Canada’s Cadet men continue to prepare for FIBA Americas

Canada Basketball is proud to unveil the 21 athletes who are vying for a spot on the Cadet Men’s National Team (CMNT) roster that will compete at the 2011 FIBA Americas U16 Championship for Men from June 21 – 25 in Cancun, Mexico.

There are 21 athletes that have been identified to participate in the 2011 CMNT training camp which will be held from June 11 – 15 at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario. From this group, 12 will be selected to travel to Mexico on June 16, where they will participate in a series of tune-up games and scrimmages against Brazil and the United States in preparation for the FIBA Americas Tournament.

In a draw to determine the groups for the 2011 FIBA Americas U16 Championship, Canada was assigned to Group A. The CMNT will begin play on June 21 against Chile, then play a representative from CONCENCABA on the following day, and wrap up preliminary round play on June 23 versus Mexico. The top two finishers from each group move on to the semi-finals. The top three finishers of this summer’s competition will qualify for the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship in Lithuania.

All the games will be broadcast live streaming online at www.fibaamericas.com.

The training camp roster includes an impressive list of players including Andrew Wiggins (Concord, ON), who is the only returning athlete from last year’s team. Wiggins enjoyed a successful high school campaign leading Vaughan Secondary School (Vaughan, ON) to the AAAA OFSAA gold medal. He also competed in the Jordan Brand Classic International Game in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he was named co-MVP.

Other CMNT hopefuls include Tanveer Bhullar (North York, ON) and Kevin Zabo (Gatineau, QC), who both participated in the CMNT training camp last summer. Zabo helped Quebec win gold at the 2010 17U National Championships in Winnipeg, where he was also named to the Second All-Star Team as a fifteen year old.

In the inaugural FIBA Americas U16 Championship in 2009, Canada defeated Venezuela to capture the bronze medal and qualify for the 2010 U17 FIBA World Championship in Hamburg, Germany, where they defeated Lithuania to win bronze.

Attached are the CMNT tryout by invitation camp details and the preliminary round schedule for the 2011 FIBA Americas U16 Championship.