New-look Lightning fresh for Windsor series

Around the Perimeter: With Newfoundland trip canceled due to snowstorm, Lightning get rare 11-day break; Roster changes aplenty — including major trade; Will energy level improve? London-born Howson finally honoured …

(Photo: Barry Field Photography).

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STARTING FIVE

1. Bolts’ energy like a faucet. It was a statement win. Playing with just eight bodies (and then seven when Billy White was ejected with 8:25 left in the second quarter), the Lightning took it to the Sudbury Five – on the road – two Saturdays ago (Feb. 10). They led by 10 after the first quarter, and were up by 21 when the veteran White was shown the door with two straight technical fouls.

That could have been a turning point. Down to seven players, London could have let Sudbury back in the game and, eventually, lost bitterly and cursed their way back home on a long bus trip. But they didn’t – and head coach Doug Plumb loved every minute of it. 

“As soon as Billy got thrown out, I said to Dave [Sewell, assistant coach] on the bench, ‘Well, this is a ballgame now.’ But the guys stepped up. The level of energy was really good to see.”

During a timeout, Plumb says, a fired-up Jeremiah Mordi rallied the troops to keep pouring it on despite being down to seven players and losing a key player for the night. Shadell Millinghaus then chimed in, too. On the court, they didn’t slow down. The Lightning entered halftime with 75 points on the board and a 19-point lead. And then they turned it up another notch in the third quarter, putting up another 42 points. At one point in the fourth, they led by 36. They won the contest, 141-125.

Millinghaus finished with a 34-point, 10-rebound double-double. Rashad Smith exploded for 37 points on 11-of-24 shooting off the bench. (Both his points and 10 three-pointers made accounted for new BSL highs and earned him league Player of the Week honours).

“It was more than about just that game,” Plumb said about his team’s fight. “For the part of the season that we’re heading into, you hope that you’ve started to formulate an identity. I was a little nervous about that, that level of dog on a night-to-night basis.”

All was good. Until … the Five made the trip to London three nights later and beat the Lightning on their home court, 104-101. Same teams. Same players. Heck, London had Billy White the entire game that time around. And yet it was a much different result. The energy wasn’t there for the Lightning, and it cost them.

That’s been an ongoing theme this year for the squad. Will the energy be turned on or turned off on any given night? As promising as Saturday’s win was for Plumb, the coach was just as disappointed by the team’s effort Tuesday. Since London’s eight-game win streak in January, they’re 2-3 in their last five – with each of those losses coming on home court.

Tuesday’s game should have Plumb nervous again. He’s been vocal about his desire to bring more energy to the team. In other words, don’t be surprised if there’s a roster shakeup as the season progresses.

(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

2. Roster rotation. Speaking of player personnel, there were a couple of moves even before London’s disappointing loss against Sudbury on Feb. 13 – though the main one was unrelated. Mike Nuga, last year’s Sixth Man and Canadian Player of the Year in the NBLC, left the team to pursue another pro opportunity. It came with the organization’s blessing, although the timing, in the middle of a season, is unfortunate, in terms of having to replace a solid player off the bench.

Nuga, who averaged 15.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in 13 games this season, is off to Bosnia to play for a team coached by the Nigerian national team’s assistant coach. Nuga has aspirations to play for Nigeria in international competition.

“It’s a good opportunity for him, in terms of where he wants to go in his career,” said Plumb. “I always say to guys, 1A is I want to win a championship and 1B is I want to get guys to higher-level leagues and help them reach their goals.

“I made him do his due diligence in looking at where he’s going. I hope it goes well for him, and I wish him the best. He’s obviously been really good for us in the year and a half that he’s been here. I think Mike’s ready to take the next step in his career.”

In a corresponding move, the Lightning announced they’d signed Baden Jaxen, who has a long resume of overseas pro experience. Jaxen, a Newark, New Jersey native, has played in France, Greece, Russia, Cyprus and Latvia, among other stops. In 2015-16, he played in the NBLC for the Moncton Magic.

A three-year starter for the North Carolina Tar Heels, Jaxen, now 33, was recently training with his alma mater to get in game shape. Plumb believes he’ll bring veteran presence to the team.

“He’s a vet with great pedigree. I think he’ll be a stabilizing force for us off the bench as we enter a critical part of our season,” the coach said. “We’re very happy to have him, and we’re looking forward to immersing him into what we do quickly.”

Though he didn’t suit up last Tuesday, Jaxen is ready to go now. Freddie McSwain Jr. continues to be out with injury, while the team released Amir Yusuf last week. In 13 games, Yusuf averaged 8.0 points and 3.6 rebounds in just 11.7 minutes per game. 

3. And then the big move. This past Wednesday, the Lightning made a surprise trade, acquiring Chris Jones from the Windsor Express in exchange for Shadell Millinghaus.

It certainly came as a surprise to fans, who have voiced a fair amount of displeasure about the deal. Millinghaus, after all, had quickly become a fan favourite in London this year, thanks to a combination of his scoring prowess and his energy and enthusiasm on the court.

And Chris Jones? Fans know him well, too. The former Lightning player won a championship in London in 2022, but that came at the end of a chaotic season in which he was suspended by the NBL of Canada for an altercation in Sudbury, during which he was cited to have used profanity, threw a water bottle at and spit at a referee. In 2023, he lasted just one game before being suspended for the entire year due to a physical altercation with Sudbury’s head coach, Logan Stutz.

It’s a trade that comes with risks, Lightning management admits. But they believe it will ultimately make the team better in its quest for a championship for a third year in a row.

“We’ve known Chris for years. We know what he can do on a basketball court. We know he comes out and competes on both ends of the floor. He puts everything he has into the game,” said Lightning GM Mark Frijia. “Shadell has really endeared himself to the fans in London. But in every deal, there are a lot of moving parts the fans don’t see, but essentially, we made the best move we could in the situation we had.”

Added Plumb: “Chris comes with his problems, for sure. But I know what I am getting with Chris. I know that he’s a winner. Probably just short of (former Louisville head coach) Rick Pitino, I have the best relationship with him of any coach he has ever had. He respects me. He respects the organization. I really believe we will be getting the best version of Chris.”

After a trade, Chris Jones and Shadell Millinghaus (shown guarding each other here) will be wearing the opposite uniforms Sunday (and Tuesday) when London takes on Windsor in a home-and-home series. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

4. Never too late. It was a moment 60 years in the making. On Feb. 23, Barry Howson was recognized by Canada Basketball as the first Black player to play for the Canadian national basketball team. The ceremony was held at the FIBA Americup 2025 Qualifiers in St Catharines (where the Lightning’s Jermaine Haley Jr. is a member of the Canadian squad).

Howson, a London native and Western alumnus, was a member of the 1964 Canadian Olympic basketball team – yet his personal story and historic achievements were forgotten by the basketball establishment for more than half a century. (They even honoured the wrong guy.)

Howson is thrilled that all those oversights have been corrected, however. Rowan Barrett, Canada Basketball GM, recently visited Howson in his Sarnia home to deliver the news.

It’s strange to say, but basketball is only part of Howson’s incredible legacy. Be sure to read the story that helped revive the memory of this Canadian legend.

5. Crowded house. Complain all you want about the size of the crowds in London (and they have been thin), but fill the bottom bowl to the top rafters and it’ll never be what Lightning rookie Andrew Gordon has seen in his career.

The 6-foot-10 Bolts centre played in front of some wild crowds during his university career. WVU Coliseum in West Virginia. Allen Fieldhouse at Kansas. Maravich Assembly Centre at LSU. But those environments seem like small town libraries compared to his time on the courts of Europe, suiting up for BC Spartak Pleven (Bulgaria) and KB Trepça (Kosovo).

“It was wild. Every night. You get the feeling you’re in a zoo there. You almost don’t feel safe. I remember a couple times we had to get extra security to sit behind our bench. They would put tarps over the players to keep people from spitting on us. It’s a different environment, for sure.”

Some of the biggest challenges were cultural – social norms and regulations around spectator sports expected here are, shall we say, less common in Eastern Europe.

(Photo: Barry Field Photography).

“Some countries don’t regulate smoking indoors – the fans in some of these places are smoking throughout the game,” Gordon laughed. “When you talk about having to be conditioned, not only do you have to run up and down the floor, but you run up and down the floor breathing in second-hand cigarette smoke. It’s crazy.”

And smoking, he continued, might be the easiest part.

“They light off fireworks. They're fighting in the crowd. They're hanging over the wall. It's so much easier to get distracted playing over in Europe in those types of crowds than anywhere else. One minute you’re on the court, and next thing you know it sounds like a gunshot went off in the crowd. The first time that happened to me, I stopped on the court. I just stopped and looked around – and the game kept going on. Everybody else, they didn’t even blink. It's just normal.”

Amid the chaos, however, Gordon found a lot of joy playing amid such passion.

“Once you get used to it, it's a lot of fun. You can really feel the floor shaking. They take it super serious. There were a lot of crazy situations. Like, the other team’s bus got stolen by fans once. You have to be on point over there.” 

Despite the stories, Gordon prefers the, shall we say, tamer London crowds.

“They keep it basketball. You might get boos here and there, but that's normal. That's basketball. Over there, I wasn’t sure I was getting home every night.”

UPCOMING GAMEDAYS

2:00 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25 at Windsor Express

7:00 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27 vs. Windsor Express

7:00 p.m. Friday, March 1 vs. Newfoundland Rogues

2:00 p.m. Sunday, March 3 vs. Windsor Express

BEYOND OUR BYLINE

Just an amazing story about the race to find four kids who survived a plane crash deep in the Amazon – reads like a movie, which means it probably will soon be on a streaming service. Check our Mayday / iracle in the Jungle by William Ralston of The Atavist magazine. (This is actually a cool magazine that publishes a cinematic longform story about every month. Worth a bookmark and an occasional visit.)