It's positive Canada came back to win the last two games at the FIBA men's under 19 worlds even though it wasn't enough to get them into the quarter-finals.
Canada being left as the odd team out after today's 87-82 win over Argentina is probably the end-of-story for 98 per cent of the country. (They would have won, but Turkey was upset by Korea, creating a three-way tie for the last two playoff spots and Canada had the worst point differential.) Ultimately, coach Greg Francis' team pulled off a win over a country whose success and style of play -- fundamentally sound, using all five players on offence, not relying on physical prowess or bigs, as embodied by Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs -- essentially represents the standard we should aspire to in men's hoops. (Australia will have to wait a few years.) A win over Argentina is encouraging seeing as that team beat Spain and Turkey and lost a one-pointer to Australia -- the three teams Canada lost to in the tournament. Canada also had a better point differential than Brazil, which got the fourth spot in the other pool, but there's no "crossover" in this tournament.
Again, Mark Wacyk at cishoops.ca is the go-to blogger on this. He also has the scoop that the Philadelphia 76ers big man Samuel Dalembert is indeed going to lace up for Canada at the Aug. 22-Sept. 2 Olympic qualifying tournament.
One last thing: Devoe Joseph was big in the endgame after turning the ball over a couple times to let Argentina get back in the hunt. He hit a three with 1:40 left after the Argentinians had made a 7-0 run to cut Canada's lead to 78-76 and he hit Scott Brittain for the layup (one of his game-high five assists) with 39 seconds left that stretched the lead to five. Joseph will hopefully end up playing in a NCAA Tournament someday.
Canada will face China in a classification game that begins at 9:45 a.m. Eastern on Friday.
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