Canada set for Olympic basketball qualifier

FIBA tournament in Greece is last chance for team to make it to Beijing

Last Updated: Monday, July 14, 2008 | 8:58 AM ET

By Jason Satur CBC Sports

Team Canada's, from left, Joel Anthony, Juan Mendez and Samuel Dalembert have one last chance to qualify for the Beijing Games. (J.P. Moczulski/Canadian Press)

The Canadian men's basketball team will continue its quest to reach the Beijing Games when it competes in the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament this week.

The tournament, which takes place in Athens, Greece from July 14-20 is the last chance for a dozen teams that fell short in regional qualifiers to get to the Summer Games.

The format is simple. Four groups of three teams each play in a round-robin format with the top two teams from each going to the quarter-finals. It becomes a knockout format from there with the finalists and the winner of the third-place game punching their tickets to the Olympics in August.

Canada will face a difficult challenge in trying to secure a berth, but it showed plenty of grit to earn the chance to qualify at the FIBA Americas tournament in Las Vegas last summer.

Head coach Leo Rautins led a very young team to wins over Venezuela, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Uruguay and Mexico for a hard-fought, fifth-place finish and an invitation to this week's qualifying tournament.

It’s been nearly a year since that run and a few new additions provide more reason for optimism.

A well-seasoned Rowan Barrett has rejoined the team and gives Canada a steady hand at forward. Shooting guard Andy Rautins also is back after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the opening game of the Americas tournament against Brazil.

The Canadian NBA content is also improved. Philadelphia 76ers centre Samuel Dalembert played for Canada last summer, but he was new to the squad. If he’s over a nagging calf injury, he should be much more acclimated to the team and its system. Fellow NBA player Joel Anthony of the Miami Heat has also returned to Team Canada and will serve as another athletic, low-post weapon.

They join a young, maturing core that should peak closer to the London Games in 2012, but if Canada can rise to the challenge as it did last summer, it has a realistic chance to return to Olympic competition for the first time since a seventh-place finish in 2000.

"We have no margin for error. We have to play perfect basketball," Rautins told CBCSports.ca. "But I feel if everybody's on the same page and we do what we're supposed to, I think we have a very good chance."

The Canadians' quest will begin in Group C on Tuesday when they’ll face an experienced team from Slovenia and then a depleted side from South Korea.

Fans of the Toronto Raptors will recognize the Slovenian frontcourt duo of Rasho Nesterovic and Uros Slokar, who both played with the NBA's lone Canadian club. But Slovenia is missing several other NBA players like Boston Nachbar, Primoz Brezec and Beno Udrih while international standout Erazem Lorbek will also sit out.

The core of the team that narrowly missed the EuroBasket semifinals last summer is still intact, however, and could have a hand in determining Canada's fate.

South Korea rounds out Group C and faces long odds to advance to the quarters. The bronze-medallists from the FIBA Asia Championship have been decimated by retirement and injuries to several key players.

Should Canada move forward to the quarter-finals, they can expect to face a plethora of talented teams from the following groups:

Group A: Greece, Lebanon, Brazil

Vassilis Spanoulis is one of three talented guards looking to lead Greece to the Olympics. (Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images)The Greek national program has enjoyed a resurgence since winning EuroBasket in 2005 and silver at the World Championships in 2006. A fourth-place finish at last year’s EuroBasket relegated the Greeks to the qualifier but they should easily advance to the knockout round. They boast three talented guards in Vassilis Spanoulis, Dimitris Diamantidis and Theodoros Papaloukas and the home court advantage factor shouldn’t be discounted.

Brazil is the other choice to emerge from Group A as it pursues its first Olympic berth since Atlanta in 1996. But while Brazil should move on to the quarter-finals, the absence of three key players doesn’t guarantee the team much after that. Phoenix Suns guard Leandro Barbosa, who led the FIBA Americas tournament in scoring last year, has pulled out with a knee injury while Nene of the Denver Nuggets, and Anderson Varejao of the Cleveland Cavaliers also won’t be playing.

Lebanon, winners of silver at the 2007 FIBA Asia tournament, will be hard-pressed to emerge from this group and advance to their first Olympic basketball tournament. Many of the same players were on the roster when Lebanon upset France at the 2006 Worlds, so they can’t be taken too lightly.

Group B: New Zealand, Cape Verde, Germany

In Dirk Nowitzki, left, Germany may boast the qualifying tournament's most dangerous scorer. (Daniel Roland/Associated Press)Germany has received a boost with the recent addition of bruising centre Chris Kaman of the Los Angeles Clippers to the roster. He didn't play a single game with his new teammates before the tournament, but the newly-minted German citizen should form a deadly frontcourt duo with power forward Dirk Nowitzki.

New Zealand enters the tournament with the fourth-highest international ranking (13th) among the 12 teams, but it’s a program in flux. With several key veterans stepping away from the national team, a new generation of the Tall Blacks might not quite be ready to compete for Beijing.

Cape Verde is a small African archipelago of 10 islands and represents the biggest question mark of the tournament. It made the qualifier in style when Boston resident Tony Barros, who is of Cape Verdean ancestry, hit a buzzer-beater to win bronze-medal game at the FIBA Africa Championship. The team would need a few more miracles in order to clinch an Olympic berth, but just one could send another team packing.

Group D: Croatia, Cameroon, Puerto Rico

Point guard Roko Ukic is one of Croatia's potent young players. (Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images)Puerto Rico should be able to emerge from Group D. The scrappy team from the small U.S. commonwealth, best known for their upset win against the United States at the 2004 Athens Games, qualified with a third-place finish in the FIBA Americas last September. Orlando Magic point guard Carlos Arroyo served on both of those teams and will lead the team into Athens along with backcourt-mate Larry Ayuso.

A challenge could come from Croatia, a team that appears to once again be on the upswing. Once a powerhouse on the global stage with players like Dino Radja, Toni Kukoc and Drazen Petrovic, Croatia hasn’t qualified for the Summer Games since 1996. But younger players like point guards Roko Ukic and Zoran Planinic, swingman Marko Thomas and centre Ante Tomic make the team dangerous and gives it a bright future.

Cameroon rounds out Group D, reaching the tournament by virtue of a second-place finish in the FIBA Africa Championship. The Indomitable Lions will be in tough without Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, their UCLA junior who was recently drafted by the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and will participate on their summer league team instead.