As a high school point guard, Billy Cheng is a proven winner, having led the R.C. Palmer Griffins of Richmond to the triple-A provincial championship.
And now that's he's signed to play college basketball for the UNBC Northern Timberwolves, Cheng plans on keeping up that winning tradition.
The T-wolves added Cheng to their roster for 2011-12 as they try to improve on their silver-medal finish last season in the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association.
The five-foot-seven Cheng is a three-time provincial team member who averaged 12 points, 6.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game playing for the Griffins.
"I'm extremely excited to add Billy to our roster," said UNBC men's team head coach Todd Jordan. "He is a proven winner who has been well coached throughout his high school career. He is an outstanding student who will represent our program positively in our classroom."
Cheng's high school coach, Paul Eberhardt, is a former coach of the Capilano Blues, and Jordan said that bodes well for Cheng fitting in with the T-wolves next season.
"Coach Eberhardt had him running an up-tempo style of offence and Billy has proven he is able to make very good decisions while playing at a fast pace," Jordan said. "I think that this ability will lend itself well to the way we like to play."
Three other B.C. college teams -- Quest University, Douglas College and Langara College -- as well as Brandon University, tried to recruit Cheng. With UNBC trying to plug a huge hole at point guard now that Inderbir Gill and Matt Mills have moved on, Jordan is relieved to win the Cheng sweepstakes.
"He's extremely quick and, for a high school guy, he's played at a high level," Jordan said. "They won the provincial triple-A title, he's played on the [Basketball B.C.] provincial team for three years. He sees the floor very well, he's able to play off the screen and roll.
"We do need to try to bring in a couple younger players because our team is starting to get a little bit older and we want to make sure that we're restocking for the future so he's a guy I think could really help us."
Cheng joins six-foot-nine post Kevan Madsen of Prince George and six-foot-six forward Gabe Aubertin of Kettle Falls, Wash., as part of the 2011 recruiting class.
Madsen, the 2009-10 rookie of the year in the BCCAA, was academically ineligible to play this season, but will be back in 2011-12. Aubertin played junior college ball last year at Penisula College in Port Angeles, Wash.
