Foreman ‘a walking double-double’

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This article was published 15/02/2023 (1104 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mason Foreman is a basketball player with some tendencies of an old-school hockey player. He appears to be very adept at sacrificing his body for the good of the team.

Playing in his fifth season at the University of Calgary, the rugged all-star forward from East Selkirk has broken his nose nine times, suffered three concussions and broken his wrist twice.

The most recent mishap came in his return to the Dinos lineup on Dec. 28 against University of Quebec-Montreal.

“I went to set a screen and a guy just came right through my face instead of coming around the screen,” Foreman said with a chuckle earlier this week. “I hit my nose with his head.”

In the same game, Foreman sustained a concussion when he took a charge and cracked his noggin on another player’s knee as he fell.

“He’s a tough kid, he’s different,” said Dinos head coach Dan Vanhooren. “He’s broken his nose every single year at least one time that he’s played for me.”

Happily, the 24-year-old is feeling healthy and refreshed as he prepares to lead the Dinos onto the floor against the Trinity Western Spartans in a No. 6 vs. No. 11 Canada West play-in game at Investors Group Athletic Centre Friday at 7 p.m.

Owing to the pandemic and Canada West’s unbalanced schedule, it will be only Foreman’s second game in Winnipeg since the start of his U Sports career.

Friday’s winner will face the No. 2-seeded Manitoba Bisons in conference quarter-final action Saturday at 7 p.m.

Foreman, the eldest son of former Winnipeg Wesmen stars Jeff Foreman and Michelle Chambers Foreman, almost took a pass on his fifth year of eligibility. A nagging injury to his right wrist (a fracture to his Triangular FibroCartilage Complex) would eventually require surgery.

Following the procedure, Vanhooren suggested a part-time approach to 2022-23.

“I said, ‘Why don’t we wait until Christmas so that you can make it through a season?’” said Vanhooren. “’We can manage ourselves until Christmas time and then when you come back then you only have to manage your body for two and a half months.’ At least then we were lowering the risk of maybe another concussion or another issue of some kind.”

Foreman agreed to the plan, having come to accept the risk for at least another half season.

“I just kind of work hard and it just kind of comes I guess with the way I play,” said Foreman. “(The wrist is) feeling better than ever and that’s kind of why we waited until December to come back.”

Foreman, named to the Canada West all-rookie team in 2017-18 and the conference second all-star team in 2019-20, has been a big part of resurrecting the Dinos’ season. Calgary went 4-6 before the holiday break without him and 7-3 since his return to lock down a post-season berth.

His production — averaging 20.7 points, 12.2 rebounds, 0.9 steals and 1.4 assists — has been stellar, too.

“He’s a walking double-double,” said Vanhooren. “Last game he was 26 points, 21 rebounds and he’s a big part of our on-court presence and then I would say a huge part of bringing some experience into the locker room — that’s necessary with the sort of semi-younger group that we have.”

Once the season is over, big changes are in store for Foreman.

He recently sat down for an entrance interview with the University of Manitoba medical school and is hoping to receive notification in May that he’s been accepted. It’s been almost 10 years since he left Manitoba for prep schools in New Jersey and Toronto to further his basketball career.

“I’ve lived away from home since I was 15 so I haven’t really been home that all that much,” said Foreman, who has graduated with a Bachelor of Science in kinesiology. “Especially because my fiancee, she’s from Victoria, so if we move back to Winnipeg it’ll be a big adjustment for her.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca