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Canada's Sr. Men's National team is two days away from beginning their final prep tournament for the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifier which gets underway August 22nd (a week from tomorrow) in Las Vegas. For now, Canada will focus on playing 3 games in 3 days in Puerto Rico at the Tuto Marchand Cup beginning Thursday with a match against the host Puerto Ricans. We hope to have more on the tournament in the coming days; for now, here is an article from a Syracuse newspaper indicating that 6'5" Andy Rautins has made the Canadian team after the recent 15 man camp in Toronto. Rautins wins over his father Canada is likely to announce their roster very soon and if we were to speculate on the 12 man roster, it is likely that the top 8 players will include 6'9" Samuel Dalembert (Montreal), 6'5" Denham Brown (Toronto), 6'8" Levon Kendall (Vancouver), 6'5" Olu Famutimi (Toronto), 6'5" Carl English (Patrick's Cove, NFLD), 6'6" Juan Mendez (Montreal), 6'6" Jermaine Bucknor (Edmonton) and Rautins. This would leave 4 more spots on a 12 man roster. Of the 8 players above, none has been a point guard, which suggests that one or both of 6'2" Jermaine Anderson (Toronto) and 6'4" Ryan Bell (Ottawa) are likely candidates to make the 12 man roster. 6'7" Aaron Doornekamp (Odessa, ON) and 6'5" David Thomas (Brampton, ON) figure to be battling for the final spot on the wing with 6'8" Rans Brempong (Brampton), 6'10" Vlad Kuljanin (Toronto) and 6'7" Jesse Young (Peterborough, ON) vying for one or two spots up front. Here's how the roster may break down according to our speculation only:

Point Guards: Jermaine Anderson; Ryan Bell
Wings: Denham Brown; Olu Famutimi; Carl English; Andy Rautins; Jermaine Bucknor; Aaron Doornekamp or Dave Thomas;
Bigs: Samuel Dalembert; Levon Kendall; Juan Mendez; Rans Brempong or Vlad Kuljanin or Jesse Young;

Then again with 5 wings already likely picked, both Doornekamp and Thomas could be the odd men out with 2 of the 3 "maybes" up front making it. Regardless, guard play at these events is very key and Canada has only two legitimate point guards in Anderson and Bell. This may lend itself to keeping more wings for depth. Late word is that Bell will not be one of the 13 travelling to Puerto Rico but that the 12 man roster for Vegas has not yet been officially selected. Good luck to Canada in Puerto Rico and beyond. Here's an article previewing the FIBA Americas tournament from Sportingo.com

Basketball fans in Canada who subscribe to a service that carries the SCORE will have several FIBA Americas Olympic qualification games to watch on television including all Canadian and USA games at the tournament. Here is a press release with the full schedule SCORE coverage of Olympic qualifier

NIKE held a high school academy camp in Toronto late last week and Chris O'Leary authored an article for SLAM! Magazine High School Nike Skills Academy: Top 20 - Chris O’Leary checks in from Toronto