The Carlton Ravens’ Kaza Kajami-Keane drives against the Ottawa University Gee-Gees at the during their OUA Semifinal basketball game at Ryerson Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Friday March 11, 2016.Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail
To find his future in basketball, Kaza Kajami-Keane came home.
Kajami-Keane grew up in the Toronto area and like so many players of his generation went south to the United States, first to prep school and then to Division I college hoops. In summers he also played on Canadian junior national teams led by future NBA players such as Andrew Wiggins and Tyler Ennis.
In Division I basketball, however, Kajami-Keane was never more than a part-time starter, over two winters at Illinois State and a third at Cleveland State.
So last summer, the 6-foot-1 point guard headed north for the juggernaut of Canadian university basketball, Carleton. The Ravens were coming off a fifth consecutive national championship and 11th in 13 years – a rare run of dominance in any sport at any level.
Carleton, like Kajami-Keane, was in flux. The Ravens were losing their best players to graduation and a head coach to a sabbatical. And change at Carleton came alongside the continued rise of two other Ontario basketball powers, the University of Ottawa and Ryerson University.
This weekend, there's a big-time jump ball for Carleton's crown. The Canadian Interuniversity Sport's men's basketball championship final eight begins in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia on Thursday and concludes on Sunday. Ottawa was the early No. 1 this past season, before Ryerson in January reached No. 1 for its first time ever. Carleton then snatched it back, before Ryerson last weekend defeated Carleton for the Ontario title to enter the final eight as the No. 1 seed.
The seeding order following Ryerson: Carleton, Ottawa, the University of Calgary, McGill University, Dalhousie University, Thompson Rivers University and UBC.
This is the scenario in which Kajami-Keane and Carleton seek a sixth consecutive championship.
The end will be as challenging as the beginning.
When Kajami-Keane arrived at Carleton, he was the replacement at point guard for Philip Scrubb, three-time national player of the year who was at the helm of the past five titles. And the new bench boss was Rob Smart, nephew of Dave Smart, seven-time coach of the year. Rob Smart had been a Carleton associate coach and, before that, was on the court in 2002-03 as an all-Canadian point guard when he helped lead Carleton to the championship that began the dynasty.
Kajami-Keane's first game for Carleton, a narrow exhibition loss against Division I Murray State last August, was shaky, as the team's regimented system had his head spinning.
"I was completely lost," Kajami-Keane, 22, remembered. "I had no idea what was going on."
In the locker room afterward, Kajami-Keane turned to Rob Smart and said they had to talk. Straightaway, the two watched film for upward of two hours. "That's the coach that you live for," Kajami-Keane said.
It took time. "At one point," Kajami-Keane said, "I felt like I was watching film more than I was sleeping." And there were disagreements, but a bond was forged. "It's been a lot of fun," Smart said.
In Kajami-Keane, the coach has found a student of the game: "He's a basketball nut."
Kajami-Keane comes from a basketball family. Both his sisters played Division I hoops and one, Kalisha, is a successful pro in Europe.
Kajami-Keane's move to Carleton was made with one eye on a professional career. He would have been a Division I senior this winter, but at Carleton he will have one more year of eligibility next season. Kajami-Keane has never been the most athletic player and has long relied on study and savvy. Carleton has been a master class.
"I wasn't at the level I wanted to be," Kajami-Keane said. "The amount I've learned this year is something exceptional." Coming to Canada wasn't a step back, he insisted. "I think personally I'm playing for the best coaches in North America."
Kajami-Keane has shown big flashes before Carleton. In 2013, at the under-19 FIBA world championships, where Canada finished sixth, he was an important contributor on the team. He was second in assists behind Ennis, who is in his second NBA season with the Milwaukee Bucks.
At Carleton – a team with no scorer in the CIS top 50 – Kajami-Keane is a key on a squad in which each player is a contributor. He leads Carleton in scoring and assists – and ranks third nationally in assists. The team has the country's No. 6 offence and the best defence, by a large margin.
But there's unfinished business, after losing to Ryerson last weekend in Toronto. In the Ontario semi-finals, against Ottawa, Kajami-Keane grabbed 10 rebounds and tallied nine assists in an 82-74 win. Against Ryerson, however, he shot 3-for-15 and managed only one rebound and one assist in a 73-68 loss.
Carleton, over the years, relied on consistency in a core of veterans to deliver multiple titles. This winter has been unusual. Kajami-Keane is new, as is another transfer, Ryan Ejim, who had been at York and is the younger brother of Melvin Ejim, who plays in the NBA Development League and was on last summer's Canadian senior national team. There are also some rookies, and vets stepping into larger roles, Smart said.
"We try to make every year unique," said Smart, who has a PhD and is a professor in Carleton's business school. "It's important every group leaves their mark. This year's totally different."