Phil Scrubb emerged from the Carleton University locker room in street clothes on Sept. 27, 2010 while Thomas Scrubb, his brother, shot before practice. Phil Scrubb told his brother that their father wanted to Skype. They both knew the news their father was about to deliver.

Their mother Diane died from breast cancer a month into their first year at Carleton. She had fought breast cancer while her sons were in elementary school until it went into remission. It came back while they were in high school.

“(Phil and Thomas) are classy guys through and through. They never really let (their mother’s illness) look like it affected them. They were always positive,” said Jon Tagulao, who coached the Scrubbs at Vancouver College.

Phil Scrubb still won the Canadian Interuniversity Sport’s Rookie of the Year award later that year. Now, Scrubb faces another challenge. He wants to break a barrier and become the first basketball player from the CIS — the governing body of university sport in Canada — to make the NBA.

The fifth-year senior has won the CIS’ Outstanding Player three years in a row, the Rookie of the Year award and four CIS championships at Carleton. A Nov. 1 exhibition at Syracuse will be Scrubb’s last chance to make an impression against a Division I basketball team.

“I think if I’m good enough to play at that high level, then people are going to notice that,” Scrubb said, referring to his NBA potential.

Still, exposure has been a problem for Scrubb. D-I teams passed on the British Columbia native because unlike other Canadian recruits, he never played AAU basketball.

New Mexico State and the University of Portland showed interest in Scrubb and UCLA watched him play, but none offered him a scholarship.

His performance in a Las Vegas tournament during his senior year sparked some interest, but the U.S. exposure came too late and he went to Carleton.

“I don’t know if (playing in the NBA) was his laser-vision mission when he came out of high school. He wanted to play, he wanted to play at a high level,” said his father, Lloyd Scrubb. “Because that wasn’t his focus, we didn’t say if (getting a D-I offer) didn’t happen then it’s the end of the world and there’s his basketball dream, done.”

Coming out of high school, Scrubb’s jump shot came from his chest and a little left of his head, Lloyd Scrubb said, and there were some in the United States who doubted his ability to get shots off. At Carleton, Lloyd Scrubb has noticed his son moved his elbows under the ball for a cleaner, higher release.

The result was a 3-point shooting percentage of 47 percent last season, which would’ve ranked fifth among all D-I players — and the 3-point radius in the CIS is 22.1 feet, more than a foot longer than the NCAA’s standard.

Tagulao knew Scrubb was special in high school. In 10th grade, Scrubb guarded senior players man-to-man and took crucial shots. Tagulao recalled Scrubb guarding one of the most athletic players in the province and locking him down.

In the same tournament, Scrubb faced South Kamloops, the high school of Kelly Olynyk, who is now a Boston Celtic. South Kamloops’ zone with players upwards of 6 feet, 6 inches couldn’t contain the shorter than 6-foot-3 Scrubb, who carved up the zone in the paint and dominated the game.

“Sometimes he isn’t the most emotional person, it seems like he’s coasting, but there are times when he gets angry, he gets fired up and takes his game to another level,” Thomas Scrubb said.

Scrubb’s big-play ability and competitiveness followed him to Carleton, where he has scored at least 30 points against three Division I teams he’s faced — California-Santa Barbara, Memphis and Wisconsin.

He has a knack for scoring that dates back years ago, when Lloyd Scrubb would set up a Fisher Price basketball hoop and stand in the way as his sons Phil and Thomas took shots.

The father resembled Dikembe Mutombo, swatting each shot. Each block increased his sons’ agitation. They would run to their mother, Diane. And when they would, their father would just say “clean block.”

Eventually, Lloyd Scrubb would let the ball pass him and count a basket for one of the boys.

This weekend, Scrubb can make a lasting impression against Syracuse — and not just for himself.

A good showing against Syracuse could help his NBA draft hopes. Making an NBA roster could provide a route for Canadian players that don’t get D-I offers and play in the CIS. Canadians Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Ennis and Anthony Bennett made a name for themselves by heading to the U.S. before reaching the NBA.

Said Tagulao, “I think it would be huge. I think it would be a huge impact, opening up the eyes of people to how good players are up in Canada and the CIS system.”

Published on November 2, 2014 at 12:10 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati