Seems like yesterday when Miguel Tomley was with Surrey's Tamanawis Wildcats.
Seven years and one long university career later, he's set to go pro with a team in Portugal.
This fall the six-foot-three guard, 25, will play for Maia Basket Clube, a Portuguese Proliga team in the city of Maia, located 11 kilometres north of central Porto.
"It will be my first time going to Europe in general, so yeah, my first time in Portugal," Tomley said Aug. 27 during a relatively rare trip home to Surrey.
Playing professional in Europe is a big move for Tomley, who still aims to be in the NBA one day.
After graduating from "Tammy" in 2018, the former Newton resident played at Santa Clara, Idaho and Weber State universities in the U.S.
With Idaho Tomley averaged 14 points per game in his final season while shooting a Big Sky-leading 38.3 per cent and 2.5 makes per game from the three-point line, among other highlights.
"Miggy" said his agent talked to several pro teams this spring and summer, including some in the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL).
"July was kind of when the European teams started to reach out, so it was just a matter of what situation was going to be best in terms of my long-term goals, what I want for my career, what situation kind of fits my play style the best, so we decided on Portugal."
Seeing Tomley go pro is a moment worth celebrating for the Tamanawis basketball program and school, according to coach Mike McKay, who counts Tomley among five former Wildcats to play pro basketball; others are Parm Bains, Sukhjot Bains, Sukhman Sandhu and Aurel David).
"Miguel was the Fraser Valley MVP as a Grade 10 and 12, as well as a first-team provincial all-star," McKay noted. "He trained harder than anyone we have ever had, and was always in the gym at Tamanawis and for DRIVE Basketball.
"His success is not an accident," McKay added. "Some people are professionals based on pure athleticism, Miguel is now a pro based off his work ethic. That work ethic lead him to play at the NCAA Division 1 level and receive multiple degrees. He is the all-time leading three-point makes leader in a season at Idaho Sate. We can’t wait to watch and support him in his first season as a pro and for many years to come."
Last January Tomley called it a career in university hoops at during a season cut short due to health issues.
"Obviously there are things that I wish I could have got done (in university basketball)," he said. "I wish I was able to win more games with the teams I was on, but overall the experience was great. I got to play against, you know, some of the best teams in the country — like, 10 ranked teams throughout the course of my career, a lot of teams that were, like, NCAA tournament teams, NBA players, guys who went on to be superstars. I mean, one of my closest friends and a roommate (at Santa Clara) is Jalen Williams. You see him in Oklahoma City now, and you know, you just get to meet a lot of good people. I enjoyed the whole experience down there."
His door to the NBA hasn't yet closed, insists the confident 25-year-old, who has Plan B options just in case, given his attention to schooling at those three U.S. universities (sociology and criminology for a possible future in law enforcement, maybe professional sales).
"I still have that dream," he said of playing in the NBA. "As you get older you have to change your priorities in a sense. I still think I'm young enough to the point where, you know, I want to build up my European career. Like I said earlier, my agent and I were talking about the best fit for me right now, basically putting me in a position to come up the ranks in European basketball, which is so well covered by the NBA, a lot of scouts there, and you see a lot of the NBA guys in Europe.
"So I mean if it happens, it happens, and obviously that's what I'm still striving for," Tomley added. "But at the end of the day I think that I've done well with my career so far and obviously I have a lot more to go. I'm just kind of presenting the best version of myself, on and off the court.… I'm not gonna trip over one particular thing, I gotta just kind of embrace the whole journey."
