This year’s FIBA World Cup featured a distinct Carleton connection as it tipped off in China on Aug. 31. Former Ravens Kaza Kajami-Keane as well as Thomas and Phil Scrubb were named as part of the final Canadian roster for the tournament.
All three players achieved numerous accolades and won national championships while part of the Ravens. The Scrubb brothers played at Carleton from 2010 to 2015. They won five national titles, three provincial titles and had numerous all-star awards. Phil Scrubb won the Mike Moser Memorial trophy as the CIS Outstanding Player from 2012 to 2014.
After the Scrubb brothers left Carleton, in stepped Kajami-Keane, a transfer from Cleveland State and Illinois State. The Ajax, Ont. point guard won two national titles in his two seasons with the Ravens from 2015 to 2017 and earned multiple all-star awards.
The Scrubb brothers and Kajami-Keane have since embarked on their professional careers after leaving Carleton. Phil has played for AEK Athens (Greece), Skyliners Frankfurt (Germany), and Zenit St Petersburg (Russia). He recently signed to play with Spanish club Estudiantes for the 2019-20 campaign.
Thomas has also been playing in numerous countries, including Finland, Germany, and Italy for the past two seasons. After playing for Pallacanestro Varese in 2018-19, he will move to SIG Strasbourg in France this upcoming season.
Kajami-Keane initially stayed in Canada to start his professional career with Raptors 905 before spending last season with Landstede Zwolle in the Netherlands. While overseas, he continued his winning ways, leading Landstede to their first Dutch league championship and was named playoff MVP. He is now signed with German club Mitteldeutscher BC this upcoming campaign.
The three players have also represented Canada on numerous occasions before this year’s World Cup. The Scrubb brothers played in the 2015 FIBA Americas tournament, where Canada missed out on direct Olympic qualification after their semi-final loss to Venezuela. Former Raven Aaron Doornekamp – now with Valencia Basket, was also on the national team that year and was also a team Canada stalwart over the years.
The Scrubb brothers returned to play for Canada the following year with the last chance Olympic qualification tournament. They and Kajami-Keane featured in the qualification games for the 2019 FIBA World Cup as Canada finished atop their group.
They are among five former U Sports alum on the World Cup team, with Owen Klassen (Acadia) and Conor Morgan (University of British Columbia). Ryerson alum Aaron Best was a late cut from the team.
Canada, ranked 23rd in the world, was slotted into the ‘group-of-death’ alongside Lithuania (#6), Australia (#11) and Senegal (#37) needed to finish among the top two of the Americas teams to directly qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Yet, with losses against the two heavy weights, the team finds themselves eliminated from the tournament despite having one game to play, against Senegal.
