Carberry’s Carsen Unrau lands with Lakehead

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This article was published 28/04/2023 (861 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Excitement fills the Assiniboine Community College gymnasium air, echoing off the concrete walls as Carsen Unrau spins past his little brother Owen and skies for a dunk.

Brandon University Bobcats commit Max Winters meets him at the rim and swats the ball away and their Westman Youth Basketball Association teammates let Unrau hear it.

Unrau laughs it off and runs the same play, this time knocking down a shot with a smile that hasn’t left his face.

It’s his happy place. For the Carberry native, home is the hardcourt.

He’s only played for four years but just committed to hopefully spend his next five at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont., starting with the 2023-24 Ontario University Athletics season.

“It feels really nice, letting that feeling off the shoulders, everything can relax and I can just start focusing on the game, not worrying about talking to other coaches and having a home for next year,” Unrau said after WYBA practice.

“It was harder because talking with three or four different coaches it’s not always easy to pick which one you want to go to. You have to feel like it’s going to be home and that’s what Lakehead felt like. It felt like it was going to be home for the next five years.

“Being at the gym with the guys, it just felt nice. Knowing they have the most fans in OUA for basketball, that’s something I want to be a part of.”

It’s fitting that Unrau’s spending his last spring before university with WYBA. It’s where he found his passion for basketball under coach Novell Thomas in Grade 9.

After the lost 2020-21 season, Northstar Prep in Winnipeg recruited Unrau for his senior season. He spent the past two years there and felt hanging around instead of leaving after Grade 12 helped him land with a better program. Lakehead went 16-6 in conference play last year and cracked the U Sports top 10 rankings.

Northstar ran five three-hour practices a week and travelled to Ottawa, Toronto, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Seattle and more places to take on elite competition. He loved the travel aspect and embraces one of the heaviest travel schedules in U Sports due to Thunder Bay being a long trek from southern Ontario and the bulk of the conference’s schools.

Unrau feels coach Daron Leonard and Northstar helped him make up for lost time and he’s ready to help the Thunderwolves continue building.

He’s a six-foot-five, left-handed guard with composure beyond his years.

“I feel like the biggest is the IQ. I see everything a step ahead,” he said. “Then just willingness to fight for everything. I’ll be on the floor, I’ll draw charges, do all that. Also being a knockdown shooter and being able to play-make off the catch will help a lot.

“The biggest thing (to work on) would be just putting on more muscle and being more explosive so I can score on all three levels, in the mid-range, off a pull-up and floater, fine-tuning the scoring part of it because I feel that’s the biggest thing that lacks right now.”

Looking back, he chuckles about how glad he is that his parents never forced him to play hockey and supported his love for hoops. The game’s taking him on a path to a kinesiology degree and potentially a career in physiotherapy or sports medicine.

He can’t help but smile and talk fast just thinking about it.

“I’ve always had some energy but it’s never been just excitement based on just wanting to go somewhere,” Unrau said. “I really want to get started and get going already.”

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