CIS Hoops.ca

After several weeks of training, practicing and playing here in North America, Canada's Jr. National team is a few days away from boarding an airplane headed for Serbia and the FIBA U19 World Championships. After a month-long build up that included open tryouts, a main tryout camp and then a set of mini-camps with an extended roster of 16 players which included practices and games in New Jersey, Guelph and, tomorrow, Oshawa, the coaching staff led by Head Coach Greg Francis is poised to announce the final 12 man roster that will travel to Serbia. As previously reported, 6'7" Aaron Chapman sustained a hip flexor injury during training and will not be fit for the trip. As well, two other players were cut from the extended roster earlier this week, both members of the Pickering H.S. team that captured the Ontario quad-a OFSAA "AAAA" championship this past March in Hamilton. 6'0" point guard Juevol Myles, who averaged about 12 minutes per game last season during the U19 qualification tournament, was let go as was 6'5" Dwayne Smith, a wing/forward. The team will have to pair down by one more player prior to the official announcement of the final roster from Canada Basketball tomorrow. The team leaves for Serbia from Toronto on Saturday and will have 4 days of preparation in Serbia on the 8th through the 11th before opening the tournament on July 12th against Nigeria and their pair of 7 footers headed to NCAA Division 1 programs in the fall.

FOR THOSE IN THE GTA, the U19's will scrimmage against another group of post-secondary stars at Durham College in Oshawa tomorrow night (Thursday). We hope to have more information on the roster of players being assembled to give the U19's one more taste of high-level competition before leaving on their trip.