New coach. New players. New Team.
On some nights, early in the year, the talent alone of the Sudbury Five may be able to overcome the challenges that typically accompany the above.
A pair of solid home court wins to kickoff the 2025-2026 BSL (Basketball Super League) season can certainly attest to that.
And through an opening quarter of play Saturday night that saw the Five leading the visiting Windsor Express 30-24, despite the departure to the G-League of the man who led them in scoring through those first two games (Keyshawn Bryant), it looked like coach Joey Puddister and company could clear yet another hurdle on route to victory.
Unfortunately, after going up 41-27 roughly three minutes into quarter two, the Five would be outscored 93-66 through the remainder of the contest, often looking far more discombobulated than they had at any point so far this year, falling to 2-1 thanks to a 120-107 loss to Windsor.
Jaquan Lightfoot comes to Sudbury having played the last three seasons with the K-W Titans, supplementing with off-season (at least the BSL off-season) experience in the Dominican Republic for two years.
“For this year, it’s just about letting my teammates get comfortable with me,” noted the 6’8” native of Brooklyn (N.Y.). “I’m just trying to help out as best as I can by keeping them in the same routine, the same style of play that they played with last year.”
On this particular night, the two-time BSL Defensive Player of the Year chipped in with 16 points, trailing only Charlie Marquardt (27) and Duane Notice (20) in team scoring – not that this is the primary focus of his game by any means.
“I really do try and keep it all on defense,” said Lightfoot. “I feel that the offense will come to me as I play the game, so I am mainly trying to help out on defense as much as I can. I’m not a very offensive-minded person. I try and get my teammates involved and get the whole team fired up.”
BSL veterans Latin Davis and Shadell Millinghaus hooped 28 points apiece to hand Puddister his first setback as head coach of the Five – yet another new experience for the native of North Bay and former member of the Five.
“I’m going to take it way too hard,” said Puddister with a smile. “But the best part is that we have three games this week to get back in the win column and go from there.”
There are sure to be a lot of first for the newly-anointed bench boss, who was nothing if not candid when asked about what he had learned in his short time at the helm of the team to date.
“I don’t think we have enough time in this interview to go over all of that,” quipped Puddister.
“There’s been a lot. It’s been a really big growing experience for me as a person.”
One of the learnings for both Puddister and team will involve how to hit the win column without Keyshawn Bryant, the young man who netted 63 points in two games in Sudbury, apparently showing enough to impress the Windy City Bulls (NBA G-League), the feeder team to the Chicago Bulls.
“We’re not changing our whole system around one guy,” said Puddister. “But it does make a difference, obviously, having a guy out who was a big piece. The next guy is going to step up, but it does take a little bit to get into the rhythm of things and to adjust.”
“We’ll be fine.”
The Five embark on a three-game road trip this week, making stops to face the Lake Erie Jackals (Wed, Jan 14th), Windsor Express (Fri, Jan 16th) and KW Titans (Sat, Jan 17th).
