As CEBL goes global, the Bandits do too, hiring European stalwart Mike Taylor as coach

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The Canadian Elite Basketball League is now going global with its search for players.

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It makes sense the Fraser Valley Bandits did the same with their coaching search.

The Bandits announced the hiring of former Poland national team head coach Mike Taylor on Wednesday, giving the club a coach that general manager Kyle Julius called “the best in the league.”

The CEBL tweaked its roster rules for this season, with one of the 10 spots on the active roster going to an International Player, basically anyone without a Canadian or American passport. Dual citizens of either country will still be considered domestics.

“I don’t think there’s a better coach than Mike for a scenario like this where we’re looking for international players,” Julius said from Changhua, Taiwan this week.

“I think it’s a really exciting rule. We’ll see a whole different set of recruiting tools from teams and talent that way. If you go around the really good leagues in the world, you’re seeing them bringing in really good Americans as pieces… they’re signing Americans to come off the bench. Now their locals are the main guys. That (talent) gap is closing and I think you’ll see it this summer. You’ll see teams where that international player is a very special player.”

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Taylor, 49, has spent the better part of the past two decades coaching in Europe, including the last seven with the Polish national team. When he took over the program in 2014, they were ranked 42nd globally. When he left in September, they were ranked 14th and had a long list of accomplishments under their belt. The Williamsport, Penn., native did the same while coaching basketball in Germany, helping Chemnitz, Ratiopharm Ulm and Hamburg to promotion — moving up to the league a tier above.

“I’ve known Mike for a long time and he’s a coach that I’ve looked up to for a long time. I’ll say this: He has a world-class resume, and he is a world-class human being,” said Julius. “He has had a lot of success, obviously. … But the vast majority of that success is really related to the kind of person he is. Everywhere he goes, people love him. And I just think that we are really fortunate to be able to bring him on board and have him lead our charge.”

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This isn’t Taylor’s first coaching gig on this side of the Atlantic; I have spent three seasons in the G-League, working alongside coaches like Doc Rivers and Brad Stevens. But this will be his first job coaching him in Canada — although he scouted here early in his career. When an assistant at the University of Indiana (Pennsylvania) in the 90s, he mined Canadian schools for talent, even coming across a deadeye shooter at Cathedral High School in Hamilton by the name of … Kyle Julius.

“That was the first time I saw him. I’ve always followed him from that time,” said Taylor. “And now, being a colleague and getting to know him and following his playing career, coaching career, we would bump into each other in Vegas at summer league and things like that, so there’s always been the knowledge and contact. When he reached out and I was really happy to catch up with him and talk about the chance in Fraser Valley.”

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The Bandits were a layup away from making the finals last season — their season ending at the hands of a Phil Scrubb three-point dagger that lifted the Niagara River Lions to a come-from-behind Elam Ending winner — despite a late-season swoon and losing coach Dave Singleton to COVID just before the playoffs.

Taylor and Julius hope to bring back some core players, returnees like Marek Klassen, Malcom Duvivier and Brandon Gilbeck, but the fluid nature of international basketball contracts means there are no guarantees. But Taylor is excited regardless.

“You’re working with guys who are trying to build their careers. The league is on the rise, and obviously Canada basketball for the last decade has been on the rise,” said Taylor. “There’s many many positives, but in general, I just looked at it and said ‘Hey, this looks like a fun league.’

“The league is improving is going to grow, it’s going to develop, it’s going to improve. And I really enjoyed my time interacting with Kyle, I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen with (president) Dylan (Kular), so I know there’s quality in Fraser Valley. It’s something to say ‘Hey, let’s let’s make a run at it and hopefully we can have a fun summer.’”