SEASON Preview: Men’s basketball level up with exciting rookies, on the hunt for another U SPORTS medal
The Gee-Gees men's basketball team is set to start the season on Friday with a trip to Guelph. The team is coming off a third consecutive U SPORTS bronze medal and will look to improve on their success during the 2025-26 season.
Big names in Brock Newton and Owen Kenney return the Ottawa lineup. Newton is coming off a season averaging 9.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. The 6-7 forward has continued to bring energy and physicality to the Gee-Gees team.
After earning OUA and U SPORTS All-Rookie team honours in 2024-25, Kenney will look to continue his impressive on court efforts. Averaging 20 minutes per game, Kenney logged 8.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game last season.
The Gee-Gees have welcomed exciting new faces to the squad, starting with a notable transfer, Alec Phaneuf. Phaneuf was named an RSEQ Second Team All-Star after a solid fourth season with the Concordia Stingers in 2024-25. He averaged 12.5 points per game while adding 29 steals during the regular season.
Rookie Gee-Gee, Justin Tounkara, is set to make his U SPORTS debut this season. The versatile guard joins Ottawa after he averaged 18.5 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 2.0 steals per game with J. Addison Academy in the OSBA.
Other additions include Tesloch Luk, Isaac Pierre-Louis, Louis Daoust, and Kamil Dia Hantchi.
These recruits will look to fill a hole left behind from the impressive 2025 graduates. Dragan Stajic, Ankit Choudhary, Justin Ndjock-Tadjore, and Jacques-Melaine Guemeta have each left their mark on the Gee-Gees and are all playing at the professional level overseas.
Ottawa begins this season with Guelph on October 24, before playing host to Laurentian in their home opener on October 31st.
All Gee-Gees games can be watched on OUA.tv and tickets for home games can be found at tickets.geegees.ca