Lebron James.

- You already had conversation with the head coach of Michigan “Wolverines” about your position in the team and other things. What’s your opinion of coach John Beilein?

- Coach Beilein is a great guy and a great coach. He really knows what he’s talking about and he shows that with the way his team is run every year.

For full reading click here

[CKR13]

Robert Sacre has been busy working out for various NBA scouts in the recent NBA Draft Combine in Chicago and New Jersey.

[BBallfanJ]

Sacre was drafted #60 last night by the Lakers. Also, Andrew Nicholson was picked #19 by Orlando and Kris Joseph #51 by Boston.

[CKR13]

Good read:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/basketball/ncaa-sweet-16-canadians-still-in-contention-1.2584454

Canada is amassing quite impressive talents in the US.