ANAHEIM, Calif.—For a country whose sports contributions usually come in hockey or skiing, Canada’s presence will be felt pretty heavily on the hardwood in the Sweet 16.
Two-fifths of Oregon’s starting lineup Thursday against Duke—sophomore Dillon Brooks and junior Chris Boucher—hails from north of the border. Redshirt senior and Villanova transfer Dylan Ennis is also a native Canadian, but a foot injury limited him to just two games this season.
The trio is a continuation of what is developing as a strong trend for the Ducks since head coach Dana Altman arrived six years ago, and the players have grown to embrace the school as a hotbed for Canadian basketball talent.
“It is Canada’s team. We recruit Canadians ever since Olu Ashaolu many years ago,” Brooks said. “It’s Canada’s team and we wear it with pride. There’s fans out there who love Canada as well, and it’s just a great feeling that you have the support.”
In Altman’s second season, he reeled in his first two Canadians—Ashaolu and Devoe Joseph. Both were transfers—Joseph from Minnesota and Ashaolu from Louisiana Tech—who would play just a single year for the Ducks.
But the pathway from Canada to Eugene had been formed, and it certainly helped that they had plenty of success on the floor. Joseph ranked third in the Pac-12 with 16.7 points per game in 2011-12, and Ashaolu was a key post player who ranked fourth in the conference in field goal percentage.
It would be two more years before more came south to play basketball in the United States, when Jason Calliste and Richard Amardi signed on for the 2013-14 season. Calliste, in particular, shined this time around and turned heads and setting a school record with his 50.4 percent mark from behind the arc.
“We’ve had great success with the young men from Canada,” Altman said. “It started with Devoe Joseph and Olu Ashaolu and Jason Calliste…. All those guys from Canada have been so much fun to work with, we’ve been really fortunate.”
Brooks and Boucher are arguably Oregon’s two most important players—Brooks leads the team in scoring and assists, and Boucher holds team-highs in rebounding and blocks—but the two arrived in Eugene by very different methods.
A Montreal, Quebec, Canada, native, the 6-foot-10, 190-pound Boucher started his collegiate career at Northwest College in Wyoming. He produced an eye-popping double-double average of 22.5 points and 11.8 rebounds per game en route to NJCAA Division I Player of the Year honors before transferring to Oregon for the 2015-16 season, where he is third in the country with 3.0 blocks per game.
“We weren’t sure what we were getting with Chris,” Altman said. “You look at him and he’s pretty thin, and I wasn’t sure how that would translate from junior college to the Division I level, but he is a competitor. He’s very coachable. He’s a fearless shot-blocker.”
The transfer route has become very much the norm for Canadian Ducks, but Brooks is the only one of the six to have committed directly out of high school. Tabbed a four-star recruit by ESPN, Brooks—who is a native of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada—has played for Team Canada in the FIBA Americas U18 Championships and the 2015 Pan-American Games.
Brooks attended high school in the United States—he played at Findlay Prep in Las Vegas, the same high school Duke point guard Derryck Thornton attended—and committed to Altman’s program from there. He was impactful as a freshman, but has emerged as the centerpiece for Oregon this year, and has carried the program with him on his personal ascension.
“There is tremendous progress that Dillon Brooks has made as a player and his maturity,” Altman said. “He [was] a big part of our team a year ago, but he’s even bigger this year. And it’s all because of his work ethic. He’s put a lot of time in to change his body, to improve his skill level, and he’s given us a big, big lift this year.”
Canadian geese typically fly south for the winter. Canadian basketball players seem to be flocking to Eugene.
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