From The Province, Kelly Olynyk in the Legal Beagle tomorrow

[ZagNative]

From a Howard Tsumura story in The Province:

Beagle brings out the best
Top teams get chance to take each other's measure
Howard Tsumura, The Province
Published: Thursday, January 08, 2009

Beginning today, the Terry Fox Leagle Beagle turns a healthy 20 years old.

Through two decades, it has become perhaps the premier senior boys basketball tournament in B.C., boasting each season's soon-to-be-crowned provincial Triple A champion among the field in 17 of its first 19 editions.

Here's a look at three of the 10 teams among the star-studded field:

SOUTH KAMLOOPS TITANS

A non-Lower Mainland, North Shore, Fraser Valley or Vancouver Island school has not won the B.C. Triple A title since Prince George's Duchess Park Condors in 1980, yet the Titans -- freshly-minted at No. 1 in The Province's Super 15 rankings -- might be the team that erases the drought in March.

Now 10-0 against Canadian foes, the Titans finally face the cream of the B.C. crop, beginning with a Friday game (11:45 a.m.) against the winner of today's Kitsilano-Yale contest (5 p.m.).

The Titans are led by 6-foot-10 senior guard-forward Kelly Olynyk, who was named MVP of the REB Invitational in Edmonton before Christmas. He scored 48 points in his team's 105-86 win over the host Jasper Place Rebels in the final, including 31 in the first half.

"They are the best team in B.C., period," said Paul Eberhardt, head coach of the No. 6-ranked R.C. Palmer Griffins. "How do you match up with a 6-foot-10 guy who can play any position on the floor?"

But it doesn't end there.

The Titans also boast 6-foot-8 Grade 10 David Wagner, 6-foot-7 Grade 11 Josh Wolfram and 6-foot-3 senior guard John Bantock, the latter universally lauded as perhaps the best pure shooter in B.C. this season.

"We're getting excited to see how we measure up against them," Komarniski said of facing the rest of the province's elite.

Nice pic of Kelly (Center) in that story.



Anyone going to be at that game tomorrow at 11:45 am?

There was more about Kelly and the Legal Beagle in a thread a few days ago here.

[OZZag]

Good photo, but it must be fairly old, there wouldn't be a team in Canada that would have two players his size.

Paul Eberhardt, also known as ebe on Hooplife is not only the coach of the 6th ranked team, but also coaches The Capilano University basketball team ( a JUCO in North Vancouver), and was Kelly's AAU coach for thr B.C. U17 team this summer.

[ZagNative]

Caption for the photo says: Kelly Olynyk (centre) of the South Kamloops Titans looks to make a pass as he's double-teamed by Todd Bergen-Henengouwen and Austen Murray of the Jaspar Place Rebels in the final of the REB Invitational Tournament in Edmonton over the Christmas break."

[OZZag]

Oops

Caption for the photo says: Kelly Olynyk (centre) of the South Kamloops Titans looks to make a pass as he's double-teamed by Todd Bergen-Henengouwen and Austen Murray of the Jaspar Place Rebels in the final of the REB Invitational Tournament in Edmonton over the Christmas break."

Actually the caption is wrong as Todd (a national all star at the Canadian Juvenille championships this past summer, along with Kelly) does not play for for the Jaspar place team, he plays for Picture Butte who lost to South Kamloops in the Semi Finals by only 13 points. My bad, though on the height issue as I guess it must be the angle of the photo unless Todd has grown 2-3 inches over the last four months (which may be possible).

[hoistop79]

I watched Olynyk this past weekend in a tournament in the U.S. and now Kamloops is not undefeated. Olynyk's outside touch free throw shooting looked good, but the rest of his game was very sloppy. Weak on defense allowing a player 5 inches shorter to completely dominate him. He lacked an aggresive side from what I saw. He did face a firey aggresive Port Townsend Redskins team that never lost intensity. I like Olynyk with progression. A player that would really be able to spread the floor. I believe his weaknesses came from poor coaching that had him playing in places that were out of his position and for a Kamloops team as tall as they were they took almost no advantage of the inside game. I was also unimpressed with the ball handling skill that seemed to bee such a hype on him. The ball rarely left his right hand. All in all he definetly has potential in the right position along with the highly skilled coaches of Gonzaga. After a redshirt season of course!!Oops! Didn't see that it said 10-0 against canadian foes.

[ZagNative]

Kelly and his South Kamloops Titans Advance in the Legal Beagle Tourney

From Howard Tsumura in the Vancouver Province today:

LEGAL BEAGLE 2008: Titans top Lions in OT, advance to semifinals with Griffins, Warriors and host Ravens

ORT COQUITLAM -- The South Kamloops Titans have survived a tough, early test at Terry Fox Legal Beagle Invitational.

B.C.'s newest No. 1-ranked Triple A boys basketball team had to scrap and claw with everything they had to pull out a 75-71 overtime victory over the No. 5 ranked and defending B.C. champion Yale Lions of Abbotsford in one of two quarterfinal games played early Friday.

....

That set up Friday's two semifinals.

WRCA faces R.C. Palmer at 6:45 p.m., while South Kamloops plays host Terry Fox at 8:30 p.m.

Saturday's championship final is slated for 7:30 p.m.

....

The highly-anticipated Greater Vancouver debut of Titans' 6-foot-10 guard-forward Kelly Olynyk did not disappoint. Olynyk scored a team-high 19 points, but more importantly, showed just how adept he is at playing at any part of the floor.

Especially impressive was his calm bringing the ball up the floor on a number of occasions and his pin-point passing ability.

"It was great for us to get a real test today," said Olynyk afterwards. "Back home we don't get these types of games. This helps prepare us all the more because a lot of our younger guys don't known what it's like to play in these types of games."

What Friday's contest showed was just how talented Olynyk and fellow senior guard John Bantock (16 points) are, and also how young the core its core of main rotation players still are.

Note: I didn't see a box score, per se, on that page, beyond one listing the points. No rebound info. I'll see what I can find elsewhere ...

As Wilson posted here on the board earlier, video of the Finals game is slated to be streamed live on sportscanada.tv, accessible via this link.

Wilson, if you happen to drop by, can you help us out with some rebounding and other stats for Kelly's game? I couldn't find them on your site (linked in the paragraph above) but admit I didn't try too hard.... If you watched the game against Yale, we'd also appreciate your sharing your impressions here.

Edited to add: Welcome, hoistop! Your first-hand observations of the play at Port Townsend are a welcome addition. Thanks for contributing.

[skan72]

I watched Olynyk this past weekend in a tournament in the U.S. and now Kamloops is not undefeated. Olynyk's outside touch free throw shooting looked good, but the rest of his game was very sloppy. Weak on defense allowing a player 5 inches shorter to completely dominate him. He lacked an aggresive side from what I saw. He did face a firey aggresive Port Townsend Redskins team that never lost intensity. I like Olynyk with progression. A player that would really be able to spread the floor. I believe his weaknesses came from poor coaching that had him playing in places that were out of his position and for a Kamloops team as tall as they were they took almost no advantage of the inside game. I was also unimpressed with the ball handling skill that seemed to bee such a hype on him. The ball rarely left his right hand. All in all he definetly has potential in the right position along with the highly skilled coaches of Gonzaga. After a redshirt season of course!!Oops! Didn't see that it said 10-0 against canadian foes.

He is not out of position because of poor coaching. If you looked, SouthKam already has a 6'8" banger, who is a legit post threat and is only grade 10 and already been contacted by New Mexico State. They don't need him in the post, and the way he plays is mostly because that is what he is pretty good at, from a wing position. He wants to play there and develop there, so no, him being on the wing is not from poor coaching. His coach is actually a very good one.