Diego Maffia always carried a scoring burden with the University of Victoria Vikes in his first two seasons as a touted natural-born, pure-shooting guard who has drawn comparisons with similar-styled former Canadian shooting-guard legends such as Richard Bohne and Olympians Jay Triano and Karl Tilleman.
Now Maffia takes on added leadership responsibility coming into his third season. The scoring hasn’t suffered as Maffia rifled 29 and 31 points in splitting the opening sa国际传媒 West season set last weekend in Lethbridge against the Pronghorns. The Oak Bay graduate scored 11 points Friday night as the Vikes (2-1) opened at home with a 91-66 victory over the University of Winnipeg Wesmen (2-1) before 1,150 fans at CARSA gymnasium. Sophomore stretch- forward and Claremont-grad Ethan Boag led the Vikes with 17 points with last season’s sa国际传媒 West rookie-of-the-year Elias Ralph adding 12 points.
Maffia, meanwhile, now also inherits a leadership mantle on the Vikes with all-Canadian point-guard Scott Kellum having graduated.
“It felt weird at first. I’m still that shy third-year guy learning on the job. But it’s an exciting opportunity to be one of the leaders of the group,” said Maffia.
“I watched Scott [Kellum] and how he carried himself with class on and off the court. I hope to lead by example in the same way.”
That sometimes means being supportive and demanding at the same time.
“Scott was always there, but he also held people accountable, and I realized that’s part of the leadership role,” said Maffia.
That also means holding yourself accountable. That’s ever so for a shooting guard who has virtually a green light to gun it from anywhere at anytime.
“It can never be about me getting my own,” said Maffia.
“It’s about court awareness and game awareness and that means being patient and not getting frustrated and taking what the defence offers you. And working your butt off in the defensive zone.”
In Maffia’s first two seasons, Kellum handled the patented point-guard duty of bringing the ball up-court, allowing Maffia time to get open and get his looks as a shooter. It was much the same way the late UVic point-guard great Eli Pasquale allowed shooting-guard Triano from SFU to get his looks at the hoop as the back-court tandem led sa国际传媒 to top-six finishes in the 1984 Los Angeles and 1988 Seoul Olympics.
With Kellum gone, Maffia is now tasked with being more of a ball handler, a role he feels more than ready for: “I know I have the tools to do it.”
As defending sa国际传媒 West champions, the Vikes were highly touted in all pre-season prognostications.
“Because we won last season, there’s been a bunch of noise about us,” said Maffia.
“But we’re actually a young team now [three 2021-22 starters graduated or are not playing this season] and we have to be patient and learn together as a young crew.”
Meanwhile, fifth-year Ashlyn Day, who led the Vikes into the women’s sa国际传媒 West game Friday night at CARSA gym against Winnipeg after scoring 62 points in a 1-1 split last week in Lethbridge, was named both sa国际传媒 West and U Sports player of the week. Day had 13 points as the Vikes (1-2) were beaten 78-57 by the Wesmen (3-0). Abigail Becker led UVic with 20 points while Julia Schatowsky had 20 for the Wesmen.
UVic and Winnipeg meet again tonight with the women’s game at 5 p.m. and men’s at 7 p.m.
