CEBL season tips off in Prairies with Rattlers, Sea Bears squaring off at SaskTel Centre

In the Prairies, the 2024 CEBL season is set to start with a bang.

The Saskatchewan Rattlers host the Winnipeg Sea Bears on Wednesday as both teams eye improvement on their 2023 campaigns. The game begins at 9:30 p.m. ET at Saskatoon’s SaskTel Centre, with live coverage available on CEBL+ powered by BetVictor, TSN+ and on the CEBL mobile app available for iOS and Android devices. It will also be televised nationally on Game+ and available on NLSE in the United States.

During their inaugural season, the Sea Bears took two of three games against their midwestern rivals en route to a 12-8 record and second place in the Western Conference. But Winnipeg’s success out of the gates was halted in the playoffs during a nail-biting loss to the Edmonton Stingers.

Even still, the Sea Bears enjoyed a brighter season than the Rattlers, who limped to an 8-12 record and missed the playoffs entirely.

It all shakes out to what promises to be a fascinating battle between the reimagined Rattlers against the steady Sea Bears.

The 2023 season marked the fourth straight without a playoff win for Saskatchewan after the franchise hoisted the first-ever CEBL championship trophy in 2019. 

In an effort to recapture that magic, the team recently brought back president Lee Genier, who served in the same role between 2018 and 2020. Genier promptly re-signed vice-president of basketball operations, Barry Rawlyk, who returns for his sixth season with the club.

Under Rawlyk’s continued guidance, the Rattlers made a notable coaching change, hiring Larry Abney from the G League’s Ontario Clippers. Abney, the New York native who enjoyed a 12-year pro career across the world, also previously served in a player development role with the Clippers.

Meanwhile, Rawlyk’s major on-court splash was his move to import former Toronto Raptors guard Jalen Harris. Harris, of Dallas, spent the past two seasons with the Scarborough Shooting Stars, averaging nearly 20 points per game across 22 appearances with the club.

The former NBA second-round draft pick should be feeling good heading into his debut season in Saskatchewan too after he exploded for 50 points in his 2024 G League finale with the Windy City Bulls.

Harris should maintain plenty of support around him on the court. A pair of Ontario Clippers, Elijah Harkless and Bryson Williams, are following their coach, Abney, across the border as well. Both players held significant roles under Abney, each averaging over 20 minutes per game. Harkless and Williams are both new to the CEBL, though the latter won’t make his debut until June as he completes his pro season in Israel.

Maurice Calloo, however, knows the CEBL quite well as he enters his third season in the league. The Windsor, Ont., native appeared with the Guelph Nighthawks in his rookie campaign in 2022 before moving across the country with the franchise and starring for the Calgary Surge in 2023, where he helped the team to a 12-8 record and a Finals appearance.

The 6-foot-10 Calloo shot over 40 per cent from beyond the arc in nine games with the Surge, averaging 5.8 points across 14.2 minutes per contest.

Contrasting the sweeping changes in Saskatchewan, Winnipeg is likely more than content to keep its core intact with reigning MVP Teddy Allen back aboard for a second season.

The Phoenix native averaged 27.2 points per game last season, fueled by his league-leading 191 three-point attempts — nearly 30 more than second place. Memorably, the Sea Bears star tied the CEBL single-game scoring record with 42 points in a June contest at Scarborough before raining down a record-tying nine three-pointers against Brampton 13 days later.

But Allen proved to be more than just a shooter over the course of the season as he also slotted top-10 in the league in both rebounds and steals while playing in all 20 games for Winnipeg.

Joining him in all but one of those games was veteran CEBL big man Chad Posthumus, a hometown Winnipegger whose 55 career appearances have featured 6.9 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. The Canadian, who spent time with the national 3x3 team, led the league in offensive rebounding last season.

Surrounding Allen and Posthumus is a rejigged supporting cast featuring a pair of players with NBA experience. 

Byron Mullens, 35, arrives in Manitoba a veteran of 189 NBA games, the last of which came in 2014 with the Philadelphia 76ers. In the year prior, Mullens averaged more than 10 points per game across 53 games and 41 starts with the Charlotte Bobcats, including a 25-point performance off the bench in a March win against a Toronto Raptors team featuring Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. 

Darius Days’ experience in the world’s top men’s pro basketball league is slightly different, with just four games for the Houston Rockets in 2023 under his belt. The 24-year-old from Florida was named to the G League’s second team and all-rookie team in 2022-23.

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About the CEBL

A league created by Canadians for Canadians with a mission to develop Canadian players, coaches, sports executives, and referees, the CEBL boasts the highest percentage of Canadian players of any pro league in the country with 75% of its rosters being Canadian and a record 10 players with NBA experience in 2024. Players also bring experience from the NBA G League, top international pro leagues, the Canadian National team program, NCAA programs, as well as U SPORTS and CCAA. Fourteen players have signed NBA contracts following a CEBL season, and numerous CEBL players attend NBA G League training camps every year. The CEBL season runs from May through August with games broadcast live on CEBL+ powered by BetVictor, TSN, TSN+, RDS, Game+, Next Level Sports & Entertainment and Courtside1891. More information about the CEBL is available at CEBL.ca and @cebleague on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook & YouTube.