Bobcats add size, scoring in Nathan Saldo

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This article was published 16/04/2024 (637 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The last time Gil Cheung asked his friend Pasha Bains for a player to fit his system, he got a special one.

Cheung feels he has another in Edmonton’s Nathan Saldo, the first rookie to sign with Brandon University for the 2024-25 Canada West men’s basketball season.

“He can score it, he can shoot it, we really like him. He’s going to be a first-year kid but he’s dynamic, he can score and gives us a bigger wing, too,” Cheung said.“He can step in and challenge for some minutes right away.”

Bains, who runs Drive Basketball in Richmond, B.C., sent Travis Hamberger to Brandon three years ago. He saw the floor as a rookie and developed into a dependable shooter and tenacious defender, playing 30-plus minutes per game as BU went 12-8 and reached the conference quarterfinals last season.

Bains has seen Saldo play and is confident the six-foot-four guard can impact a Bobcat lineup that’s turning over more than any year since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Saldo agrees.

“It feels great. I feel like it’s a great opportunity for me and it’s a good platform for me to really flourish as a player, and I think it’s a good program,” Saldo said.

Saldo moved to Edmonton from Rocky Mountain House, Alta., in Grade 7. He was a basketball lover in hockey country then and liked being somewhere with like-minded people.

He’d try to play more than anyone else and gained all the confidence he needed when people told him he could go somewhere with the game back in junior high.

Saldo has already proved himself in big games, guiding Holy Trinity High School to a Division 1 city championship in 2022 when he netted more than 30 points in the final against the powerhouse Harry Ainlay Titans.

Trinity lost the following city final to Strathcona.

After Grade 12, Saldo spent a year with Western Canada Prep Academy in Edmonton and said it was massive for his development.

“It was definitely a tough transition,” Saldo said. “Throughout my years of playing basketball, I usually have the ball in my hands a lot. Playing with that team, everybody’s so good, everybody’s so talented. I had to learn to play a different style of basketball I’d never played before and I think that opened my eyes to a new way of seeing the game.”

“Throughout my years of playing basketball, I usually have the ball in my hands a lot. Playing with that team, everybody’s so good, everybody’s so talented. I had to learn to play a different style of basketball I’d never played before and I think that opened my eyes to a new way of seeing the game.”– Natham Saldo

It’s an important transition for the next level as well since rookies seldom spend a ton of game time with the ball.

On the other hand, There’s a chance all of Brandon’s top scorers besides second-team all-star Sultan Bhatti and Hamberger are gone. Khari Ojeda-Harvey won’t return this fall and Eli Ampofo has not decided if he’ll play his fifth year after graduating this spring.

Cheung is in talks with plenty of potential recruits to reload the roster, but depending on who joins, Saldo could be thrust into some big moments when Brandon needs a bucket.

“Winning is the biggest goal I have in mind,” Saldo said. “Whatever the team needs, if they need me to score — what I do best — or even if it’s not what I do best, I’ll put my best foot forward.”

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