Bryce MacKenzie (NB) is an absolute dime factory

Bryce MacKenzie via Tanya Everett

Written by Andrew Sharpe - East Coast Area Scout @ The Maple Minute

It can be hard to get noticed in the basketball world when you’re from a small province like New Brunswick.  Even here, we tend to wait for outsider validation before we acknowledge our own.  Fredericton’s Malcolm Christie had to drop a 50 piece before the NCAA came calling, and even now that he’s joined the mid-major ranks with Oregon State, he’s still not exactly the household name he should be.

So it’s perhaps no surprise that Moncton’s Bryce MacKenzie (class of 2028) is flying under the radar. Then again, he’s only 15 years old.  Local USports teams are already showing interest, and it’s only a matter of time before that spreads.  But, the question is, how far?

Ask any university coach, they will tell you the single most undeveloped skill in high school is passing. And even the most pessimistic has to admit that MacKenzie is an absolute dime factory.  Now, he also has a handle that can withstand pressure at the national level.  And his long ball is certainly adequate enough to get him multiple 25 pieces during his high school season, including a buzzer beating, behind the backboard, game winning flip to win the NBIAA Northeast championship and send the capacity crowd into hysterics.  But MacKenzie is most comfortable facilitating.

Most encouraging is Bryce loves the game, and plays it the right way.  That’s him, helping his teammates up.  That’s him, the loudest on the bench when he subs.  Smiling.  High-fiving.  Fist pumping when teammates make plays.  Coaching local minor teams.  Point guard attributes.

You might remember Bryce with the 2024 Canada Top Flight Academy Gold Junior Team.  You maybe even saw him selected as a tournament All-Star at the Top Gun Invitational in Ottawa.  But that was last year.  This Spring, he very nearly made Team Canada’s U16 team, surviving to the last cut.  He was selected as a CYBL National All-Star and played in this year’s showcase game in Oakville.  He made the NBIAA Northeast All-Star team in grade ten.

He’s 15.

By age 13 he was already the starting point guard for Team New Brunswick U15, and at last season’s Nationals he was second in the country in assists (4.2) and sixth in scoring (14.3 ppg).  This August he figures to be at NB’s helm again, still underage, but this time with our U17 Summer Games team.  Look for him on the leaderboards.

Yes, he needs to become more of a defensive pest.  And his calm nature can skew perception of his compete.  But there’s so much to be excited about.  MacKenzie still has two years of high school basketball to grow and develop, and it’s possible he plays a reclass year before taking a shot at the college level.

So, how high’s the ceiling?  Well, you have to ask yourself, how many teams need an old school, prototypical, facilitating floor general?