The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's basketball team opens their 2015-16 regular season campaign this Wednesday, November 4 as they travel to take on the Ryerson Rams at Mattamy Athletic Centre.

Toronto returns home the following Wednesday, November 11 as they host the Waterloo Warriors in their 2015 home opener at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport. Advance tickets are on sale here. 



Tip off is scheduled for 8 p.m., on both nights, with every OUA basketball regular season game slated to be streamed live on OUA.tv. 

"I think we took a big step last year having qualified for the playoffs," said John Campbell, who enters his third season as Blues bench boss. "While we didn't win, it showed that we were ready to compete at a fairly high level."

Fourth-year forwards Devin Johnson and Manny Sahota return to the Blues this season. Johnson, a 6-foot-4 native of Ajax, Ont., led the Blues and ranked ninth in the OUA with 17.4 points per game, while also ranking third in the province with 9.4 boards per game last season. He earned OUA all-star honours in 2014-15.

Sahota ranked third on the squad with 11 points per contest last year and he, along with third-year forward Kwasi Oti-Awere, will look to lead a new group of Varsity Blues this season.

That new group includes the likes of 6-foot-10 forward Miroslav Jaksic from Windsor, Ont. Jaksic is a transfer from Grand Canyon University and averaged 9.6 points and 4.6 boards over nine pre-season contests.

Also new to the Blues is Stockholm, Sweden native Daniel Johansson. The 6-foot-7 forward has played over 30 games for the Swedish youth national team and was a member of the 2012-13 Solna Vikings, which play in the first division in the Swedish league.

Toronto native Sage Usher returns for his sophomore season at U of T. Usher was named a member of the 2014-15 OUA all-rookie team after leading the Blues with 66 assists and 23 steals. He welcomes former teammate Devon Williams to the team.

A native of Sharon, Massachusetts, Williams was awarded all-NEPSAC AA second team all-league honours and earned honourable mentions three times during his time at Worcester Academy. This past season, Williams moved to the AAA team at Brewster Academy.

Rounding out a trio of rookie guards are Toronto natives Nikola Paradina and Wilson Torres. Paradina won the 2015 OFSAA 'AAAA' championship title as a member of the St. Michael's College School, while Torres comes from a strong Jarvis C.I. squad, which saw him earn MVP honours the last two years.

"The biggest thing for us right now is to get a little bit tougher and a little bit smarter," added Campbell. "We have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball and a bit better job of rebounding the ball. I think if we can address those things as we develop over the course of the year, then hopefully by the end of it we'll be in a position to compete with anyone."

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