OLYMPIC DREAM STILL ALIVE — FOR NOW
World Cup ends on sour note as Canada falls to Germany
Barring an unforeseen surprise from FIBA, it appears Canada’s dream of a berth in the Olympics remains alive.
By no means will achieving that goal be easy, but following a 2-3 finish to its FIBA World Cup schedule here, a spot in next summer’s last-chance qualifier appears to be a lock.
“It looks to us that our goal of working to get to the Olympics is still very much there,” Canada Basketball general manager Rowan Barrett said following an 82-76 loss to Germany to put a tail on Canada’s FIBA experience.
The two wins are the most Canada has had in this tournament in a quarter of a century, but there remains the feeling that it could have been so much more.
More with just a little more buy-in from some of the NBA talent with Canadian passports that opted out of the tournament for injury, scheduling or contract reasons.
More, too, with just a little more consistency from the gritty group that did answer the call for the country.
“We had moments in this tournament where we played really well and we had some times where we didn’t and that was a microcosm of our situation this tournament,” Canadian veteran Melvin Ejim said. “Would’ve liked to have played better those first two games (losses to Australia and Lithuania) and shot it as well as we did in the game against Jordan (a FIBA-record 24 three-point makes), but it doesn’t always work like that.
But I thought we came out, we played hard and we tried to give ourselves a chance.”
Kyle Wiltjer, who turned heads throughout this tournament with his shooting, had a tough start to Monday’s finale against Germany, but caught fire late to finish with 18 points in the loss.
He saw his team, blessed with just two NBA players, make steps throughout the event.
“I think it was a learning process,” Wiltjer said, choosing his words carefully. “Obviously, we came up short of our goals for this tournament, but the dream is still alive, hopefully. We have a lot of bright spots from this team and a lot of guys want to represent their country. We just want to continue to get better and keep going forward.”
In an interview earlier on Monday at the Team Canada hotel, head coach Nick Nurse gave every indication that regardless of how many NBA players answer the call next summer, the core of this team has earned the right to see the job through.
Nurse said he would look to bolster this group with NBA additions, but by no means was he looking to leave all of the men who sacrificed their summer this time around on the outside looking in come the June 2020 last-chance qualifier.
For the most part, Nurse seemed content with the overall progress from this summer.
“I think it was a very good and very wide snapshot for me, from the training camp to getting on the road and being on the road for a long time and then playing such good competition,” Nurse said. “We played great competition in Australia as well. I think we played teams from each part of the world, which was good for us, in the five games here and the seven games that we played prior to getting here.” As for anything he would like to alter looking back on the summer, Nurse wasn’t at all regretful.
“Not much,” he said. “I’m pretty happy with how we worked, how we practised and I thought we played hard.”
Dennis Schroder, the Oklahoma City Thunder point guard who leads Germany, paced the way again in this one with 21 points. Dallas forward Max Kleber had 20.
Canada’s shooting, red-hot two nights earlier against Jordan, cooled off considerably in this one as it shot just 35 per cent from the field and only 23 per cent from distance.
The World Cup now shifts to the quarter-final stage Tuesday beginning with Argentina taking on Serbia and Spain facing Poland.
On Wednesday, the U.S. will square off against France, while Australia faces the Czech Republic.