Sea Bears add high-scoring hoopster Teddy Buckets to roster

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This article was published 05/05/2023 (896 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They call him Teddy Buckets, and for good reason.

All it takes is a quick glance at Teddy Allen’s stats and you can see why the high-scoring guard from Phoenix, Ariz., has earned the nickname. Allen, who signed with the Winnipeg Sea Bears on Thursday, averaged a whopping 27.9 points per game with the Wichita Sky Kings of the The Basketball League (TBL) earlier this year.

This will be the 24-year-old’s second season in the Canadian Elite Basketball League as he contributed 11.6 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals per contest in 2022 with the Scarborough Shooting Stars.

The 6-6 shooting guard is the seventh signing announced by the expansion team.

“He’s a great player. He’s a talented young man. He’s been a go-to guy wherever he’s been. He’s got a big reputation in terms of scoring ability. He’s also a crafty playmaker. But what I like about him is he understands the league after being in Scarborough last year,” said Sea Bears general manager and head coach Mike Taylor.

“I think when you look at our roster when you see it all come together, we’re going to have five guys with CEBL experience, and we’ll have three guys that have won CEBL championships. And I think it’s important you put the pieces in play to let players do what they do and play to their strengths. Teddy is lined up for us to be a playmaker, a scorer, and we’re really excited to have him.”

Training camp begins at the Sport for Life Centre on May 19. Winnipeg’s new professional basketball team opens the regular season at home — at the Canada Life Centre — on Saturday, May 27 against the Vancouver Bandits.

Taylor said they are close to finalizing the roster and will be revealing more signings in the coming days. So far, Allen joins forwards Chad Posthumus (Winnipeg), Simon Hildenbrant (Winnipeg), Shane Osayande (Toronto), and fellow guards Michael Okafor (Toronto), Glen Yang (Calgary/Hong Kong), and Tyler Sagl (Burlington, Ont.).

Allen is arguably the biggest signing to date as he finished his college career at New Mexico State and averaged 19.6 points as a senior to lead the Western Athletic Conference in scoring. He was also the Nebraska High School Player of the Year in 2017.

The club will also be having a tryout for local talent on May 12. It was initially going to be an open tryout, but the team has decided to limit it to 30 players. They’re hoping they can find some names who can be practice players that provide strong competition for the Sea Bears and get them ready for game day.

“We had veteran players well beyond their, let’s say, best years (reach out). I don’t want to get into specifics, but we had an almost a 50-year-old person apply. We also had 18-year-old kids apply… I think people were excited to say ‘Hey, I gave it a shot and tried out for the Sea Bears’ and we’re really thankful for all the interest. But at the same time, we wanted to focus on players that we feel like have a realistic opportunity to come in and help,” said Taylor.

Taylor said the Sea Bears have been able to sign a high percentage of the players they have targeted. A big reason for that is he believes their facilities — Sport for Life Centre and Canada Life Centre — are the best in the 10-team loop. Whether that translates to a winning record in Year 1 or not remains to be seen, but Taylor is confident they’re building a strong foundation heading into the 20-game season.

“We want to be a team that overachieves, and we want to be a team that plays great together, and we’ll see how far that can take us. Realistically, Newfoundland won five games and Montreal won six games as expansion teams last year, so we understand the challenge ahead,” said Taylor.

“However, we’ve got a good group of people, a good coaching staff, and I think we’re all excited about the challenge this year in Winnipeg.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31