In the past, for most of us that played ball past high school in Canada, it was pretty much 2-4 years at a college or university and we basically called it a career. But now as the skill level and athleticism in the Great North gets better, the result is that more and more Canadian ballers are starting to get shots in pro leagues all over the world. Take 6'3" shooting guard Tresor Kalambay, who recently signed an American Basketball Association (ABA) contract with the Pittsburgh Phantoms.

This first time I saw Tresor play was at the renowned "980" street court in Hamilton when he was just a kid. I could tell right away he could play as he was hitting jumpers from everywhere and attacked the rim with reckless abandon. It wasn't a surprise to me that a year later, he would be a catalyst in transforming Martin Vaillancourt's Academie Catolique Mere-Teresa program. During his tenure at ACMT, the tiny school with an enrollment of just 250 students went from Hamilton catholic league basement dwellers to perennial provincial powers. He helped them win an OFSAA single "A" Bronze medal in his senior year which paved the way for the school to win two OFSAA Gold titles the following years after his graduation. "He was a fantastic leader with tremandous work ethic." said Vaillancourt, "Never had to ask him twice to go through a drill. His passion, confidence and determination were impeccable. I always knew he was going to make it big."

After high school Tresor took his game and a full scholly to DIII St. Vincent College of the NCAA. There he averaged 11.2 ppg and helped lead his Bearcats to a 22-3 overall record in his senior year. Just before he graduated with a degree in Psychology, he dropped 28 in his last regular season game against the Thomas More Saints. He's now playing with the 6-0 Pittsburgh Phantom's of the ABA where in the last three games he has averaged 7pts and 4 dimes. Playing pro ball has been a goal of Tresor's since he was a kid but now that he's gotten a taste of the pro hoops world, he's still far from satisfied, "Being given the opportunity to play on this team to me is the accomplishment of a childhood dream.", said Kalambay. "A dream to one day be able to say I was a pro basketball player. However now that I am in here, my mentality is to continue to grow and get better and ultimately become a household name. I am confident with God on my side that I will be able to get real far in the professional world of basketball and in hand be able to come back to Hamilton and help other kids achieve their goal. So I am happy to be where I am right now but I am far from satisfied and refuse to settle for anything less then greatness and in God I trust so I know I'll be alright."

OUA

It was a weekend of upsets in the OUA. Friday night, Paul Kovacs went 6-9 from three point land dropping 23pts in the process to lead his Laurentian Voyeruers over the Toronto Blues 84-74. The feisty Voyereurs almost did it again the following night against the Ryerson Rams if it wasn't for a miracle shot made by scoring machine Boris Bakovic (44pts, 10 boards) who with seconds remaining, hit a turnaround fade-away three to clinch it 107-104 in OT. The Rams, who lost their second leading scorer Josh Budd to academic reasons at Christmas, have rebounded well with two straight victories this past weekend after starting the new year 1-3. The hottest team in the OUA East right now are the Ottawa Gee-Gee's who have won ten games in a row. Nationally ranked #2 Carleton currently leads the OUA East with a 13-1 record followed by the Gee-Gee's at 12-2. The upcoming game of the week in the East is the Ottawa vs. Carleton match up happening this Wednesday.

Over in arguably the toughest conference in the CIS which is the OUA West, ROY candidate Clinton Springer-Williams came up huge for his Brock Badgers as they knocked off the nationally #8 ranked Windsor Lancers 80-79 with Springer-Williams pouring in 20pts. Had Windsor won the game they would have moved into a tie for first with the West leading and #7 nationally ranked Lakehead Thunderwolves who surprisingly split their two games with the Guelph Gryphons this past weekend. The Gryphons, led by sophomore guard Dan McCarthy's 26pt, 8 board and 6 dime effort, kept their playoff hopes alive with the 69-62 OT upset win. Foul shots were the difference in this game with Lakehead shooting a dismal 50% (10-20) on the night. No doubt about it Lakehead and Windsor will drop in the national rankings with one, if not both, being dropped from the list altogether. And what is happening with the Western Mustangs? They get upset by the Brock Badgers, lose to Windsor, then get annihilated by McMaster 93-64 this past weekend to record three straight loses. McMaster was led by All-Canadian Keenan Jeppeson's 22pts, 11 boards, 4 dimes, 2 thefts and 2 blocks. With the playoffs fast approaching, Western better get their act together as both Brock and Laurier are knocking at their door in the standings. Speaking of Laurier, they too had a major upset of their own beating the Waterloo Warriors 73-57. They were led by Jesse Macdonald and his 21 points as well as freshmen Max Allin who recorded 18pts and 13 boards in the victory. Lakehead still leads the West with an 11-3 record. This week's "game of the week" is actually the "series of the week" which takes place in Windsor next weekend when the Lancers host the league leading Lakehead Thunderwolves for two games.

HIGH SCHOOL

One thing is for sure this year in the high school ranks and that's that the OFSAA title is up for grabs with no definitive one team favoured to take it. For my money, I'd have to go with one of the teams that has shown the most consistency this season which is either Father Henry Carr, Loyola, Pickering, JC Richardson or Oakwood. We may get a preview as to who exactly has the edge heading into the playoffs as someone in Toronto is organizing a basketball tourney to fundraise for earthquake-ravaged Haiti. It will take place in a couple of weeks and will bring the best GTA teams together to play it out. Hopefully the organizers give the Oakwood Barons an invite as the one knock on them is that they don't play in enough Toronto-area tournaments and that when they do, they get exposed as they did at the St. Mike's Invitational. I'm not from that school of thought, anyone can have a bad weekend, but I can understand how one could wonder if they were truly a contender when well into the second half of the season, they have yet to go head-to-head against either Father Henry Carr, Pickering, JC Richardson or Loyola.p>

I had a chance to watch Denison's Kevin Pangos 6'0" play at the Silver Fox two weekends ago and came away really impressed. Pangos is a solid PG that can effectively switch over and play the role of shooting guard and play it well. Canada Basketball has set their eyes on the young star as they put the 17-year old on the senior national team last summer in order to train and learn from the likes of Canada's starting PG Jermaine Anderson. Pangos has a bright future and hopefully he stays in Canada to play out his high school eligibility.

TORONTO RAPTORS

It was sweet watching the Raptors beat the Lakers last night but when Andrea Bargnani applies himself and plays well as he did against LA, it shouldn't surprise anyone when Toronto beats the upper calibre teams of the NBA. I've been saying it for years, even when some discussion board members were calling for his trade after his first few seasons, that he will be better than Dirk Nowitzki when his career ends. Comparing him to Nowitzki, Bargnani is more agile and is more creative on his finishes. Obviously, Nowitzki is a better shooter right now but until Bargnani and the Raptor staff realize that his footwork needs help because as of now it is absolutely atrocious, he will continue to take himself out of scoring situatons simply because he's not comfortable in his triple threat.

I love Jarret Jack's toughness and tenacity and believe he should be the starter because of the way he played while Jose Calderon was injured but when I look at the game stats, I wonder who really is playing the spot more effectively. Against the Lakers, Calderon recorded 5pts and 5 dimes in 15 minutes of play. Jack on the other hand dropped 18pts but only dished out 4 assists in 32 minutes of play. That's one assist for every quarter of play.

Everyone needs to start getting off Hedo Turkoglu's back. He wasn't brought in to Toronto to be the franchise player. He's averaging 12.6 ppg and sure that's a bit off the 17ppg he averaged last year in Orlando but who's average wouldn't drop off once they stopped playing with a 7ft low post player that commands double and triple teams down on the blocks? Our best low post player, Chris Bosh, is really a mid-range jump shooter that plays around the top of the key most of the time. Under Triano's offence, Turkoglu is being asked to create a lot of his own offence which he is clearly struggling with but although he isn't making his jumpers he makes up for it in the assist column.

Kirk Alfaro