Coaches aren’t supposed to play favourites, strictly speaking. Of course VIU Mariners men’s basketball coach Tony Bryce wants all his guys to achieve, succeed, win.
There’s one M’s veteran in particular, though, who is down to his last chance to win with the program. Andrew Kaban is a fifth-year leader, an All-Canadian and the top scorer in the league. He’s also the hardest-working player Bryce has ever been around.
“There’s nothing that I would love more than to see Andrew get to a national championship,” said the coach. “He’s worked so darn hard. He deserves it.”
Kaban and many of his teammates have come awfully close the last couple of seasons. Two straight years now, they’ve lost in the B.C. Colleges’ Athletic Association’s gold-medal game. The defeats were crushing at the time, but now, Kaban said, it’s all valuable playoff experience.
“I’ll tell you what, that’s one thing that you’ll never forget and you never want that feeling again,” he said.
Compounding last year’s defeat was the fact that the Mariners were eligible for a wild-card berth into nationals but were controversially passed over. It was disappointing, Kaban said, but it’s not really a motivating factor a whole season later.
“This year is a new year and we’re a different team than we were last year; I think we’ve grown in a lot of ways,” he said. “It’s just a new opportunity is all it is, so we’ll see what we can do.”
Being in his final year with the program hasn’t made much difference in his approach to this post-season, he said.
“I’ve always been very competitive and very driven,” Kaban said. “Winning is the most important thing to me and that’s no different this year.”
That competitive drive has helped to elevate the whole VIU team into a contender. Kaban hates to lose, even if it’s a simple drill at practice.
“That can be a little bit intimidating to some of the younger guys, but it also sets an example for expectations in this program,” said Bryce.
Kaban, now 22, joined the Mariners after graduating from Dover Bay Secondary School. He wanted to play college ball and get a degree, but he didn’t foresee that the M’s program would evolve into the league powerhouse it has become.
“It’s been very fortunate how things have turned out,” he said. “Obviously we would have liked to have achieved better as a team in the playoffs, but I can’t regret any of my experiences and it’s been great so far.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what happens this year.”
GAME ON … VIU's men’s and women’s basketball teams begin the B.C. Colleges’ Athletic Association championships Friday (March 4) at Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford.
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