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Canada U21 - Season 17

Last season, the Canadian U21 team was in a very close continental battle, but took some risks in swinging for a top 4 spot. These risks didn't pan out, and the team slid all the way out of the top 6, ending up with a direct path the the season 17 consolation round. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it gives us a slight advantage in attempting to secure home court advantage for the season 18 Americas Championships. To do this, we need to place highest out of any team from our continent, and we get a 2 game head start over any teams that arrive from the repechage (they get automatic 0-2 records).

This 2 game head start is going to be difficult for us to take advantage of, as we have ended up with two difficult games. On August 8th, we play at home against Greece, and then travel to Lithuania for a road game on the 15th. After that, an additional 6 game schedule will be created. The top 32 teams make the playoff round, and to ensure that we are one of those teams, we will likely need a 6-2 record (although several of the 5-3 teams also typically make it).

We will probably start the season with 10 or 11 players, and make additions later as needed. The main candidates for the team, and the selection process, will be covered in a training camp thread (190506.1). As I've done in the past, I plan to do write-ups on every player that joins the team this season, whenever they are officially added.

Like previous seasons, this thread will be used to highlight the progress of the U21, and to regularly direct everyone's attention to the BB Canada off-site forum for more details: http://bbcanada.forumotion.com. The artist formely known as GM-RiP (24916) is the one who handles invites to join this forum. Sign up, and send him a BB-Mail, if you are a Canadian user, and would like to join our detailed top secret discussions of all things related to the National Teams.

Season 17 is going to be my 6th season as the U21 manager, and it's been a lot of fun so far. I would like to encourage anyone who is interested to join in on the fun this season, and I look forward to many more exciting games in the near future.

Last edited by The Mogul at 8/7/2011 12:09:07 PM

Our first game started out with a solid victory, as we secured a 92-76 win at home against Greece. (16276)

The game did not start out well for Canada, as Greece pulled out to a 17-4 lead. After the openining few minutes, though, we played a lot better, and quickly took control of things. One key to the game was David Castro injuring the starting PF for Greece, early in the second quarter. Another key was an excellent all around shooting performance, led by Jim Tharp, who finished with 22 points and 7 assists.

Next week, the U21 will head out on the road, and face a tough Lithuanian team. The game will be played at 10:30 AM (server time) on August 15th. Let's hope for another good game, and some good luck in the schedule we get for the 6 games after that! :)

Last edited by The Mogul at 8/8/2011 9:52:24 PM

This morning the Canadian U21 managed to secure a great victory against Lithuania. It wasn't easy to win this game on the road, but our players stepped up, and pulled off a 97-84 win.

The game went smoothly from the opening tipoff, as we dominated the first quarter, starting out with a 31-15 lead. After that, the teams basically traded baskets, and Lithuania never threatened us at any point down the stretch.

Our key players today were probably Sanderson and Tharp, as they led our team on offense, while also playing great defense against the opposing PGs and SGs. Tharp finished with 23 points (on 18 shots) and a team high 10 rebounds, while Sanderson had 22 points (on 21 shots) along with a team high 4 assists. Our bench also stepped up, posting some great plus minuses, and guys like Arsenault, O'Dwyer, and Janelle were very big factors in the win today.

We now have a nice 2-0 head start against the teams from the Americas that drop down from the repechage round (and Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay all failed to make it to worlds, as all 4 European teams beat them out). Those teams will all start with automatic 0-2 records in the consolation round. Let's hope for a kind schedule generator, and some more exciting action over the remaining 6 games of the pre-playoff consolation round.

Last edited by The Mogul at 8/15/2011 2:17:54 PM

Today the Canadian U21 played another great game, but unfortunately, Team Srbija played even better. Despite only being down by a single point with around 3 minutes left (71-70), we were unable to hit some key shots when it mattered most, and the final score ended up being 81-73 in favour of Srbija.

Looking at how our players did tonight, Jim Tharp probably came closest to being a hero for us. He finished with 22 points (on 20 shots) along with 8 assists. His SG backup, O'Dwyer, also shot well, putting up 10 points on 9 shots. In general, the PG and SF play was also solid, while our Cs and PFs struggled against the higher skilled opposing big men.

Our record is now 2-1, but the good news is that several of our competitors also lost today (such as Uruguay and Argentina). It's likely that we'll still need to manage a 6-2 record to have a decent chance to win HCA for next season, but there's lots of season left, and we shall see how things go.

Next week, we will be heading off to face the England U21 on the road. England has a pretty good team this season, which is led by this guy: (16739976). We should be looking at another very good game, and hopefully the bounces go our way next week. :)

Despite having a solid opportunity to win today, the lucky breaks went to England, and we ended up losing 89-79. The game was actually much closer than that, until the final minutes, when England pulled ahead slightly and then padded their lead with many FTs (as our team went into extreme fouling mode).

Jim Tharp had another nice game, leading the team with 16 points (on 14 shots) along with 4 assists. Unfortunately, in general, our offense sputtered a bit, and was unable to hit enough key jumpers when we really needed them. One thing that hurt a bit was a first half injury to Joe-Max Phillips, but on the whole, it felt like a somewhat random down game for our team.

Having fallen to 2-2, we are now in a tough spot. We may need to run the table (not easy) to achieve a 6-2 record and a good position for the playoff round. If we end up 5-3 (more likely for us) then we might still be alive (depending on how other teams do), but we would likely be in a tough situation. Even 5-3 is no guarantee, but hopefully some of these very close games will start turning into victories this season.

Next week, we play Nigeria on the road (1:30 PM server time), and this is the first game this season where we should be able to overpower our opponent. In any case, it will be a change from what we've been seeing every week so far, and from my point of view, I don't mind that at all right now.

This is brutal.. Two starters injured vs Hungary.

Any reason why Breton started over Castro? Got chewed up bad at the center spot.

Gameshape!!

Any reason why Breton started over Castro? Got chewed up bad at the center spot.

But did you see the 2 beasts they were playing against at the Center spot?

Yes, huge mismatch. We need to be producing young centers like that.


Last edited by JON at 10/3/2011 3:41:17 PM

someday when i fulfill the goal of making naismith, i shall make me 1 of these lol