A long, long overdue Canada Basketball post

It's all onward-and-upward with all things Canada basketball. Hearing that Canada's junior national team, skipped by Alberta Golden Bears coach Greg Francis, reached the quarter-finals of the FIBA U19 championship in Auckland, N.Z., after beating Argentina should bring forth some pride.

Canada got 20 points from combo guard Cory Joseph (who might end up playing for Rick Pitino at Louisville, although the Kansas Jayhawks come up a lot too) and 18 from Mangisto Arop, who's off to Gonzaga in a few weeks. The kicker is they will face Team USA in the quarter-final on Friday; if they had won by three more points, they would have come out ahead on point differential with Argentina and Spain and avoided the Americans.

That's not here nor there. People should be positive about Canadian hoops and the way Francis' charges have pulled it together down under after a 1-2 start is pretty encouraging. Like the coach himself said:

"Now we get to play in the quarter finals of a FIBA World Championship, and that’s a good thing for Canada."

Learned hoops chroniclers such as the Toronto Star's Doug Smith (who noted a while back, incidentally, that the Raptors are going to have training camp in Ottawa again) have said there are great things starting to happen with Canada Basketball, notwithstanding the loss of the National Elite Development Agency. It's a several years process, not an overnight success story.

Smith said several weeks back, "the junior team that could very well make some noise in New Zealand" is among some "hugely significant steps in the right direction" for Canadian hoops. Along with beating Argentina, Canada went down to the wire with Spain (which won by seven after Canada took the lead midway through the fourth quarter), Australia and Croatia, all respected basketball nations. In other words, some results are starting to bubble to the surface.

The fact that Joseph and big man Tristan Thompson, who have each been down in the U.S. for a couple years, are playing instead of spending their summers with a travel team sponsored by a shoe company is also a good sign. Seeing that Canada is assured of finishing in the top half of the draw (no worse than eighth out of 16 teams) is a good sign. It's not lead-off-Sportscentre sexy. Chances are, it barely rates a mention outside of the players' hometowns (Kamloops Daily News sports ed. Gregg Drinnan at Taking Note has been having regular e-mail exchanges with Canada forward Kelly Olynyk, by the way).

It is never going to be cupcakes and sprinkles for Canada Basketball. It is egg-on-the-face for this country (or it would be, if anyone had noticed) that as the Toronto Star reported, Cuba and China are helping foot the bill for the national women's team to make an exhibition tour this summer. Smith has also made some pointed remarks about the traditional media's unwillingness to deviate from the Hockey Reflex and maybe offering more balanced fare.

"... they are missing out on a great opportunity because they are myopic followers rather than media leaders. I always thought part of the responsibility we have is to lead and to educate, rather than simply regurgitate what's already been on highlight shows and the internet.

"I would think the pucks-centric men – and they are almost all middle-aged men – who run the broadcast outlets here would realize the hockey people are still going to watch and listen but if you want to expand your listener base or viewership, giving something to people they can’t get anywhere else might be a good idea."

Complaining about the lack of media attention for basketball is kind of passe. Footy fanatics have proved (here one thinks of The 24th Minute), you can do it on your own. The Raptors' radio voice, Paul Jones, popped off a while back about how knowing your game is rarely on the front burner builds character.

"I guess that's what makes us tough and has us persevere as basketball people. And please, don’t tell me about the antiquated ratings system because I’m not buying it.

"That discussion is for another time as I have never met anyone that has a "box" in the their house and there was no way they would bring a box into my old 'hood back in the day when you had at least 10-15 guys around a TV watching a game.

Anyway, getting back to the point, it is good to see a Canadian team stick with it and knock off Argentina. Granted, it probably would have been better to not be playing the U.S., but hey, you never know what might happen in a game between two teams of teenagers. Beating Argentina, having been in every game, those are triumphs nonetheless. Don't be cynical about this. That would be kind of Canadian.

Related:
Composed Canada move through (FIBA.com)

He's hung out the gone drinkin' sign, sir ...

Note to our users: Sager is travelling to the Ontario University Athletics' sports information directors' meeting, so posting might be light(er than usual) today.

Meantime, read Stephen Brunt's take on Jim Balsillie losing the court fight for the Phoenix Coyotes and wonder whether the NHL can get a Popemobile for Gary Bettman to use when he next visits Canada ... ponder how in the hell a labour union can support Quebecor's bid for the Montreal Canadiens when that company has locked out its employees at Montreal's biggest French-language paper ... cheer for Canada's junior men's basketball team, coached by Greg Francis of Toronto, winning a tournament in France last weekend even though Canadian hoops hostshots Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph were playing for the U.S. side (which everyone seems cool with) ... last but not least, you heard right, Brett Favre used the term "we" when talking about his potential role in the Minnesota Vikings: "They do have a great running back, a great running game. If I go there, there are no guarantees. We all know that. I went through that last year with New York. I think every player should think that he is a difference-maker. I think you have to believe that. But in that situation, understanding what is expected of you, knowing your team, knowing that as long as we can run the ball and complete passes when needed, we should be pretty good." May God have mercy on us all.

Hoops: Mini-March Madness for Canadians

It sounds like a made-for-TV event, but Toronto-area ballers Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson are part of a national championship U.S. high school basketball team.

Joseph and Thompson, each made some key baskets today to help the Findlay College Prep Pilots beat Oak Hill (Va.) Academy 74-66 to win the inaugural ESPN RISE National High School Invitational. It sounds weird and scary that there actually is a semi-recognized national tournament for high school basketball and that ESPN broadcasts the championship game on the off-day during the Final Four, but what the hey, that's America.

Thompson, as you know, is a 6-foot-9 lefty power forward who is destined for the Texas Longhorns. Joseph is one of the best point guards in his year (he still has another year of high school), but has not signed. The Las Vegas Sun reported last week that it was down to Louisville, Ohio State (meaning he would play against his brother Devoe, who's at Big Ten rival Minnesota), Texas Tech and Texas A & M.

Related:
Pilots beat Oak Hill, 74-66, for ESPN Inv’l title (Las Vegas Sun)

Hoops: Thompson takes game to Vegas

It's an ongoing commitment to keep up to speed with the teenage Canuck ballers who will lead us back to the Olympics one day. (Maybe so, maybe not, but let's at least perish the thought the hoops talent is lacking in Canada.)

Small forward Tristan Thompson is joining a top Las Vegas high school team that currently includes Toronto's Cory Joseph. Ours is not to question how Thompson could go from leaving a school in New Jersey to playing for Findlay Prep in Nevada; when you're on his strata as a player, this is pretty commonplace. His new team might not be done adding Canadian content, according to the Las Vegas Sun:

"Rumors now are also swirling regarding the future addition of sophomore guard Myck Kabongo, who currently plays at St. Benedict's and committed to Texas last month. He's also a childhood pal of Thompson and Joseph."

Again, it is something to be mindful of if you care about Canada's contributions to a game one of our own invented.

(Glove tap for the link to Ryan Wolstat at Courtside.)

Related:
Highly touted junior Thompson headed to Findlay Prep (Las Vegas Sun)

Hoops: Canada's Kabongo and Thompson are Superbad

One hope is basketball coverage in Canada will become more cohesive in time.

The Raptors are covered well. Canadian university basketball coverage is getting better, but the media really needs to do a better job highlighting Canuck ballers who have relocated to the U.S. for better competition. Players such as point guard Myck Kabongo and forward Tristan Thompson, whose Newark, N.J., high school team is ranked No. 3 in the U.S. by Maxpreps, get sparse media attention in their home country. The same goes for point guard Cory Joseph (Minnesota Golden Gophers guard Devoe Joseph's brother), whose stock has shot up recently among the experts. They should get more attention, beyond clips on The Score once they get to college. It will come in time.

Kabongo and Thompson, who helped their St. Benedict's Gray Bees beat Lincoln High from Coney Island last week (yes, the school Jesus Shuttlesworth/Ray Allen attended in He Got Game) probably will be on Canadians' radar screens. It might be like how people didn't know that Michael Cera was Canadian when he was on Arrested Development, but after Superbad became a hit, everyone knew Michael Cera was from Brampton, Ontario.

Kabongo, who just turned 16, and Thompson, probably need time. In keeping with their aim of "trying to be the best one-two punch in the world," (Rivals.com), they're both committed to play college basketball at Texas. (Thompson finishes high school in 2010, Kabongo in '11).

Kabongo, as his high school coach, Danny Hurley (brother of Bobby Hurley, the Duke point guard from the early '90s), noted, is very media-friendly.

"You've got to have this extra quality of just being able to get it done and he's got that. He's just a very well-rounded kid. He's a highly intelligent guy. His personality is kind of an infectious thing ... He's the type of college basketball player that you can sell to the public because he actually has some thoughts and expresses himself positively without any of the negative stereotypes."

As a player, Kabongo "needs work on his outside shooting and defense (but) has already drawn comparisons to Steve Nash, the most famous Canadian ballplayer of all time." (Nash plays defence?)

The point is you will be hearing about Kabongo, Thompson and Cory Joseph. It would not necessarily be a shame if they go down to the States and never come back to play for their country, but it's necessary that people become aware of the opportunity they represent for our national hoops profile.

Related:
St. Benedict's has a special pair of players (Rivals High)