“All the best players are right here. It’s the best run in Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»right now.”
This is what Mindy Minhas said Monday night after a scrimmage that pulled together some of the city’s brightest basketball alumni, all of them dropping in for a game of pick up against familiar rivals.
“Phil is obviously the best player here. Everyone is trying to learn from him and use it to their own game. Everyone here is really good,” said Minhas, a Churchill graduate who expects to return to the UBC Thunderbirds next year after his rookie season was cut short because of illness.
He was talking about Phil, a.k.a. Phil Scrubb, a.k.a. two-time CIS MVP and five-time CIS men’s basketball champion with the Carleton Ravens. A.k.a. brother of Tom Scrubb, a two-time CIS defensive player of the year and Ravens teammate for all five national titles.
The players came together on the invitation of Tigers head coach Jeff Gourley. High school players watched from the sidelines, chased back to the benches until they too become more experienced ballers.
The Scrubb brothers play at Carleton alongside Tupper grad Cam Smythe who was also running the floor at his alma mater on Monday. Warren Liang and James Lum, both Tupper Tigers who played for St. Mary’s in Halifax, dropped in along with Thunderbirds guard and Calgarian Jordan Jensen-Whyte plus Langara Falcons forward Abubakar Khan, who played at Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»College after the Scrubb brothers dressed for the Fighting Irish.
“There’s always pride whenever you play in any game, said Phil Scrubb. “With these guys, obviously it gets pretty competitive and that’s what makes it fun.”
A second game goes tonight. No one’s started charging spectators yet.
