A great article from a Durham Region newspaper on the Joseph brothers, Devoe and Corey, who were selected to Canada's Jr. National team competing in the FIBA U19 World championships in Serbia starting this week. Devoe and Corey's father, David Joseph, was a star at Jarvis Collegiate in the early 80's and went on to play one season at the University of Guelph, averaging 23.8 ppg, finising second in OUAA West scoring to Waterloo's Peter Savich. Devoe and Corey are proud to be representing their country and hopefully will be members of Canada's National program for years to come. David should be very proud of his two boys. Josephs lead Canada into WorldsSpeaking of the FIBA U19 world championships, Canada gets started with their first game of the preliminary round against Nigeria (9:45 AM Eastern time; 3:45 PM in Serbia). Canada will practice this afternoon in Serbia, will have a pre-game shoot around tomorrow morning and then get the tournament started tomorrow afternoon Serbian time. We hope to have more on Canada's starting lineup and a preview of the Nigerian team in time for tomorrow. Here is an article from a Nigerian publication on the squad from the African nation Nigeria names Junior Tigers squad
The Nigerian's dominated the African junior championships and have 4 players who played high school basketball in the US including 7'1" Solomon Alabi (pictured), one of the top rated high school centers in the USA who is headed to Florida State , 6'7" guard Emmanuel Negedu with a 7'2" wingspan, who has made a verbal committment to Arizona after a stellar high school career in Indiana, 6'10" Joseph Katuka (high school teammate of Alabi), who is headed to George Washington and 6'10", 245 pound Dele Coker, another highly rated prospect who played at South Kent (CT) high school and is headed to St. John's as the #21 rated center in U.S. high school this past season. 
The Nigerians have played a pair of games leading up to the tournament, defeating Kenny's Bullets, a senior team in the Nigerian pro league 93-71, overcoming 7'1" Alabi fouling out late in the first half and then defeating a Lagos City All-Star team 105-85 as Alabi led the way with 16, Negedu (pictured) added 15, point guard Michael Ohiero had 14 while George Ehiagwina chipped in with 13 and Mohammed Bukar with 10. Nigeria arrived in Serbia yesterday in preparation for Thursday first game against Canada.NIGERIAN U19 ROSTER
Michael Ohiero ('88) of Kenney's Bullets
Daniel Daudu ('89) of Dodan Warriors
Ayodeji Egbeyemi ('90) of Ebun Comets Lagos
Nosa Omorogbe ('89)
Mohammed Bukar ('90) of Dodan Warriors
Ibrahim Adamu ('89) of Dodan Warriors
George Ehiagwina ('89) of Ebun Comets Lagos
6'7" Emmanuel Negedu ('88) ARIZONZ (USA)
6'10" Joseph Katuka ('88) GEORGE WASHINGTON (USA)
Abel Baraya ('88) of Union Bank Lagos
7'1" Solomon Alabi ('88) FLORIDA STATE(USA)
6'10" Dele Coker ('88) ST. JOHN'S (USA)
Head Coach: Adeka Daudu
3 comments:
Mark, thanks for your articles. Internet is poor with news about Canada NT, so your blog is really helpful. Thanks!
Mark, can you clarify something for me. Why is it that these boys Olu and Junior are getting so much heat for going to a basketball camp, and Team Canada wasn't willing to work with them to do both, but Devoe Joeseph was allowed to miss their New Jersey tour, in which the team went to New Jersey to play some competition down south and build team chemistry. The reason why Devoe missed it was because he got invited to a Nike Basketball camp in New Jersey/New York. I would think that Team Canada would be consistent. Why was it that Devoe could miss such an important trip but Olu and Junior had to make a choice. Speaking as a parent of one of the kids on the team, it just doesn;t seem fair.
Devoe played with the JNT team in New Jersey and then after went to the Steve Nash Skills Academy that was also in New Jersey. The coaching staff was more than willing to work with the players around these commitments.
Devoe also was invited to attend both the Lebron Camp - which only the top 20 from all other skills camps were invited - and the Reebok U camp that Junior and Olu went to.
Because the team was leaving for Serbia on July 7th and the Camp was the 6th-10th they were given the choice as there was no accomodating both. Junior and Olu chose to play Reebok U and Devoe chose to play for Canada in Serbia.
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