PRSPECTVES: Make Room for Rhooms: Aaron Rhooms Cracks the U SPORTS Top 25 Scoring List
A farewell to Bo Bichette, Canadian skeleton racing drama, men’s volleyball marquee matchup
The U SPORTS men’s basketball all-time top 25 scoring list has a new name: Aaron Rhooms.
The 6’6 TMU guard cracked the top 25 Friday night in an 87–80 loss to the Ottawa Gee-Gees, amassing 21 points in the defeat, and further etched his name up the all-time scoring ladder on Saturday with 18 points in a 77–65 loss against the Carleton Ravens, only putting him 23 points away from moving to 20th all-time.
Quick rundown: After the weekend, Rhooms now ranks 23rd in the all-time scoring rankings with 1,777 career points, passing notable names such as Ozzy Omar (Cape Breton University — 1,762 points), Phill Scrub (Carleton — 1,742 points), Diego Maffia (UVic — 1,703 points), and Jordan Baker (Alberta — 1,689 points). He becomes the third player in TMU history to make the top 25 among TMU legends Boris Bakovic (2nd — 2,280 points) and Jahmal Jones (24th — 1,773 points), which now puts him second on the all-time TMU points list. And if that wasn’t enough — he is also the only active U SPORTS player on the list.
The impact: Across his five-year stint at TMU, the Toronto native has stacked accolade upon accolade.
OUA Player of the Year (2024–25)
Three-time OUA First Team All-Star (2021–22, 2022–23, 2024–25)
First Team All-Canadian (2024–25)
U SPORTS Rookie of the Year (2021–22)
OUA Rookie of the Year (2021–22)
Not to mention, beyond his U SPORTS career, he has spent the last three summers in the CEBL (2025 — Edmonton Stingers, 2024 — Edmonton Stingers, 2022 — Scarborough Shooting Stars).
The offensive juggernaut has posted 300-plus points in his first four seasons at TMU, with 270 points (and counting) this season.
2021–22: 325 points — 20.3 PPG
2022–23: 445 points — 18.5 PPG
2023–24: 399 points — 16.6 PPG
2024–25: 518 points — 21.6 PPG
2025–26: 270 points — 19.3 PPG
With eight games remaining, Rhooms currently ranks fifth in both total points and points per game in the OUA — raising the question: will Aaron Rhooms repeat as OUA MVP?
A Love Letter to Bo Bichette ❤️
The Toronto Blue Jays, and Canada as a whole, bid farewell to one of its most beloved stars this past Friday — Bo Bichette.
Quick rundown: The big question that pondered the minds of Blue Jays fans this offseason, aside from the Kyle Tucker sweepstakes, was whether or not they would re-sign shortstop Bo Bichette. The answer left Blue Jays fans in heartbreak.
It was announced last Friday that Bichette would be signing a three-year deal with the New York Mets worth $126 million, with opt-outs after years one and two, a $5 million opt-out bonus, no deferrals, and a full no-trade clause. He will be playing third base and joining an infield that includes former Blue Jay Marcus Semien.
Bichette has spent all seven years of his career with the Blue Jays, being drafted by the franchise in the second round of the 2016 MLB Draft.
His accolades with the Jays include:
Two-time MLB All-Star (2021, 2023)
Two-time American League hits leader (2021, 2022)
Amid all this, he has built a reputation of being one of the most consistent hitters in the American League.
His relationship with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been one of the more memorable duos in franchise history, reminiscent of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan’s relationship in the pre-2020 Raptors era.
He wrapped up his career with the Blue Jays, slashing a .294 batting average, with 111 home runs and 437 RBIs.
🤝 Bo Bichette.
Canada’s Skeleton Team Cleared of All Allegations 🇨🇦
Last week, it was announced that the Canadian Skeleton team has been cleared of any wrongdoing related to the incident at the IBSF North American Cup in Lake Placid a few weeks back (Jan. 7–11).
Quick rundown: Team Canada was accused of intentionally pulling its athletes to protect its Olympic qualification when head coach Joe Cecchini pulled four of his six athletes from Sunday’s race. The decision raised flags among Canada’s competitors — most notably five-time Olympian Katie Uhlaender.
The general concern stemmed from the belief that Cecchini deliberately pulled his athletes solely to reduce the number of qualifying points available to other competitors while increasing Canada's qualification odds, triggering an investigation by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF). However, under IBSF, teams are able to pull athletes at any time during competition; therefore, Canada was not in breach.
Canada cited “athlete welfare” as the main reason for withdrawing its athletes from the race.
The impact: As a result, Uhlaender secured only 90 points instead of 120 due to the reduced field. More entries would have added to the total standing points available, thus increasing her chances at a bid for a sixth Olympic Winter Games appearance — a feat that would have given her the most Olympic appearances (six) of any skeleton racer in history. Uhlaender, who ended up winning the race that Canada pulled its athletes from, failed to qualify for Milano Cortina.
Canada will field a team of three: Josip Brusic (Okotoks, Alta.), Jane Channell (North Vancouver, B.C.), and Hallie Clarke (Brighton, Ont.). It will be Channell’s third Olympic Games, while Brusic and Clarke will be making their Olympic debuts.
Marquee Matchup - UBCO vs TWU 🏐
The Heat and the Spartans face off in a back-to-back this weekend in the Okanagan in what is guaranteed to be a must-watch.
Quick rundown: UBCO comes into the weekend as the No. 3-ranked team in the country and tied for the best record in Canada West at 13–1. Their only loss of the season came against the Alberta Golden Bears on opening weekend in early October. The Spartan faithful hold a 12–2 record and head to Kelowna as the No. 2-ranked team in the country, only behind the UBC Thunderbirds, who gave them one of their two losses, with the other coming at the hands of the Golden Bears in the first semester.
Players to watch: There are two names that will have a big impact on the result of this weekend — and that’s UBCO’s Seba Manuel and Trinity’s Kaden Schmidt. Schmidt has put up massive numbers this season with a kill total of 273 — 78 more kills than the next closest player in U SPORTS — and a points-per-set average of 5.7, a full point ahead of the next. Seba Manuel has recorded 193 kills this season, ranking third in the category, while ranking eighth in points per set with 4.1. Both players are early candidates to win player of the year — though most would argue that Schmidt has already separated himself as the favourite. Both will be key pieces, if not the deciding factors, for their respective teams heading into this weekend.
What’s going to be even more interesting than the two-player headline of this matchup is how both teams will utilize their other pieces. Players like Cory Schoenherr and Thys Westrate will be critical in both offenses. The two middle blockers both rank second on their teams in kills and will be key in both producing offensively and drawing attention away from Manuel and Schmidt.
So who you got?
Quick Hits
🏀 Four nationally ranked men’s basketball teams lost to unranked opponents this past weekend. U of T defeated the No. 8-ranked Ottawa 80–77, Waterloo took down the No. 3 Western 82–74, Laval defeated the No. 2 Bishop’s 81–79, and Lakehead beat the No. 8 Brock Badgers 74-56.
🏒 Former TMU Bold defenceman Greg DiTamaso will be suiting up for the Italian men’s hockey team at the 2026 Winter Games. He is a former OUA West first-team all-star, OUA all-rookie, and OUA West top defenceman.
🏈 Laurier football offensive coordinator Todd Galloway has been selected as the next head coach of the program. Galloway is taking over following the departure of Michael Faulds, who stepped down as head coach to become Western's next head coach.
🏀 Algoma University broke the longest active losing streak in U SPORTS men’s basketball this past week after defeating Laurentian 76–71. The Thunderbirds snapped a 36-game losing streak, with their last win dating back to Feb. 16, 2023, when they took down Windsor 88–83.
