Kaza Kajami-Keane takes the ball up the court for the Carleton Ravens. He drives left bringing in two Calgary Dinos defenders, a move that forced the Dinos to leave one of Carleton’s best shooters alone by the three-point line.
Kajami-Keane passes the ball to Connor Wood, who knocks down the wide open shot. It’s a scene Carleton fans have witnessed for years—but one that won’t last past March 12.
Wood is in his final season, playing all five years for the Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team.
Before leaving, Wood earned himself the Mike Moser Memorial Trophy, known as Player of the Year, and was also named to the First Team All-Canadian—a goal he said he set for himself when he came into the league, and one that managed to impress his friends and family.
“It’s a big award, big accomplishment, obviously he worked really hard to get it,” said Mitchell Wood, Connor’s younger brother and teammate on the Ravens.
Although the older Wood is known among the most elite in Canadian university basketball, his path to the top wasn’t easy.
“He’s had to work really hard to get his skill level and mental makeup to where it is now,” Ravens assistant coach Rob Smart said.
Kajami-Keane said he’s enjoyed playing with Wood, and appreciates everything he’s taught—especially in shooting. In his fifth year, Wood has taken on a leadership role with the team, something he said was hard to adapt to at first.
“It was a little tough. Usually I don’t like to boss people around,” he said. “I got to step up and do some things that the guys don’t like.”
But Smart said the players listen to Wood because they already respect his work ethic.
“He hardly played his first year and second year, when he tells them you got to work at it, you got to be patient, he doesn’t have to convince them—the evidence is there,” he said.
Wood’s journey to Carleton started at a high school in Guelph, Ont., and he said he had a different playing style then.
“I was more athletic than the guys back then,” Wood said.
Smart credited the 6’4” guard with his ability to defend, carry the ball and rebound. But it’s shooting where Wood made his name—a skill he didn’t pick until his later years of high school.
“I started to shoot later, like towards Grade 11 or 12, but back then I’d just cut to the basket and try to jump over everybody,” he said with a laugh.
When coming into the league, Wood served as a backup for the Ravens, a long way from the U SPORTS Player of the Year he is today. Although, he said his favourite memory at Carleton comes from that time on the bench.
On game days, the Ravens would always have a scrimmage—the backups against the starters. As expected, Wood said the backups would lose handily, but on one particular day in his first year there was a different result.
“Game days we always split up starters and bench guys, and we ended up beating them that one day,” Wood said with a laugh. “Everyone was really fired up, that was really exciting because that was my first year . . . so that was the only time we actually beat them.”
Playing against Wood in the scrimmage was Phillip and Thomas Scrubb and Tyson Hinz—Ravens legends—all of whom are playing professional basketball overseas, something Wood said he’d like to do as well.
“Hoping to go pro, so we’ll see where that leads, we won’t figure out everything till obviously after the season,” he said.
