Canada’s Performance at the World Championships

October 2, 2018 ~ Aneela Khan ~ Leave a comment

The FIBA World Cup was over on Sunday and to no surprise, the United States won the gold medal. It was great to see Australia make a comeback and win the silver medal. Spain won the bronze medal and Belgium finished a historic fourth place. However, Team Canada did not fare that well. After finishing group play undefeated, they lost to Spain in the semi finals and barely beat Nigeria to finish in 7th place. This was a disappointing ending to a promising start for the Canadians and once again, the Canadians have work to do if they want to medal in these top competitions. We shall just have to wait to see the Canadians can improve and get better.

– Aneela

The Canadian Senior Women’s National Team is off to a hot start in Tenerife, Spain

September 24, 2018 ~ Aneela Khan ~ Leave a comment

The Canadian Senior Women’s National Team is 2-0 after two wins in group play against Korea and Greece over the weekend. This is a great start for the senior team who hopes to medal during these World Championships. Kia Nurse is off to a hot start as she has averaged nearly 20.5 (!!!) points per game in the two wins. Team Canada will face France to decide the winner of Group A tomorrow in the final game of the group phase. This game should be very interesting and can be viewed on Dazn OR livebasketball.tv

Listed below are the two box scores and game highlights from both games.

BOX SCORE 0F CANADA VS GREECE

Game highlights of Canada vs Greece

BOX SCORE OF CANADA VS KOREA

Game highlights of Canada vs Korea

The Canadian Senior Women’s National Team – Road to the FIBA World Cup Part III

August 30, 2018August 30, 2018 ~ Aneela Khan ~ 1 Comment

NOTE: The Canadian Senior Women’s National Team has qualified for the upcoming FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup taking place from Sept 22 – 30th in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Leading up to the event, every month there will be a preview on the Canadian team.

TORONTO – The Canadian Senior Women’s National Team is back in action. Today, they kicked off the start of their training camp where the invited players will have a chance to compete for a spot on the World Championship team.

The Canadian team is currently ranked 5th in the world and have a great shot to medal at the upcoming World Championships, so picking the right roster is very important.

I have already discussed in previous months, who I think will make the roster and what the expectations are heading into the World Championships, so for this post, I will take a closer look at the competition for the Canadians.

There are 16 teams that have qualified for the FIBA World Championships and are divided into four groups. In Group A, the Canadians will face off against Korea, Greece and France. France will be the toughest country to battle for the Canadians as they have premier talent in Olivia Époupa and Céline Dumerc. Korea and Greece are still growing their women’s basketball programs and the Canadians should be able to fare well against them in group play.

In Group B, Australia, Turkey, Argentina and Nigeria face off. Australia looks to be the leader as they have a solid roster led by premier talent in Liz Cambage. Australia is a traditional basketball powerhouse and will look to continue their dominance in this group. The hardest competition that Australia will face is against Turkey. Turkey has improved vastly over the years in women’s basketball as they finished fourth in the 2014 world championships. They are led by Işıl Alben and Quanitra Hollingsworth. Look for the Australia vs Turkey games to be competitive.

In Group C, Japan, Puerto Rico, Belgium and Spain face off. Spain will be the leader in this group as they have also improved vastly over the years and were the silver medal winners in the 2016 Olympics. They also came first in last year’s Eurobasket competition. Japan and Puerto Rico are still continuing to improve their women’s national team program. Belgium is starting to be competitive and are led by Emma Messeman. However, Spain has been dominant as of late and should easily win this group.

Finally in the last group which is Group D, Latvia, Senegal, China and the headliner of the field, the United States face off. The clear cut winner of this group is the United States. They have premier talent in Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Tina Charles, etc. They should have an easy time winning this group as the rest of the teams in this group have a ways to go before they can compete with the United States.

The Canadians clearly have their work cut out for them. After training camp, they go on to play in exhibition games against Japan (Sept. 7th) and the United States (Sept. 8th) in Webster’s Bank Arena in Connecticut. After the two game exhibition series, the Canadians will travel to France to play in a four game mini tournament against France, Senegal and the US (again) for two days. (Sept 15th- 17th)

The road to the FIBA World Championships countdown is on. There are 22 days left until the competition starts so the Canadians need to be ready to play.

The Canadian Senior Women’s National Team – Road to the FIBA World Cup Part II

Kia Nurse, Photo courtesy of Canada Basketball

June 27, 2018July 3, 2018 ~ Aneela Khan ~ 1 Comment

Toronto – The road to the FIBA World Cup is still three months away, but that does not mean that the preparations have not started for the teams. In this preview, we will take a closer look at the Team Canada roster and who could be a part of it come September.

The following players were apart of the National FIBA AmeriCup roster last year that won the FIBA Americas.

Miranda Ayim, Bridget Carleton, Shay Colley, Nirra Fields, Ruth Hamblin, Sami Hill, Miah-Marie Langlois, Kia Nurse, Katherine Plouffe, Michelle Plouffe, Jamie Scott and Laura Dally.

All in all, 12 players made the Senior Women’s team roster. But, there were some important players missing. Some were not able to compete due to the WNBA schedule. Some had college commitments.

If I take a closer look at the roster, I think about 8 or 9 of the above players will make the 2018 FIBA World Cup roster. It will also depend on how they play in training camp, which is known as Phase I and Phase 2. If you look closely, you will see a familiar name missing in the roster. Natalie Achonwa is missing and she was unable to play last year due to her Indiana Fever commitments. Other players such as Kayla Alexander can crack the roster. There are a ton more Canadian college players who are playing in the NCAA or CIS that could crack the final roster.

In order for Team Canada to do well in the FIBA World Cup, they will need a roster that needs the following: stars, glue players, defenders, and the sixth woman. Canada will get tested against the likes of other teams who have already begun practicing for the championships.

If I were to guess the final roster, it would like the following:

Miranda Ayim

Natalie Achonwa

Bridget Carleton

Miah Marie – Langlois

Nirra Fields

Ruth Hamblin

Kia Nurse

Katherine Plouffe

Michelle Plouffe

I think those names that I have listed above are guaranteed locks to make the roster. Most of them already have extensive Team Canada experience which should bode well for them in order to make the team. I have four spots left which I believe are wide open and there for the taking. Whoever plays well in the training camps and make an impression will be on the final roster.

The Canadian Women Senior National Team – Road to the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup

May 16, 2018May 16, 2018 ~ Aneela Khan ~ 2 Comments

*Note: The Canadian Senior Women National Team is in action at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup taking place from September 22nd to September 30th. This is just part 1 of the previews of the team and a new preview will be posted monthly.

Toronto – The Canadian Senior Women’s National Team has a higher set of expectations coming into competition. They will be expected to fight for a medal and show the other countries that they are becoming one of the basketball powerhouses. The women’s team over the years have had great finishes and close games, but other than that, have not finished higher than third over 32 years ago in major international competitions such as the World Championships and the Summer Olympics.

The talent level has risen over the years and this current team is ranked 6th in the world by FIBA. This shows that the Canadian team is starting to make noise but in order to truly arrive, Canada needs to show it can be a medal threat along with the top countries that are participating.

Team Canada’s roster will be a mix of young players and veterans who must be ready to play against some of the top players in the world. It is not an easy task to put a team together and have a high set of expectations but this team needs to prove itself. Their recent history in other competitions shows that they can indeed be a medal threat, but on the world stage and more eyes watching, they will need to impress.

Team Canada’s competition will be tough but with the right mix of skill, defense, team play and chemistry they can be a force to be reckoned with come September.