Durbansandshark
10-09-2010, 12:16 PM
Since I regularly do the CIS and Canada Basketball posts here, perhaps it's no surprise I'll take up on the Canadian men in the WBC.
Canada's "Road Warriors"--so called because of the fact that the Canadian men's basketball team constantly playing their international games on the road outside of Canada--had a very disappointing time in Turkey. They lost of their games in Group D at Itzmir. I was hoping they would at least attempt to advance out of their group with that young squad. Canada hadn't played in the FIBA Men's World Basketball Championship until this year since 2002, where they played and it showed badly. Having followed them seriously since at least the past decade, I thought with the experience in Athens pre-Olympic qualification two years ago would be the platform to perform well in Turkey should they qualify out of the Americas last year. They did of course qualify. Surely Maurizio Gheridini, head coach Leo Rautins, on down to the players had to be seriously thinking how to regroup from this debacle.
Keep in mind that Canada was among the lowest-seeded teams in accordance to FIBA's rankings. Admittedly, the young Road Warriors were in a challenging group with Spain, France, Lithuania, New Zealand, and even Lebanon posing serious challenges; the Canadians needed help from other teams during crunch time in their hopes to advance into the knockout stages. The young players are still learning how to play internationally as individuals and as a team. The Canadians are a hodgepodge of players performing at various points ranging from Finland to Greece to The Philippines to the NBDL and a few NBAers. Even coach Leo Rautins is relatively young and learning on the international scene. They played hard in all of their games with their results not being blowouts. Competitive yes, but the players resemble, for all of their cohesiveness and fighting spirit, almost like a NBDL team in their play. They are, however, a team that tries their best under a system Rautins issues that best suits them--defensive basketball. Canada lacks star power even with the NBA players in their midst like Leo's son Andy and Joel Anthony. No Steve Nash, Jamaal Magloire who is terrible despite his All-Star year in New Orleans, Sam Dalembert, or Matt Bonner, who was expected to suit up. Good players and a good work ethic don't always equate a winning team. At the conclusion of group play, Canada was down to 10 players. Newfoundland's Carl English (formerly of the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors) couldn't play due to a knee injury. Both English and Jesse Young, another no-show, are solid by international standards. Considering the adversity they faced, they did as well as they could, but could've done better.
I'm watching an on-demand replay of Canada's heartbreaking loss to Lebanon in their first game in Turkey as I write this. That game set the tone for Canada's fortunes. Close but not getting there. Even Lebanon has some FIBA pedigree now being in three straight FIBA World Basketball Championships now with a proven international coach in former Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin to boot this time around. The first half was more like a track meet with both hitting shots from the outside and with good pace. And the Road Warriors led most of the game, but then during the second half, the shot selections Canada made were horrendous as they hurriedly tried to keep their lead or come back against a strong Lebanese defence. That said, the refs missed some key calls that would work in Canada's favor. Andy Rautins was firing on all cylinders to start with but then got into foul trouble. What is needed is a stronger interior presence and better depth; they got tired because of the latter. After that loss, it became a more insurmountable mountain to climb to pull off major upsets. I'll deal more into this as I watch more on their games.
Canada could use a major roster overhaul in some key spots. Then again, maybe not. What Canada Basketball's brains trust should focus on is prepare hopefully qualifying for London 2012 from the Americas. There are some good young players emerging in Canada like Kyle Wiltjer (Greg's son), Christian Kabongo, Thompson, and Josephs, who could use a nice taste of international play and improve their fortunes with the more experienced Anthony, English, Sacre, Rautins, and Olynyk.
Canada's "Road Warriors"--so called because of the fact that the Canadian men's basketball team constantly playing their international games on the road outside of Canada--had a very disappointing time in Turkey. They lost of their games in Group D at Itzmir. I was hoping they would at least attempt to advance out of their group with that young squad. Canada hadn't played in the FIBA Men's World Basketball Championship until this year since 2002, where they played and it showed badly. Having followed them seriously since at least the past decade, I thought with the experience in Athens pre-Olympic qualification two years ago would be the platform to perform well in Turkey should they qualify out of the Americas last year. They did of course qualify. Surely Maurizio Gheridini, head coach Leo Rautins, on down to the players had to be seriously thinking how to regroup from this debacle.
Keep in mind that Canada was among the lowest-seeded teams in accordance to FIBA's rankings. Admittedly, the young Road Warriors were in a challenging group with Spain, France, Lithuania, New Zealand, and even Lebanon posing serious challenges; the Canadians needed help from other teams during crunch time in their hopes to advance into the knockout stages. The young players are still learning how to play internationally as individuals and as a team. The Canadians are a hodgepodge of players performing at various points ranging from Finland to Greece to The Philippines to the NBDL and a few NBAers. Even coach Leo Rautins is relatively young and learning on the international scene. They played hard in all of their games with their results not being blowouts. Competitive yes, but the players resemble, for all of their cohesiveness and fighting spirit, almost like a NBDL team in their play. They are, however, a team that tries their best under a system Rautins issues that best suits them--defensive basketball. Canada lacks star power even with the NBA players in their midst like Leo's son Andy and Joel Anthony. No Steve Nash, Jamaal Magloire who is terrible despite his All-Star year in New Orleans, Sam Dalembert, or Matt Bonner, who was expected to suit up. Good players and a good work ethic don't always equate a winning team. At the conclusion of group play, Canada was down to 10 players. Newfoundland's Carl English (formerly of the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors) couldn't play due to a knee injury. Both English and Jesse Young, another no-show, are solid by international standards. Considering the adversity they faced, they did as well as they could, but could've done better.
I'm watching an on-demand replay of Canada's heartbreaking loss to Lebanon in their first game in Turkey as I write this. That game set the tone for Canada's fortunes. Close but not getting there. Even Lebanon has some FIBA pedigree now being in three straight FIBA World Basketball Championships now with a proven international coach in former Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin to boot this time around. The first half was more like a track meet with both hitting shots from the outside and with good pace. And the Road Warriors led most of the game, but then during the second half, the shot selections Canada made were horrendous as they hurriedly tried to keep their lead or come back against a strong Lebanese defence. That said, the refs missed some key calls that would work in Canada's favor. Andy Rautins was firing on all cylinders to start with but then got into foul trouble. What is needed is a stronger interior presence and better depth; they got tired because of the latter. After that loss, it became a more insurmountable mountain to climb to pull off major upsets. I'll deal more into this as I watch more on their games.
Canada could use a major roster overhaul in some key spots. Then again, maybe not. What Canada Basketball's brains trust should focus on is prepare hopefully qualifying for London 2012 from the Americas. There are some good young players emerging in Canada like Kyle Wiltjer (Greg's son), Christian Kabongo, Thompson, and Josephs, who could use a nice taste of international play and improve their fortunes with the more experienced Anthony, English, Sacre, Rautins, and Olynyk.