Drew Urquhart now knows what it means to fight for minutes.
It wasn’t something the six-foot-eight basketball talent learned until he was no longer the head-above-shoulders best player on his team, and with the national men’s junior program this summer, Urquhart was not only among equals but, for the first time, also with players who out-shone him.
“I never had to try out for a team,” said Urquhart on Monday during a visit to his family home in Point Grey. “I’ve never really not known if I was going to make it before. It was really stressful but a great experience.”
Coming off the bench for Canada at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Colorado Springs, Co. in June, Urquhart, in five games, clocked an average 13 minutes, scored five points each outing and sank half the shots he took.
The forward said his output was “decent,” but what the former St. George’s Saint picked up was more important than putting down baskets.
“Before, at Saints, I could shoot 30-plus shots and not any consequences if I missed 20. After [playing for] Canada, you can’t take any poor shots. If you want to help the team win, you have to make the best of every possession. If you made a mistake, [head coach Roy Rana] would pull you off next possession. It was good but stressful. You don’t really get to play your game under that kind of pressure.”
As a big man who would occasionally bring the ball up the floor for St. George’s in the one season he played there as a Grade 11 student, Urquhart had to readjust more than his game with Team Canada.
“I wasn’t really playing my style, what I was used to. I played a different role. I had to really lock down on defence. I tried to rebound all I could and always give it that extra, every time something extra,” he said.
A player whose talent allows a certain amount of coasting will finally reach the level where he’s challenged, said Urquhart. When that finally happens, the player develops, and that’s what happened to him. “If you’re the best player, that comes later or whenever you’re pushed.”
On the road, Urquhart was rooming with Tristan Etienne, a W.J. Mouat graduate who will play for the University of Washington Huskies in the NCAA Pac-12 Conference. The pair, often compared to each other although they’d never met on the court as high schoolers, became good friends, “having heartfelt conversations every night about stuff.” Jadon Cohee, a Walnut Grove alum, was selected to the national team as an alternate.
Canada lost to the U.S. in the FIBA championship final. Urquhart, along with all players, will have to win back their roster sport before the U19 World Championship held next summer in Greece.
Urquhart’s senior year of high school didn’t see him play a single minute for the Eastside Catholic Crusaders, the private Seattle school where he transferred for Grade 12. One of the hardest parts of this setback was sitting on the bench during games despite practising hard with his teammates. “When the ball went up for the tip and I wasn’t in the game, that part was hard,” said Urquhart.
The school ruled him ineligible to play because he was boarding with a member of the school’s board of directors. But in a decision following a legal hearing, the Urquhart family was absolved of blame and the school compelled to issue a formal apology.
“I put it in the back of my mind,” said the athlete. “It was a lot of long nights. In the back of my head, I knew I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Urquhart transferred to the U.S. school to prepare for his freshman season in the NCAA. He committed to the University of Vermont last summer and for the past two months has been training with the Catamounts. In Vancouver for only a few days, he returns to Vermont on Aug. 20 and starts classes five days later.
On an international tour — to Canada — Urquhart said the Catamounts came together in a game against Queen’s. “We really gelled,” he said. Again, he is finding his role on another new team and is comfortable slotted in as a small or power forward or as the centre.
“The coach played a lot of different players. If they play big, I might play at three. I feel like I can play anywhere from three to four to five.”
The coach, John Becker, runs a system Urquhart believes will work very well for him.
“He’s a guy who will play anyone who deserves to play. He’ll start five freshman if that’s what it takes. He’s a coach who trusts his players,” he said.
As with the national team, practice can no longer be taken lightly. “Practice used to be a place where I would just learn plays. Now in college, a team can’t do that. Practice is the place where you earn your minutes.”
