They are trailblazers, examples of the growth of Canadian university basketball, a couple of USports kids who are now professionals because they got good coaching and good competition in Canada.

Aaron Best, one of the best players to ever come out of Ryerson, and Kaza Keane, who found a path to a career at wildly successful Carleton, will proudly suit up Sunday as members of the Raptors 905 G League team, the first products of the Canadian university system to be regulars with the Mississauga-based minor-league team.

“It’s a great first step,” Ryerson head coach Roy Rana said. “Now it’s on us to keep preparing players so there’s more of them.”

Keane bounced around three American universities before Carleton’s Dave Smart said he could make him a pro. Best spent five seasons under Rana at Ryerson, played a year in Europe to polish his skills and was impressive enough in summer workouts that the G League’s Long Island Nets drafted him before the 905s traded for his rights.

Their road to the pro ranks should prove to aspiring Canadian teenagers that staying home might be in their best interests.

“We saw guys like Cory (Joseph) and Tristan (Thompson) and those are the cream of the crop,” the 23-year-old Keane said of Canadian NBA players who took the American college route. “So you definitely all want to follow in that footsteps (but) sometimes you just got to find the best situation. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. For instance, for me, I had an opportunity to go to Carleton and that was the best situation for me.

“I think for guys that see the United States as this haven, you’ve gotta just find what’s best for you and if that’s staying in the CIS, do it. If it’s going to help you, you’re going to progress, you’re going to get a good education. I got a great education from Carleton.”

And if you’re good enough, teams will find you.

“A guy like Aaron Best . . . Roy Rana did a helluva job,” 905 head coach Jerry Stackhouse said. “He came in, he’s in the right spot every time, just almost scary for a guy who wasn’t with us last year to be so ahead of the game of being in the right spots, doing the right.

“And Kaza’s the same way. Carleton, they do a good job of teaching these kids so when you get guys like that, they’re a joy to be a part of the program.”

Make no mistake, there is no tokenism here. The 905s are in the business of winning basketball games and developing players and defending the championship they won last year. They look at skill rather than passport.

“You know, we don’t do that intentionally for any sort of fan sort of approach but it always helps to have the local feel with the team,” general manager Dan Tolzman said this week. “Honestly, it’s a good indication of where the level of talent for the local players is growing. The talent pool that we’re picking from in terms of local players is getting better and better every year. It’s a great indication of the direction for Toronto basketball.

“There’s always been a handful of guys each year that are on our radar. It just so happens that a couple of ’em this year kinda fell into our laps in terms of the 905. In the early off-season open gym runs that we’ve had around here, they’ve really showed that they belong in the G-League, if not higher than that.”

Keane and Best used to be foes — the Carleton-Ryerson rivalry runs deep — but they realize they are now talismans for fellow Canadian university players.

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The system has produced a large number of players who made a living playing professionally in Europe and that’s good; having two kids from two high-profile programs playing for a G League team in their hometown and the inherent attention that will bring is another thing entirely.

“Hopefully it can be an inspiration, a goal or whatever it may be, just some encouragement to know that it is possible,” Best said. “I think the gap is closing. Both are powerful leagues to play in. The NCAA has been well-documented as an elite level to play in and I think the CIS is growing and I think it’s good for basketball across the world.”