U of S baller's unique cross-over

There aren't many two-sport athletes in hockey, let alone hockey-basketball cross-overs, which makes Saskatchewan Huskies forward Lane Manson unique.

Manson, as the Victoria Times-Colonist detailed today, began this year playing in the ECHL, but decided he'd taken hockey as far as he could, and enrolled at the U of S, where he's joined the basketball team.

There isn't much cross-over between the two sports for reason that go well beyond the overlapping seasons and the reality hockey is now a 12-months-a-year sport in Canada, let's just leave it at that. Manson's transition does give pause to wonder how many terrific athletes there are in Canada who could really thrive in another sport, but no one will ever know since they're a third-line forward or fifth defenceman on some hockey team chasing a dream. It is similar to the States, where baseball loses guys to football, even though some will never play a down in the NCAA.