A whirlwind season and crazy busy weekend ended in triumph for Ryan Schmidt.
The head coach of the 颁贰叠尝鈥檚 Hamilton Honey Badgers guided his team to its first championship with a 90-88 win over the Scarborough Shooting Stars in Ottawa on Sunday.
And given that he took time off from the league鈥檚 championship weekend to be with his wife Whitney after she gave birth to the couple鈥檚 first daughter in 海角社区官网on Friday, the title is the second-best thing that happened for him in a 48-hour period.
The child arrived while Friday night鈥檚 semifinals were being played. He flew to 海角社区官网for the day on Saturday, then returned for the final 鈥 a perfect send-off before his next job as head coach of the London Lions of the British Basketball League.
The Honey Badgers, who finished with the best regular-season record in the 10-team league, pulled away from the expansion Shooting Stars and made up for a loss in the league鈥檚 inaugural final in 2019.
They won with balanced offence 鈥 five players in double figures, led by 17 from Christian Vital, the game鈥檚 most valuable player, and 15 from Raptors 905 alumnus Aaron Best 鈥 and tenacious defence that gave Scarborough no room to operate. Ex-Raptor Jalen Harris, who averaged more than 20 points a game in the regular season, was held to just 12 for the Shooting Stars, going 4-for-14 from the field overall and missing all five of his three-point attempts.
But the Shooting Stars made it a dramatic finish with an offensive flourish and defensive toughness in the Elam Ending portion of the game, which sets a target score to determine the winner. Scarborough cut a 17-point deficit to just one before Hamilton鈥檚 Caleb Agada made a free throw to clinch the title.
鈥淎s much as I want to say that was part of the plan, to end the game that way, it just shows our character and it was revealed again,鈥 Schmidt said in an on-court interview with CBC. 鈥淲e had a lead, we kind of blew it, but at the end of the day they made plays to win the game.鈥
Now Schmidt, who worked on the Raptors 905 staff for about four seasons and was instrumental in the NBA team鈥檚 developmental process, heads overseas. He鈥檒l coach Sam Dekker, the Raptors鈥 last cut a year ago, and see a handful of familiar CEBL faces on European club teams.
It鈥檚 part of the mandate of the league, to create opportunities anywhere in the world for players and coaches. As the CEBL becomes better known as a career stepping stone, its reputation in basketball circles will grow.
鈥淲henever we lose someone, it鈥檚 like a small victory for us in that we helped them get there in some small way, or provided a platform for them to get there,鈥 league commissioner and CEO Mike Morreale told the Star this month.
鈥淭hat will attract more coaches that want similar opportunities, or more players, or agents are more comfortable now sending players. The number of people that want to be involved in this league 鈥 coaches, players, agents 鈥 is in the thousands and thousands.鈥
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