Wednesday 1 August 2007
Canada's FISU Men Leave for Thailand
Canada National Student team which will compete in the 2007 Universaide in Bangkok, Thailand beginning next week completed their final training session on Canadian soil last night in Burnaby, BC at Simon Fraser University and are jetting to Taipei en route to Thailand, scheduled to arrive on Friday, Thailand time. Canada's 12 man roster includes 5 CIS players: 6'4" point guard Josh Gibson-Bascombe (Ottawa), 6'3" wing Garry Gallimore (St. Francis Xavier), 6'7" J.P. Morin (Laval), 6'8" Ross Bekkering (Calgary) and 6'10" Neil MacDonald (St. Francis Xavier). Based on the camps in Ontario and B.C. leading up to the Thailand games, expect all 5 CIS players to contribute with Gibson-Bascombe, Gallimore and MacDonald possibly starting the first game. Morin has established himself as someone the coaching staff can count on in the rotation to score and bang while Bekkering has the length and athletic ability to make a difference, especially defensively and on the glass. 6'6" Jacob Doerksen (Victoria), despite having a solid camp and working very hard throughout, unfortunately became the last man cut from the roster but as he develops his wing skills should be a contender for future National program spots. Gibson-Bascombe should share time equally at the point with 6'1" Tristan Blackwood while Gallimore, along with 6'3" Jamie McNeilly, should be counted upon for major minutes on the wing and to provide leadership with their experience and talent. Canada can also work in 6'5" Jevohn Shepperd and 6'5" Max Gosselin on the wings. MacDonald, as previously mentioned, has been tremendous leading up to the tournament and should log major minutes up front with 6'8" Willie Gallick, Bekkering, 6'10" Scott Morrison and 6'9" Theo Davis. After arriving on Friday, Canada will prepare for a pre-tournament scrimmage against Australia before opening the tournament next Tuesday, August 7th at 5:30 AM Eastern/2:30 AM Pacific time (Thailand is 11 hours ahead of Eastern time) against the host Thailand team. Canada comes right back 15 hours later to meet New Zealand (next day in Thailand; 9:30 PM Eastern on Tuesday, August 7th). The FISU men's tournament brackets are broken down initially into eight 3 team groups. The top 2 teams in each group advance to the round of 16. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.
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3 comments:
no wonder our teams get spanked, gibson bascombe, come on tut ruach eats him alive and tut doenst even get an invite, theo davis hasn't even played in years and was never very good, and he gets the spot over alot of other more deserving players, this is why our national teams always get spanked, senior mens all the way down to provincial teams.
I'm not entirely certain but I believe the FISU games team had open tryouts and I don't think Tut was there because he is by far one of the most explosive scoring guards in the CIS and likely would have been under consideration for this team in my opinion. Tut and Josh are slightly different players; Josh is excellent leading the break and finding people and shooting over people whereas Tut is effective slashing to the rim and finishing on the break. So Josh is more of a pure 1 whereas Tut can play the one but is probably better on the wing. Just for your information, Tut and Josh have met 4 times in their CIS careers:
1st game Ottawa 84, York 57 (Josh 15 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists in little more than one half of play vs. Tut 24 points/6 turnovers most points coming after the game had been decided; York was without Foebel and Steen and the game was over early)
2nd game York 95 Ottawa 89 OT Josh DNP broken wrist; Tut 24/4/11 assists; best player on the floor
3rd game York 76 Ottawa 55 (game to go to Nationals) Josh playing his first game in 2 months after breaking wrist scores 2 pts. while Tut goes off for 19.
4th game York 64 Ottawa 61 Ruach 8/3/3 Josh 7/3
5th game Ottawa 80 York 65 as Ottawa rebounds from a 10 point halftime deficit; Josh 14 pts/6 rbs/ 4 assists; Tut 13 points/4 rbs/10 assists.
Judge for yourself if Tut ate Josh alive. Tut is an All-Canadian talent arguably the best player in the OUA East and for whatever reason didn't end up on the FISU team but I don't think he was at the tryouts (I may be wrong).
I think you are missing my point, that being coaches of the national and provincial teams are to often picking their boys, Deverio, Smart, Rautins, Francis , all picked their guys over more derserving players. If you want winning teams you must have a coach with no agenda for his players
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