Brandon met, didn’t exceed expectations

The Brandon University Bobcats had the best player in the prairies and the top rookie in Canada West.

But by way of support for Sultan Bhatti and Munroop Gill, they had enough to eke into the playoffs and go no further.

For the second straight year, the Bobcats men’s basketball team took a low seed into the post-season and failed to reach the quarterfinals.

As much as any competitor wants to expect more, it’s tough to say they underachieved or overachieved.

“In a perfect season, we finish 11-9. We lose that one in overtime in Alberta, we lose that one when the kid hits one to send it to overtime in (Saskatchewan),” said Bobcats head coach Gil Cheung.

“As much as I think we were a tough team, we probably missed our ceiling in the regular season by two games, max.

“We probably got to where we needed to get to.”

JEKYLL AND HYDE

The Bobcats could have still avoided their first-round matchup against the Manitoba Bisons, which they led by two entering the fourth quarter but lost 79-68.

Brandon opened the season with a big victory over Manitoba and swept Regina during the first semester.

The opportunities were there to sweep the Lethbridge Pronghorns and Calgary Dinos after solid Friday performances, but Brandon suffered double-digit losses both nights.

BU fell by three in overtime to open the weekend at Alberta and Saskatchewan, and lost two narrow decisions to Mount Royal in Calgary in January.

Realistically, Brandon needed four of those wins to drastically improve its playoff position, given the top five in the Prairie Division being 12-8 or better, but Cheung felt his team may have fared better against plenty of other playoff teams.

“Manitoba, I think, was a team that could have won a national championship. They’re that talented, they’re that veteran group and it was a tough matchup for us,” Cheung said.

“That being said, overall it was a good year with some strong individual performances and a lot to build on.”

THE LINEUP

The Bobcats opened the season with Bhatti, Travis Hamberger, Max Winters, Youri Cange and import Malik Brown in the starting lineup.

The offence started with Bhatti, who led the team at 20.1 points per game while also finishing as one of the top rebounders and passers in Canada West. He was named a first-team all-star and second-team all-Canadian for the second year in a row.

Hamberger settled in after a shaky 2024-25 season when he shot just 27 per cent from three-point range, jumping back to 34 per cent while averaging 11.5 points per game.

As usual, Cheung played his big man sparingly — Winters averaged a little less than 15 minutes per game — spending most of the night with a small-ball lineup featuring Gill or Arjun Hehar off the bench.

When Brown went down with an ankle injury late in the first semester, Gill, who was outplaying him to begin with, took over the starting spot and never gave it up, en route to a Canada West rookie of the year and U Sports all-rookie team nod.

“Malik was playing great for us but really blew out his ankle bad and was never back to the same zip and we couldn’t get him back into the rotation,” Cheung said.

“That really hurt us.”

So Cheung had limited production from his main import in a program that has historically depended on Americans for a massive part of their success.

He had one unable to complete the necessary paperwork to come this year, while six-foot-10 Colorado native DeMarco Duncan averaged just five minutes in the 12 games he played, and was essentially a non-factor despite his size on a team that could use it.

“It’s tough being a bigger guy in our conference,” Cheung said.

“We try to make sure he can have someone to match up with. He got a lot better throughout the year. He’d be the first one to tell you the pace of play and the physicality, he wasn’t quite ready for but he shows glimpses of having that potential to be an impact guy.

“He’s only in year 2. It’s going to take some time with him but he shows potential there.”

MOVING FORWARD

While the Bobcats only lose two pieces for sure, they’re huge ones.

Bhatti and Hamberger are graduating, vacating more than 60 minutes per game from Cheung’s rotation.

“Regardless of their numbers, it’s just having that adult in the room, that leadership we talk about all the time,” Cheung said. “That isn’t so much every day in games but how they carry themselves in practice and how they can support and lead the younger guys.

“They’ve been in those situations, they recall adjustments we’ve made before and things that are hard to teach without experience.”

Cheung expects the rest of the team to return, but isn’t guaranteeing anyone their role will grow, or even stay as big as it is.

He said he has 15 recruits he’s working on with hopes of bringing in seven, and regardless of how well a rookie like Gill or Hehar played, if the new ones give BU a better chance to win, they’ll earn the time.

“They both have had big roles this year and we want to keep helping them with their development on and off the court,” Cheung said.

“They weren’t promised anything and they aren’t promised anything for next year. For us to be better, we have to add some pieces and guys have to get better.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com