Home Always Close To The Heart For UB's Skeete
2/29/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Sloane Martin
Bulls' guard Jarryn Skeete is walking around campus in a purple and black retro Toronto Raptors jacket and a red and white Canadian poof-ball beanie.
"He's always repping Canada," head coach Nate Oats said. "He's got the 'We the North' (gear), the Raptors shirts...He and (assistant coach) Donyell (Marshall) are always talking about the Raptors." Marshall, of course, is tied for the NBA record for three-pointers in a game with 12 -- a feat he accomplished in a Raptors' uniform.
Canadian pride is not just a major part of his wardrobe, but also his identity. Skeete, a native of Brampton, Ont., is a member of a special fraternity of Canadian basketball players -- a group that is finally taking hold and announcing its presence in the U.S.-centered sport. Skeete reels off the names of players from Canada that he personally knows and has played with. He follows their careers closely.
"Basically every Canadian my age is a close-knit group. We either played against each other or on the same team or grew up together. We're really close," he said.
Skeete's cousin is former Syracuse guard Tyler Ennis. He also played with and against the likes of Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins -- both of which were drafted first overall in the NBA draft.
"I'm really happy," Skeete said of Canadian basketball receiving more respect and attention. "I feel like the talent's always been there we just never had -- I wouldn't say a fair shot -- but we never had a maximum amount of exposure. Not a lot of coaches would make that trip to Toronto but now they're making that trip every summer and frequently throughout the year."
But even just a couple years ago it was not that way.
"My first year of high school I didn't think I was going to play after high school," Skeete said. "I didn't know if I could get a scholarship -- not many of us had gone Division I. It was like one in every couple hundred people would go."
By his sophomore year Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph (two first round NBA picks in 2011) went on to high school in the U.S. and then to Texas-Austin.
"I would say that opened the floodgates for everyone else and kind of started this all up. You just realize it can be done," he said.
Those players brought the scouts and more exposure to the country with more coaches coming to camps. Skeete did make his way to the U.S. pre-UB, too, something that he said at least a dozen other players did.
"(In Canada), there's only two AAU programs where in America, every city has five," he said.
Skeete played soccer growing up ("I was a lot better at soccer than basketball") but broke his foot while playing. After that injury he decided to give his all to basketball, "and it ended up working out." Because it's inevitable when talking about Canadian athletes, Skeete's history with the sport of hockey is brief.
"They tried to put me in skates when I was four or five," he said. "I didn't like the feel of skating. I couldn't skate. I quit my first day, so my hockey dreams were over very fast."
Hockey still may attract the majority of Canadian athletes, but Skeete says basketball is catching up.
"You could say traditionally hockey is more predominant or important," he said. "But we have the No. 1 pick in Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins, my cousin Tyler Ennis is in the NBA -- there's just so many Canadians in the NBA where it's like even; it doesn't really matter any more."
Skeete, one of two seniors on the Bulls' team who will be honored before Tuesday's game, but the only one who has been with the program for four years, has had to deal with a lot of challenges including injuries and three different head coaches; but those experiences have also brought him a Mid-American Conference title ring and a lesson in leadership.
"It made me become a better leader because I've seen so many different aspects of the (college basketball) business," he said. "My first year I wasn't playing a lot and a player goes down, I have to step up and end up playing the rest of the season, heavy minutes. Second year, a new coach, a new learning experience, after that he goes. Now I have Coach Oats so I kind of already have my experience with a coaching switch and I think it helped me lead the team and let them know you can stick through adversity and good things will come out of it."
The 6-foot-3 guard, who unselfishly moved from the point guard position to let talented younger players like Lamonte Bearden take over that role for the good of the program, does plan to play professionally post-graduation. But both he and Oats see a future in coaching as well.
"He's cerebral," Oats said. "He's a really good people-person. You can have real basketball coaching conversations with him that you maybe wouldn't have with a typical kid," Oats said.
Oats says Skeete's intelligent about the game and would be a good recruiter if he does decide to go into coaching when his career is over. He jokes that Skeete already serves as the "closer" to his "set-up man" for UB's recruiting efforts, often taking the prospective student athletes under his wing after Oats has had them.
"I don't think we missed on any," Oats said.
Oats says Canadian talent isn't quite as overlooked as it once was a few years ago because because of many players' success in the NBA and the top Division I conferences, but there's still plenty more to be found. That's why he'll continue to drink from the Canadian well to find talent.
"I would still say it's not as tapped as a lot of U.S. markets are," Oats said. "We're so close to Toronto and there's a lot of players coming out of Toronto. We just got the kid Stefan Duric [a Burlington, Ont. native]. We've got three Canadians now, Jarryn, Rodell [Wigginton, a Nova Scotia native and community college transfer] and Stefan. And you know what, if they can shoot as well as Jarryn and Stefan can we'll gladly take a few more."
Skeete knows that when he does take on a coaching role, he'll be looking at Canadian players -- closely.
"I don't know if I want to go back and live (in Canada)," he said, "but when I become a coach I will definitely heavily recruit Canada because I know how much talent is there and help as many Canadian kids get out and get a chance like I did."
