2008 Jack Donohue International Classic

[Kings]

Jun 30 Canada 89 - Lebanon 67
Jul 1 Canada 90 - New Zealand 63
Jul 2 New Zealand 84 - Lebanon 71
Jul 4 New Zealand 77 - Canada 69
Jul 5 Canada 100 - Lebanon 68

[illmatic88]

Should be good preparation for the 3 National Teams before they head to the qualifiers in Athens.

Canada is going to be tough with their recent addition of Samuel Dalembert who played great in the playoffs. Also Denham Brown once scored 111 points in a game .

Is Steve Nash going to participate with the Canadian NT? I heard the he might but play only limited minutes off the bench if they make the Olympics.

Just for info:

Jack Donohue=
- Coached the Canadian national men's basketball team for 17 years
- Coach of Kareem Abdul Jabbar in high school.
- Participated in four Olympic Games and achieved two fourth-place finishes, in 1976 and 1984.

[daniab]

May 16, 2008

Senior men's national team tips off summer series in Canada

TORONTO-HAMILTON, Ont. - Canada Basketball announces the official schedule for the 2008 Jack Donohue International Classic (JDIC), showcasing the Senior Men's National Team. Games will be played June 30-July 5, 2008 at McMaster University (Hamilton, ON), and Ricoh Coliseum (Toronto, ON).

"We are pleased to bring the excitement of international basketball to Hamilton and Toronto," stated Wayne Parrish, Executive Director and CEO for Canada Basketball. "Both cities have strong roots in basketball and will serve as great hosts for our team as we begin our quest to qualify for the Olympics."

The JDIC exhibition series marks the first time that Team Canada will play games on home soil since 2002. Participants include senior men's national teams from New Zealand and Lebanon. All three squads will be competing in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens, Greece this July 14-20, along with nine other delegations. The top three teams will advance to the Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, China this August.

"I am very excited to be preparing for the Olympics right here at home," said Leo Rautins, Head Coach of the Senior Men's National Team. "We have a great group of guys coming back this year, and look forward to continuing to build on the successes from last summer."

Team Canada will tip off the 2008 JDIC with two games at McMaster University on June 30 vs. Lebanon and July 1 vs. New Zealand, and will round out the exhibition series on July 4 vs. New Zealand and July 5 vs. Lebanon at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto. The last two games mark the first-ever basketball events to be played at the historic venue.

"We are thrilled to be hosting this event at the historic Ricoh Coliseum," said Bob Hunter, Executive Vice President, Venues & Entertainment at MLSE. "This is the first-ever basketball event we have held at the venue, so to see its versatility is exciting. Further, working alongside Canada Basketball, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is committed to developing basketball in the country and is proud to be supporting Team Canada on their quest to qualify for the Olympics"

Tickets for the JDIC at Ricoh Coliseum are on sale today at www.ticketmaster.ca (enter Canada Basketball) and www.basketball.ca. Prices start at $25 for both senior team games on July 4 and 5 (7 p.m. start time). As an added bonus, fans will have an opportunity to see Canada Basketball's Junior National Team play exhibition games on both days (4 p.m. start time) as they prepare for the FIBA Americas Junior Championships taking place this summer in Formosa, Argentina. Tickets for McMaster University games will be on sale next week.

The tentative schedule for 2008 Canadian Senior Men's National team is as follows: FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men Greece (GRE) July 14-20: Olympic Games Men's Tournament China (CHN) August 10-24 2008 (upon qualification).


2008 Canadian Senior Men's National Team Training Camp Roster

Anthony, Joel
Anderson, Jermaine
Bell, Ryan
Brempong, Rans
Brown, benham
Bucknor, Jermaine
Dalembert, Samuel
Doornekamp, Aaron
Doornekamp, Nate
English, Carl
Famutimi, Olu
Joseph, Devoe
Kendall, Levon
Kepkay, Tyler
Kuljanin, Vlad
Martin, Phil
Mendez, Juan
Rautins, Andy
Thomas, Dave
Young, Jesse

Head Coach: Leo Rautins

[Khalid80]

Lebanon has beaten Canada before and I think they can do so again unless Nash is going to play with them.
I thought Dalembert was from Haiti. Did he always have the Canadian citizenship or did he get it recently?

[ajaxballer]

His family moved to Canada when he was 13 and i think he lived here until he was about 17. His parents and siblings still live here so he wanted to become a Canadian citizen.

[Kings]

Game 1 - Box Score

[daniab]

Game 1 - Box Score

Very normal result after 20 hours travelling without getting any rest.

[Khalid80]

Remember guys:
The Canadian Team we just played against is not the same one we beat in 2006 before the World Championships in Japan. This team has Samuel Dalembert and Joel Anthony whom are both really good NBA players including some great players who are playing in Europe (I believe Carl English is one of them). I wish Steve Nash played with the Canadian Team. It would have been nice to see our guys try to defend him, as well as playing against one of the best point guards in the world.

[MALEK]

Guys i didn't find Hussien Tawbe in our roster!!!!

[Khalid80]

It seems that Bassem Balaa is the replacement of Hussein Tawbe.
Do u guys know if he got injured?

[nnt01]

Guys i didn't find Hussien Tawbe in our roster!!!!

AL-balad newspaper said today that Tawbe is close to recovering from his injury and should start training soon.

[nnt01]

Very normal result after 20 hours travelling without getting any rest.

I am not sure about that.. It is true that they had long traveling hours plus what happened in France's airport but still that is no good reason. It is true that the Canadian team is much stronger than the one we defeated 2 years ago, but we still have one problem in our National team. There isn't teamwork inside the team!

If you remember the Doha Games, where we played our worst games, it was all because of this. I still see that Fadi tries to do play alone most of the times. Rony just feels like shooting whenever he gets the ball, Vogel isn't totally convinced of the fact that he should play more of a center then a forward, and Brian really plays as if he is forceed to!!

If you watch our young national teams, they do not have this problem, and I think if they stay like this, we will have a great team in the coming years.

[nnt01]

CAN/LIB – Lebanese fall to Canada in Jack Donohue opener

HAMILTON (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament) – Canada got an impressive performance from 35-year-old veteran guard Rowan Barrett and rolled to an 89-67 victory over Lebanon on Monday night.

In the first game of the Jack Donohue International Classic – a warm-up event for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (July 14-20) in Athens, Greece, Leo Rautins’ team opened up a 44-29 half-time advantage and cruised to victory.

Barrett was four of six from behind the arc and finished with 16 points. The Canadians tore apart the Lebanese from long range, drilling 14 of 26 (54%).

Carl English, who scored a team-high 18, and Andy Rautins were each three of five on their three-point attempts.

Canada, who now have a solid one-two punch down low with NBA centers Samuel Dalembert and Joel Anthony, out-rebounded Lebanon 38-25.

Dalembert, who played at last summer’s FIBA Americas Championship, had 11 boards to go with his 10 points while the impressive newcomer Anthony had nine points and nine rebounds.

"I was happy with the effort," said Canada coach Rautins.

"We made mistakes, but the first game you're going to make mistakes.

“I thought there were too many fouls at the defensive end, but everybody was trying to make the extra pass, trying to move the ball. I thought we had spurts where we were trying to get after people.

"You're not going to be perfect right now but I was happy with the effort the first game."

Veteran Fadi El Khatib had a game-high 20 points for Lebanon, who also got 14 apiece from Joseph Vogel and Rony Fahed.

Lebanon were just 23 of 66 (35%) from the floor overall and six of 25 (24%) from long range.

Canada will be taking on Slovenia and Korea in Group C of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament and if they finish in the top two, Rautins’ team will advance to a quarter-final against Croatia, Cameroon or Puerto Rico.

“We have a lot of things to clean up, and as the level of competition rises, our margin for error is going to be less and less,” Barrett said.

“These games are the ones we can take to clean stuff up.”

Lebanon will take on Brazil and hosts Greece in Group A of the qualifying event. If they finish in top two, a quarter-final against Germany, New Zealand or Cape Verde awaits them.

In all, 12 teams are battling for the three remaining spots at the Beijing Games.

FIBA

Source: http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/new...6279/arti.html

[Khalid80]

I am not sure about that.. It is true that they had long traveling hours plus what happened in France's airport but still that is no good reason. It is true that the Canadian team is much stronger than the one we defeated 2 years ago, but we still have one problem in our National team. There isn't teamwork inside the team!

If you remember the Doha Games, where we played our worst games, it was all because of this. I still see that Fadi tries to do play alone most of the times. Rony just feels like shooting whenever he gets the ball, Vogel isn't totally convinced of the fact that he should play more of a center then a forward, and Brian really plays as if he is forceed to!!

If you watch our young national teams, they do not have this problem, and I think if they stay like this, we will have a great team in the coming years.

Yo nnt01!
I agree with u. I think that we do have a problem and that's our team play.
I mean we had 4 assists against Canada in the whole game!!!!!
I have mentioned earlier that if the National team is going to just depend on Khatib, Vogel, Mahmoud, and Fahed then we r in deep trouble.
We also r having problems with our rebounding.
It's funny cuz Ali Mahmoud (point guard) is the top rebounder on the team (usually the center should be the best rebounder on the team) while Vogel (center) is shooting 3's like he's the point guard.

[nnt01]

we lost our 2nd game 84-71