Junior men's national team (FIBA U19 World Championship, Auckland, New Zealand)
- Two of the players who have followed Greg Francis from NEDA to the U of A, wing Rob Dewar and guard Jordan Baker, are attending the team's tryout camp.
- First-year Alberta coach Greg Francis is the team's head coach, with Ottawa's Dave DeAveiro on staff as an assistant.
- As a sidenote, Brampton native Tristan Thompson, who is considered one of the best high school players in the U.S., is listed on the tryout roster. Cory Joseph and Junior Cadougan, two point guards from the GTA who have been playing at prep schools in the U.S., are not, however.
- Saint Mary's-bound guard Justine Colley, who was a huge recruiting coup for the Huskies, is trying out.
- 6-foot-2 forward Abbey Duinker, who's attending Acadia, has also been invited.
- Laval swingwoman Elyse Jobin is the only player with CIS experience invited.
- Queen's Dave Wilson is an assistant coach.
- Here's a pretty good rundown of some of Canada's emerging women's players.
- Nine current Canadian university players are confirmed: Boris Bakovic (Ryerson), who had a good tournament with the U21 team two summers ago; Calgary big man Ross Bekkering; graduated Carleton forward Aaron Doornekamp; reigning CIS player of the year Jacob Doerksen (Trinity Western); graduated UBC guard Chris Dyck; graduated Windsor post player Greg Surmacz; fifth-year Ottawa guard Josh Gibson-Bascombe; Cape Breton combo forward Philip Nkrumah; and St. FX guard Christian (T-Bear) Upshaw.
- Guelph's Chris O'Rourke is coach.
- The long list for the women's team for the student games includes...
- In the frontcourt, Simon Fraser's Laurelle Weigl and Robyn Buna; UVic's CIS player of the year, Kayla Dykstra; UBC's Leanne Evans and Zara Huntley; Laval's Marie-Michelle Genois;
- Among the guards, Cape Breton's Kelsey Hodgson; Saskatchewan's Lindsay DeGroot; McMaster's Taylor Smith and Laval's Chanelle St-Amour.
- UBC's Deb Huband and Laval's Linda Marquis are co-coaches, with Cape Breton's Fabian McKenzie as the assistant. Ottawa assistant coach Moriah Trowell will also be a team manager.
The Men's development team reads like a CIS All Star team. They should do well if they can get cohesive.
ReplyDeleteThe women's development team has a lot of big names, too. At least eight who were or are at the top of the CIS.
ReplyDeleteActually kind of surprised that Joseph and Cagougan are not going. Maybe Marquette doesn't want him to play? On the other hand, Josephs' stock is rising by the minute - he is having a huge weekend at the Tournament of Champions (AAU) in Raleigh/Durham this weekend.
ReplyDeleteLooks like the men's team drew Italy and China in their pool. The schedule:
ReplyDeleteJuly 2, 17:30 - Italy
July 4, 17:30 - China
July 6 and 7 they will play somebody in the second phase, then another on July 9. After that, who knows at this point.
For the women, it's Austria-Slovakia-Japan in the first phase, some combination of Russia-"Chinese Taipei"-Hungary-Mozambique in round 2. If they're using IOC country codes that is.
Schedule (same link):
July 1, 12:30 - Slovakia
July 2, 12:30 - Japan
July 3, 12:30 - Austria
Then July 5, 6, and maybe 7 for the second phase.