Phil and Thomas Scrubb have become household names on Carleton’s campus and across the Canadian basketball world over the past five years as one of the most decorated brother pairs.
They are recognized as leaders of sportsmanship on and off the court. Now they have won their fifth consecutive Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Final 8 tournament, two of five athletes in history to have done this.
The list of what they have accomplished is endless now, but there was a time that was not so.
Coming to Carleton
The story of the Scrubbs at Carleton goes back to 2009 when Thomas first decided to make the journey from his home in Richmond, B.C. to the capital of Canada.
Thomas, being one year older than Phil, had to make the decision of which school to go to. He didn’t have a lot of schools trying to win him over, so he chose to go to the one he said would improve him as a player.
“I wasn’t really being recruited hard by any schools, so I wasn’t really sure wherever I went if I would get a lot of playing time, so I thought Carleton was the best school,” he said. “They had the best team and I thought I would improve a lot from being there.”
Thomas was redshirted in his first season in 2010-11, but despite not seeing any court time, Phil still saw his brother improve and decided Carleton was a perfect fit for him as well.
The two were surprised by how friendly the team was to the rookies. They said they had visions of being bullied by the older players, but on the contrary had several players like Aaron Blakely and Elliot Thompson who took them under their wing.
Friendly teammates were a nice surprise for them, but the amount of work was not.
The games begin
Both Scrubbs said their first game was not what they had expected coming out of high school.
“Our first game was against New Mexico State. It was like a preseason game and yeah, I think we lost pretty bad,” Phil Scrubb said. “I think I missed all my shots. It was tough going into that game, and I really didn’t know what to expect. It was kind of a wake-up call.”
Despite a rough first game, Phil won rookie of the year in 2011, and the Ravens won the CIS championship.
Neither Scrubb stopped improving, as their 2011-12 season proved to be even better. Phil said he found more confidence in his second season compared to his first.
“Just comfort level, just on defensive rotations and offense end stuff, comfortable playing with all the guys on the team,” he said. “Obviously playing a year of university basketball gives you time to adjust to the pace, it just makes things easier.”
Now perennial All-Canadians, Phil Scrubb has won three CIS player of the year awards, and Thomas has won back-to-back defensive player of the year awards.
Both Srubbs said they attribute some level of their success to the motivation that the other has given them. For Thomas, it was the amount of work that Phil puts in after practice.
“I think just him training so much, him having so much success when he first got here and training, I never really did that, not at the start, but once I saw him training and taking it really seriously I began too,” Thomas Scrubb said.
For Phil, it was how hard Thomas worked.
“I noticed the way he has success in the game. He competes every day in practice, all of the little things, whether it be every loose ball and again early in my career I focus on one portion of the game, but because of him I know I need to focus on everything,” he said.
Looking ahead
After all the championships, all the awards, and all the incredible games, Phil said he can’t pick one that stands out.
“Obviously the most recent one, you feel good about that one since we lost in the playoffs before, but yeah, we just kind of take it year by year and even in a certain practice it might be a really good practice, and that would feel as good as a really good game,” he said.
This being the last year for the two of them, big decisions must be made, but Phil has the same opinion on his future as he does for favourite moments.
“We’re just focusing on the next couple of games, and then hopefully we can play somewhere after. We’ll talk to Dave about it and see what our options are,” he said.
Though the future may be uncertain, the past that these two have created for Carleton can’t be ignored.
Ravens head coach Dave Smart said Phil is the most talented player to go through the program, and that Thomas is easily the smartest player.
For fellow Raven Gavin Resch, the praise came easy.
“Phil’s had success right off the bat, and he’s shown that CIS players can compete with NCAA players throughout the years, but what I think Tommy has done is he’s sort of shown that if you really want something and you put the work towards it you can get it,” Resch said.
This season was once again decorated for both of the brothers, with Thomas earning CIS defensive player of the year, while Phil was once again selected as an All-Canadian.
With five championships under their belt in five years, they have catapulted their names into the history books now.
