Sunday 17 June 2007

Canada Basketball Durham College Camp Update

The workouts continue in Oshawa as Canada Basketball looks to fill rosters for a series of international competitions this summer. While many of the Senior Men's team veterans who could play for Canada this summer such as Rowan Barrett, Carl English, Juan Mendez and Samuel Dalembert are not at this camp, a strong contingent of young players, including several with CIS ties, are battling to continue to seek a spot on the roster for the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifier in Las Vegas between August 20th and September 2nd. First major tournament of the summer for the Senior Men's team is the Pan-Am Games in Rio de Janerio, Brazil between July 20th and 30th and expect several of the participants in this camp to play for Canada at that competition. Carleton's big three of 6'2" Osvaldo Jeanty, 6'7" Aaron Doornekamp and 6'4" Ryan Bell are working with the Senior team and Jeanty, one of the hardest working players to ever play in the CIS, has been very good according to sources. Doornekamp has battled a knee injury but has not missed any practice time while Bell has been steady at the point, defending, rebounding and finding people. Other CIS stars who have made an impact include UBC's 6'4" Casey Archibald, who should be a mainstay on the FISU team as a primary scorer on the wing, 6'4" Josh Gibson-Bascombe from the University of Ottawa who has been solid while shuffling between both guard spots, 6'3" Garry Gallimore from St. FX who has generally been locking up his checks, rebounding and making his open shots although has turned the ball over getting too deep in the lane on occasion and 6'6" Jacob Doerksen who could be playing his way into a spot on the FISU team. 6'7" J.P. Morin (hamstring) and 6'9" Doug McKinney (elbow) were injured on the first day of camp and did not practice through Saturday night.

U-19 Update: We've already alluded to the solid camp 6'1" Alex Murphy from UBC has had, pushing for a spot on the roster. A future CIS player in camp who may have a shot at the roster is Carleton's 6'8" Aaron Chapman, who can play both forward spots but is likely better suited at the "4". Others in camp with CIS ties include 6'7" Boris Bakovic (OUA Freshman-of-the-Year and CIS All-Freshman Team), 6'3" Elliot Thompson (New Brunswick/headed to Carleton), 6'5" Cole Hobin (Ottawa, ON via Eastern Commerce Prep headed to Carleton), 6'2" Tyrell Vernon (Hamilton, ON; likely headed to McMaster), 6'6" Justin Bell (Mississauga, ON; headed to the University of Ottawa) and 6'8" Tyler Fidler (Calgary, AL; headed to the University of Calgary). After this camp which goes through early this coming week, the U-19's are scheduled to head to Monmouth College in New Jersey for a 3 day training camp starting next Wednesday, June 27th before coming back to Oshawa for more workouts in advance of the FIBA U-19 World Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia between July 7th and 22nd.

Here is an article from a Louisiana State University-related publication outlining LSU Tigers trip to Canada on Labour Day weekend for 3 games in the GTA against Guelph, York and Toronto Tigers will play 3 in Canada

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