A second place finish in the round robin, an appearance in the title game and a complete turnaround from the 2019 season wasn’t enough to merit the Fraser Valley Bandits recognition in the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s year end awards.
The league announced its selections for 2020’s best player, coach, defensive player, Canadian, clutch player and U Sports player last week, but no Bandits were nominated
Fraser Valley finished the CEBL’s Summer Series with a record of 4-2 and then advanced to the title game. They fell short to the Edmonton Stingers in the final.
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Bandits fans online were disappointed that there was no representation from the team, which finished last in the league at 4-16 in 2019.
No offense to coach smalls but coach Julius is the real coach of the year. He assembled the team and coached them to the championship game. As a fan I saw a huge diff in quality from last year's team to this year's team. He did this during a pandemic & all in 1 yr.
— Elliot | BLM (@Elliotthemooose) August 15, 2020
The club finished first in point differential, second in total points, second in steals, second in assists, and third in points allowed per game.
Bandits vice president Dylan Kular said he was elated with his team’s performance in the Summer Series and felt that head coach and general manager Kyle Julius should have been nominated in the coach category.
Results are a byproduct of the culture you build. The culture we have built in @FV_Bandits with @Juliushoops, the coaching staff, front office, players, partners and the fans is one of the strongest in the league. There is no arguing these results.
The basketball community knows pic.twitter.com/Z2HSZvNmxG
— Dylan Kular (@DylanKular) August 15, 2020
“Head coach Kyle Julius is one of the top basketball minds in this country,” he said in an email. “To have no player nominations for individual CEBL awards, to lead the team to top three in a number of team statistical categories, to lead the team to the most improved turnaround in league history, and to lead the team to the CEBL championship game, altogether, in my eyes head coach Kyle Julius and the entire coaching staff are worthy of recognition. For that we are looking forward to 2021 and continue building towards a championship with this coaching staff.”
For more details on the awards, visit cebl.ca.
