HONEY BADGERS ANNOUNCE 2020 TRAINING CAMP ROSTER

Hamilton Honey Badgers • May 13, 2020
The Hamilton Honey Badgers announced their 2020 training camp roster on Wednesday, spotlighting the team’s emphasis on building around NBA G League and Canadian National Team talent. First-year General Manager Jermaine Anderson has put together a roster that features 10 players with NBA G League or higher-level professional league experience overseas.

Four players return from Hamilton’s inaugural 2019 team that reached the CEBL Championship Final, though only Mike Fraser was with the team for the championship game in Saskatchewan last August. There are 13 Canadians and one American under contract for the 2020 season. The Honey Badgers will be led by first-year head coach Ryan Schmidt, an assistant coach with Raptors 905 the past three seasons. In addition to training numerous NBA and Canadian National Team players the past three summers, Schmidt has coached or trained several of this year’s Honey Badgers players.

Former University of Oregon standout MiKyle McIntosh, the first player ever drafted by the Hamilton Honey Badgers, returns after playing this past winter in Belgium. He’s joined by Duane Notice, who played with McIntosh with Raptors 905 two seasons ago and was also with the Toronto Raptors G League affiliate this past season. Notice played in the NCAA Final Four while with the University of South Carolina. Burlington native Caleb Agada played two games after signing a free agent contract with Hamilton last summer before leaving to train with the Nigerian National Team. He played this past winter in the top pro league in Spain. Fraser brings 13 years of professional experience back to Hamilton in 2020. He was a fan favourite during the inaugural campaign and played this past season in Poland’s top professional league.

Another former Raptors 905 standout and 2019 draft pick of the Honey Badgers, Derek Cooke, Junior, will give Hamilton another formidable frontcourt performer. Cooke passed on playing with the Honey Badgers in 2019 to sign to play in the top professional league in Italy. The lone non-Canadian on the roster, Cooke is reuniting with Schmidt, McIntosh and Notice to give Hamilton a distinctive Raptors 905 look.

Centre Owen Klassen, a veteran of the Canadian National Team program and veteran star in Germany and Belgium bolsters Hamilton’s frontcourt attack. Also up front, Anderson signed Hamilton-born Jean-Victor Mukama. A dominant player with the powerhouse Ryerson U Sports program, Mukuma has 11 pro games under his belt.

The Honey Badgers made a splash by signing the CEBL’s first-ever NBA draft pick, Justin Jackson, to a contract for the 2020 season. Jackson was selected by the Denver Nuggets with the 43rd overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft and has been with the Orlando Magic’s G League team the past two seasons.

Anderson’s U SPORTS Draft was a success when he earned the commitment of Laurentian University’s Kadre Gray, arguably the best university player in the country the past three years. Gray was expected to go first in the 2020 draft, but Hamilton was able to steal him with the sixth pick after earning his commitment. Anderson also added OUA Defensive Player of the Year forward Lock Lam out of Lakehead University, and talented guard Eric Rwahwire from the University of Toronto in the draft.

Guard Jaylen Babb-Harrison, who played collegiately at Eastern Kentucky and was with London of the NBLC this past winter, and Michael Hamilton of Hamilton round out the training camp roster. The team may add players to the roster in the weeks ahead.

Training camp and the start of the 2020 CEBL season is on a delay due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Camp had been scheduled to start April 29. Schmidt is preparing plans for practices and games this summer, while the CEBL prepares several contingency plans to play under guidelines to be set forth by federal and provincial government and health care leaders.

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