Former CEBL players and broadcaster make transition into coaching

Late last June, the Newfoundland Growlers found themselves in the midst of an eight-game losing streak.

The new CEBL franchise was winless in its inaugural season and 32-year-old point guard Junior Cadougan was feeling the effects of a long career. 

Newfoundland signed Cadougan at the outset of the season as a veteran presence to stabilize its backcourt. The Marquette alumnus was also a familiar face for hoop heads in the country’s easternmost province. 

Alongside hometown hero Carl English and former NBA big man Glen “Big Baby” Davis, Cadougan ran point for an exciting St. John’s Edge squad in the NBL of Canada from 2018-2020. In 2019, he was named the league’s Most Improved Player and helped the Edge to a finals appearance. 

However, the Growlers franchise was off to a tougher start in their inaugural season. 

Newfoundland came close to securing its first win in a matchup with the (then) Fraser Valley Bandits at Langley Events Centre but lost a tight 94-92 contest to lose their eighth straight. Cadougan played just under nine minutes in the loss to his former team and scored two points. 

Nine years after going undrafted to the NBA, the Toronto native saw the end of his playing career fast approaching. 

“No matter what I did, I just felt like my body wasn’t recovering the same,” Cadougan said. 

The Growlers had one game of rest before travelling east to close out their five-game road trip with matchups against Saskatchewan and Edmonton. 

While Cadougan rested up and prepared for Newfoundland’s visit to SaskTel Centre, Rattlers’ colour commentator Rob Lovelace was preparing in his own way. 

The former University of Saskatchewan player, coach and broadcaster said the biggest challenge of being in the broadcast booth was taking himself out of the intensity of the game to describe what he’s seeing on the floor in a clear and efficient manner.

He was on the mic as Cadougan and the Growlers lost by 19 points to the Rattlers to give them their ninth straight game.

Ahead of Newfoundland was one of their toughest matchups yet: a meeting with the two-time defending CEBL champion Edmonton Stingers, led by former Canadian Player of the Year Jordan Baker.

The Stingers proved too much for the Growlers and handed them a CEBL-record 51-point loss to close out their road trip. It was a low point for the Growlers, dropping to 0-10 on the season. 

Baker balled out and nearly secured a triple-double with 11 points, 11 assists, nine rebounds and two steals. Cadougan played just under 10 minutes against Edmonton and didn’t score. 

The Growlers would finally secure the first win in franchise history in their return to St. John’s. To close out the 2022 season, they won six of their final 10 games, including the last game of Cadougan’s CEBL playing career.

“You could push it forward but when it's your time, it's your time,” Cadougan said. “I just felt like it was time to start my new career at a young age and evolve and grow from there.”

In the 2022 CEBL Playoffs, Lovelace would call Saskatchewan’s win over Edmonton that ended a two-year run as champs and also proved to be Baker’s final game in a Stingers’ uniform. 

One year later, Baker, Lovelace and Cadougan have all transitioned from their previous roles to stroll the sidelines as coaches in the CEBL. Cadougan joined the Vancouver Bandits’ staff as an assistant coach and Lovelace made the move from the booth to join the Rattlers’ staff. 

Meanwhile, Baker was named Jermaine Small’s successor as the Stingers’ head coach after playing with the team since year one. 

Niagara assistant coach Joel Friesen and Edmonton assistant coach Denzel James also have experience playing in the CEBL before grabbing the clipboard. 



A coach on the floor

During his time on the court with the Stingers, Baker was adding a new meaning to the term, “coach on the floor”.

The Edmonton native got his start as a coach while he was still playing professionally. The former standout at the University of Alberta joined his alma mater as the lead assistant coach for four years before taking the helm of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) men’s program in the CCAA. 

Some NAIT players attended Stingers games to watch their coach play. Baker says it added pressure to lead by example. 

“If you're expecting [players] to uphold certain values and play a certain way, it sort of makes you have to do those things as a player as well when you step on the court,” he said. 

Coaching made Baker more disciplined as a player and forced him to pay more attention to details he didn’t previously consider.

“I think it made me a better player – just being able to understand what it's like looking from the lens of a coach,”  he said. 

In his final season with the Stingers, Baker was still near the top of his game. The 2020 Canadian Player of the Year in the CEBL averaged 11.3 points, 9.5 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.7 steals in 19 games last summer. 

While pacing the sideline this season, he still gets the urge to change from a suit and tie to a Stingers uniform. 

“Of course [I get the itch to play], but I think I overestimate my abilities at times,” he said. 

Baker plans to remain retired for the time being. The current Stingers roster features several of Baker’s former teammates, who were supportive of his transition from player to bench boss. 

He says his biggest strength as a coach is understanding the professional athlete experience. 

“For me being not very far removed from that lifestyle … I feel like my strength is being able to relate to the players and understanding what they need at certain times of the season — whether it's less practices, more practices, better communication [or understanding] what they're going through in such a compressed, shortened season in the middle of the summer,” he said. 

A serious back injury while playing at the University of Alberta is what led Baker to coach. While out of the lineup, he still wanted to find ways to contribute. 

“I found that being able to sort of be an extension of the coaching staff from the sidelines while dealing with the injury was rewarding in itself,” Baker said. “I realized I'm not gonna be able to play the game forever. So being able to still be a part of the team and be part of winning culture was important to me.”

“Obsessed” with the game 

A serious injury in college also changed the trajectory of Cadougan’s career. 

In his first practice with Marquette, the freshman guard tore his right Achilles.

“We're running sprints and my coach says ‘Ready, set, go.’ I took a step, the Achilles blew and I thought that someone hit me with a basketball,” Cadougan said. 

He was faced with the difficult decision to redshirt or attempt to come back. He chose not to redshirt, but the first month of the injury was rough. He says friends, family, and prayer helped support him through that time. 

“They kept me strong mentally to fight through that and it made me a stronger person in life right now in general,” he said.

After three and a half months, Cadougan returned from injury. 

“I knew that my NBA chances were slim –  I wasn't looked at the same [after that],” Cadougan said. “But going through that injury and getting back in three and a half months – that built me to excel as a basketball player and win at Marquette.” 

His career in the NCAA featured a trip to the Elite Eight and back-to-back Big East championships as the Golden Eagles’ starting point guard. Cadougan was also a frequent fixture on the Canadian national team throughout his career. 

After college, Cadougan played overseas in Georgia, Italy and Greece before returning to Canada to suit up for the London Lightning. He won a championship in London under current Bandits’ head coach and general manager Kyle Julius before signing with St. John’s. 

Coming off an injury, Cadougan credits the CEBL with reviving his career. He joined the Bandits ahead of the bubble in 2020 and made the final four. 

“Because of the exposure that the CEBL was given, I was able to rejuvenate and revive my career to get to where I am now, even as a coach,” Cadougan said.

As an assistant under Julius with the Bandits this season, Cadougan says it’s been strange changing his mindset from a player to a coach. 

However, his ability to connect with players and provide honest feedback sets him up well for a future on the sideline. 

“With my experiences, playing for a long time from youth all the way up now retiring as a basketball player – it’s just the love of the game.  I'm obsessed with it,” Cadougan said. “I may [have] left as a player, but I just want to extend it as a coach … because I feel like I owe that to the people who supported me throughout my journey and the next generation coming up.”

Giving back to the game

Supporting up-and-coming players is what drew Lovelace to coaching as well. 

As a player with the Saskatchewan Huskies, he says the team was always “voluntold” that they had to run some of the camps and clinics. 

“You just had a blast, right? You're giving back to the game, showing what you know and sharing that with these young up-and-comers,” Lovelace said. 

He finished his fifth season with the Huskies in the program’s top 20 for career points and the top 10 for minutes played.  Under Rattlers’ general manager Barry Rawlyk, Lovelace served as an assistant coach with the Huskies for two seasons starting in 2011. 

He also got his start in broadcasting at the university level with Saskatchewan’s men’s and women’s basketball teams alongside Simon Hiatt – his eventual partner on Rattlers’ broadcasts. He says playing, broadcasting and coaching all require different ways of thinking about the game. 

“When I was broadcasting and watching the game, I [would] find myself sometimes … so focused on the game, thinking about what's going on and what's happening with the movements. Then I look to my side and I see Simon's carrying the conversation,” Lovelace said.  “I’m so in the moment where I forget I gotta be analyzing and throwing in my points about what I'm thinking as well.”

The Saskatoon product has been a part of the Rattlers and CEBL Broadcast Team for the past two seasons alongside Hiatt, Heather Morrison, and Ryan Flaherty.  He is also the current president of Basketball Saskatchewan. 

He says no players or coaches have taken issue with anything he said on a broadcast – at least not to his face. Lovelace likes to joke with the team about providing analysis in past seasons. 

“I was on the sideline before talking smack about you guys. Now I gotta say it in front of you in person,” Lovelace says he tells some players. 

He says there are some similarities between coaching and providing colour commentary. He still scouts “keys to the game” and important matchups as a coach. 

Covering the league as a broadcaster also helped him gain a familiarity with the league, its players and its coaches, he says. 

“I do miss the broadcast because I had a good relationship with the team there,” Lovelace said. “But basketball is my love –  I loved playing it and I love interacting with the guys and the coaches and then being able to scheme and think about gameplay and in-game prep – I like the coaching side just a little bit more.” 

Lovelace’s Rattlers are eyeing a late push for a postseason berth, while Baker’s Stingers close out the season on the road in hopes of getting their third title.

Meanwhile, Cadougan and the Bandits host CEBL Championship Weekend at Langley Events Centre from August 11-13. 

“I’m just taking one thing at a time and trying to get this championship this season and see how it goes,” Cadougan said.