Carberry’s Unrau commits to Manitoba

Owen Unrau picked the best day to have his best day.

The Carberry native attended Basketball Canada’s under-18 ID camp in Winnipeg on Sept. 20 and caught the eyes of not only Basketball Canada’s Mike Meeks, but also the University of Manitoba staff.

“I had, probably, one of the best days I’ve ever played basketball in front of one of the U of M staff members,” Unrau said.

Bisons head coach Kirby Schepp showed up the following day to scout the six-foot-six guard, then continued watching throughout his standout high school season.

Schepp saw more than enough to sign Unrau for the 2026-27 Canada West season.

The veteran coach first noticed Unrau’s size and athletic ability, which are beyond his years and certainly ahead of most of the AA competition he faced in high school. But Schepp wanted to look deeper.

“Do they love the game, do they love training, do they love the process of getting better?” Schepp said via phone interview.

“It’s so hard for guys to come right out of high school and be ready immediately. The real separator is, are they willing to put the time in, grind away and train and just love the game?

“We think Owen has that. He comes from very much a basketball family, just great people, and we think he as a person fits as much, or even more, than as a player.”

Unrau isn’t going in blind, as his older brother, Carsen, just finished his third season at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont., averaging a career-high 8.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game as a full-time starter.

While Owen set a Carberry record with 68 points in one game, Carsen was sure to tell him how to adjust at the next level.

“Don’t go into university thinking I’m just going to score, score, score,” Owen recalled. “It’s going to be more defence, do the little things, the hustle plays and stuff to get minutes.”

Owen started playing basketball on a hoop at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. He had one strange year of junior high ball with restrictions in place before heading straight into high school hoops.

He joined Westman Youth Basketball Association following his freshman year, and quickly decided he wanted basketball to be his future.

Over the next few years, he developed into a truly dominant force in AA and could have moved to a bigger school to seek tougher competition.

On the other hand, Schepp feels Unrau grew in ways he may not have on a stronger team.

“Having that responsibility to be the guy and do everything for your team (is big), he was bringing the ball up, playing point guard and initiating the offence,” Schepp said.

“I watched them play in provincials in Gimli, and the entire focus of the other team was stopping Owen. He basically had four guys on him at all times — one primary defender and everyone else standing in the key.”

At provincials, the Cougars beat the host Lakers 77-66 and reached the medal round, but ran into a top-ranked Souris Sabres squad that couldn’t miss, falling 89-61.

Carberry settled for fourth and Unrau was named a tournament all-star. Two weeks ago, Basketball Manitoba named him AA player of the year.

Less than a month ago, Unrau was invited to Toronto for Basketball Canada’s U18 training roster tryout. He reached the last round of cuts, as 24 players were selected to the group.

He left with one takeaway.

“How much more I need to work to get there,” Unrau said. “It’s nothing that’s crazy out of reach, it’s just, ‘Work harder every day and get there step by step.’”

The work starts with a rebuilding Bisons team that just graduated six players, Mason Kraus, Daren Watts, Samuel Jensen, Cieran O’Hara, Tito Obasoto and Manyang Tong.

They eliminated the Brandon University Bobcats 79-68 in the first round of the playoffs before falling 77-69 to the UBC Thunderbirds, ending a highly anticipated season a few games early.

Schepp wasted no time turning his focus to the future, though. He already has Finnish import Paavo Makkonen, Edmonton’s Clarence Suter of Western Canada Prep Academy and Bruno Van Bewer of College Jeanne-Sauve signed, with more likely to be announced soon.

Unrau initially committed to Winnipeg’s Central Canada Prep in September, but that was a stepping stone he has simply soared right over to his ultimate goal.

“It’s a really cool story that a kid who’s come from Carberry, didn’t move to Toronto or the U.S., didn’t even play provincial team. He was cut from the Canada Games team last year, which is probably a travesty, but he was,” Schepp said.

“He got a national team invite and was brought out to Toronto to show what he can do for national team coaches.

“It’s a really cool, ‘You can get there from here’ story … No matter where you are, if you can play, people will find you.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com