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Even as the sporting world ground to a halt due to COVID-19, Sudbury Five guard Jaylen Bland kept moving forward.
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“I did a lot of cardio, a little bit of weightlifting when I could, tried to find shots here and there whenever I could,” said the 29-year-old from Saginaw, Mich., shortly after practice on Friday. “I tried to get into a gym anywhere I could, because a lot of the gyms I usually would go to were shut down.
“It was tough, I must say, it was tough. But mentally, you got to be tough and you got to wake up every day and put yourself to work. You have to know that better days are ahead and you still have to set goals for yourself, things you want to accomplish, and you just have to keep that in mind and keep going, and that’s what I did.”
He pictured himself back with the Five, back in the National Basketball League of Canada, where the talented 6-foot-3, 218-pounder was named Newcomer of the Year in 2018-19, then a second-team all-star in the 2019-20 campaign that was cut short at the onset of the pandemic.
“I would picture myself on the court, running, being fourth-quarter tired, stuff like that, just visualizing stuff,” recalled the UC Riverside alumnus. “I feel like that helped me a lot.”
It certainly seems to have helped the Five. Bland returned to the Nickel City as the same scoring threat he was two years ago, with a league-high 26.5 points per game through 13 contests, but also a more mature, more well-rounded player.
He’s second in the league in assists per game, with 5.5 as of Friday afternoon, and first in steals, with 2.3. He’s also sixth in the entire NBLC in rebounds, despite giving up several inches in height to almost every other player in the top 10.
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Even in games where his shot hasn’t fallen as often, such as a contest in Kitchener this past Sunday that saw him go seven for 25 from the field and three for 16 from outside the arc, Bland has been a key contributor. He still scored 23 points, but also added 13 rebounds — 10 of those under the defensive boards — along with two steals and two blocks in a 110-104 victory over the KW Titans.
“I have been able to showcase that I can do more than just shoot the basketball,” Bland said. “It has been a key point for me this year and I feel like it has been going well. I have had my career high in assists this year and I’m feeling like a better player all around as far as steals and rebounds, as well. I’m having fun and still putting up good numbers, a complete stat sheet.”
It’s a result, he said, of both effort and opportunity. Bland appreciates the trust shown in him by head coach and general manager Elliott Etherington, who has made him a starter in each of his appearances this season, and he trusts his teammates in turn.
“It’s putting in the time, putting in reps, but also learning and growing from your mistakes,” Bland said. “I watch film and try to see stuff I might have missed and I try to be better the next time around, and I think I have become much better at putting my teammates in a position to be successful this year. That’s what’s making me the most happy.
“I have the utmost confidence in all of these guys. We have got some elite shot-makers and elite scorers. I know what they can do, they know what I can do, so it’s easy to make the right plays.”
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While Etherington is admittedly biased, if Sudbury’s bench boss had a vote for MVP, he just might cast it for Bland.
“We can definitely tell how much he has worked on his game,” Etherington said. “He’s a complete guy. If you look just statistically, he’s leading the league in points and steals, he’s just outside of the top five in boards and he’s top three in assists — he does everything out there for us. He’s a great player and a team-first guy and it’s part of our success.”
While always a positive presence on the court or in the locker room, Bland has asserted himself even more as a leader while helping the Five amass a record of 12-9 heading into a home game against the London Lightning on Monday night.
Game time is 7:05 p.m.
“With his ability to talk to the guys, communicate and lead by example, too, he has made huge strides to become a great player in every aspect,” Etherington suggested. “It’s more than what he does on the court, but also what he does off it. “
That kind of composure has served the team well whether leading from pillar to post, as they did in a home-court win over the Titans last week, or battling from behind, as they did on Sunday.
“We have some vets and some experienced guys who have played elsewhere and I feel like that has helped us in this setting,” Bland said. “Even when we get down, we don’t panic, we don’t argue, we don’t fight and bicker with each other. We discuss what we need to do to be better and we get it done. That’s what we’ve done all season and when we’ve got a complete team, I think it’s tough to beat us.”
While still focused on their remaining regular-season matchups and on securing home-court advantage in a best-of-five first-round series against the Titans, Bland and his teammates are more than eager to play playoff basketball — something they were denied when COVID first took hold.
“I’m ready to get it going, to be honest,” he said with a smile. “Six wins and a ring — you can’t ask for anything more. That’s easy to me. I think we can get that done.”
Twitter: @ben_leeson
'He's a complete guy' — well-rounded Bland a big part of Five's success - The Sudbury Star
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