For people who have been following this program for a long time, they’re going to say ‘prove it’,” says Bartlett. The loss in 2015 was the first in a string of heartbreaks: A close miss in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in 2016 a disappointing 21st- place finish at the 2019 World Cup, the loss to the Czech Republic in overtime at the last-chance Olympic qualifier in Victoria that kept Canada out of the most recent Summer Games in Tokyo. It’s just the talent-rich senior men’s category that hasn’t been able to put it all together. It’s been proven on the women’s side and it’s been proven in age-group basketball. There’s been too much time, too much effort, too much money and too much hope invested in building a program that can compete with the world’s best on the brightest stages, any time, any place. When they arrived they were greeted by -15C weather - or about 35C colder than it had been in Caracas on Thursday.īut Canada doesn’t want to come in through the back door. The team flew from Mexico to Vancouver on Thursday and then connected to Edmonton landing three hours before the tip. Venezuela was late getting its visa applications submitted and was only cleared to travel to Canada on Wednesday. Canada led 46-31 at halftime and blew the game open with a 24-11 third quarter. Canada held the visitors to 34.4 per cent shooting and owned a 20-10 edge on the offensive boards. Doing it with this winter core, the group that started this journey last November just shows how our roster consistency strategy is working and doing it against Venezuela would be nice because we’ve had some tough beats against them,” said Bartlett, who has been charged with creating the business infrastructure to both support Canada’s podium quest and leverage the knock-on effects if and when it happens.Ĭanada gained some measure of revenge with a thorough 94-56 win over Venezuela on Thursday that clinched its year-long quest to qualify for the 2023 World Cup - which will be played in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines in August and September - in front of a sold-out crowd at the Flair Airlines Hangar at the Edmonton Expo Centre.Ĭanada improved to 9-0 with three games left to play to remain the only undefeated team in qualifying while Venezuela fell to 7-2.Ĭanada had six players in double figures in scoring, led by Kassius Robertson who had 16 on perfect 6-of-6 shooting, while two more players chipped in with eight points in a perfectly balanced attack. “Doing it in Canada was nice, it’s been a long time since we’ve been able to do that on home soil. The prospect was sweet for Canada Basketball chief executive officer Michael Bartlett over the phone from Alberta. So yeah, having a chance to advance to the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup by beating Venezuela on home soil, in Edmonton? The first wave of Canada’s golden generation looked poised to make the 2016 Olympics after missing them in 2004, 20.įlash forward seven years and the Canadian men’s Olympic drought is now at five Olympic cycles and counting. Everything that has happened since has been about recovering the momentum Canada was building.
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