Canada Senior Men in Athens August 17-19

[ZagNative]

It was too bad Kelly had to sit early after picking up two quick fouls.

Next up for Team Canada, another prestigious tournament, this time at the Efes Pilsen World Cup in Ankara, Turkey, starting this Saturday(!):

Date		EEST	PDT		Game
Sat, Aug 21	17:30	7:30 AM		[B]Argentina - Canada[/B]
		20:15			Turkey - Lebanon
Sun, Aug 22	17:30			Lebanon - Argentina
		20:15	10:15 AM	[B]Turkey - Canada[/B]
Mon, Aug 23	18:00	8:00 AM		[B]Canada - Lebanon[/B]
		20:30			Turkey - Argentina

The Efes Pilsen site linked above appears to offer live stat tracking. We'll see if if that's the case on Saturday.

Reminder: Lebanon is one of the teams in Canada's group at the WC, so the results of this game will be telling.

Note: The site linked in this post is in Turkish language. If you have Google Toolbar installed in your browser (at least in Mozilla), you can set it up to give you the option of translating any site you open. The translator automatically figures out the language to be translated. Amazing stuff, and a must-have for the fan who wants to follow international basketball, IMO.

[ZagNative]

I thought this profile of Team Canada from the Spanish language site ACB.com was interesting. (Google translation of ACB.com post here.) I don't know anything about the site - maybe a betting site? Anyway, it contained more info than I would have expected.

So, do we know whether Andy Rautins will be joining the team at all between now and the WC?

But there is no paradise NBAs

Canada is the country with the lowest population densities in the world, basketball is not their national sport. However, it has the merit of having five players in the NBA ... but only one will be in Turkey. Among the casualties is the Canadian player of all time, but Steve Nash has long since retired from international football and now other players are carrying the weight of the equipment. People like Joel Anthony or Andy Rautins will forget the mission of casualties Español Carl and Jesse Young and all those views contradict the rule soon. Unlike in other cases where names appeared more than men, the strength of the current Canada lies in the collective sense, the troubled times passed and today Dalembert is a team without stars but very committed and where everyone knows what to do. At the tactical level we have to wait a very physical team in the paint, with skilled forwards and base their play on the counterattack and short possessions. Be seen whether the discipline and physical enough to beat New Zealand and Lebanon and beyond the first round. Everything else would be impossible

Weaknesses:
.....
Strange and late preparation.

.. was the last team to train?

The preparation began with a round of matches in Europe with a B team and was on 3 August when the entire team met to address the tournament. Will it be enough?

On Rob and Kelly, the translator did not translate their stats correctly. The stats are correct in the original.

Kelly Olynyk
Power forward | 211cm
Scarborough | 19/04/1991
Gonzaga University (NCAA)

His nearly seven feet will offer great opportunities near basket but his game resembles that of an outside. It is very coordinated and is fast, but still soft on defense.

Robert Sacre
Pivot | 213cm
Vancouver | 29/04/1989
Gonzaga University (NCAA)

This is the classic power forward strong and whose natural habitat is painting. Has made progress in his game back and likes to use the body to post and remove his trademark hook.

[cjm720]

Love this line, ZN: This is the classic power forward strong and whose natural habitat is painting LOL

[ZagNative]

I liked that too, cjm720!

Looks like the fun started in the last game of the "friendly" tournament. Glad Big Rob wasn't playing in this game, because I have a hunch he'd have been right in the middle of the melee!

You stay classy, Greece and Serbia!

Bench-Clearing Brawl Ends Acropolis Tournament
DEMETRIS NELLAS, Associated Press Writer

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ― The friendly Acropolis basketball tournament finished in a brawl as the last game between Serbia and Greece was abandoned with 2:40 to go when a fight broke out and the benches cleared on Thursday.

Serb center Nenad Krstic was in the thick of the action; the benches cleared when he grabbed Greek forward Antonis Fotsis by the throat. He then threw a chair at Greek center Sofoklis Schortsanitis, who was pursuing him. The chair hit Greek center Yannis Bouroussis in the head. Bouroussis, who did not take part in the game because of a hand injury was last seen in the locker rooms looking to take on Krstic. Blood trickled from his wound.

Fotsis had moved threateningly against Serb guard Milos Teodosic who had fouled him hard.

A stunned crowd of about 5,000 at the Athens Olympic Arena watched players from both teams exchange punches and kicks. Two or three spectators entered the fray and were quickly shoved out of the arena.

The players exited toward the locker rooms and fought in the tunnel leading from the arena before eventually being separated.

Greece was leading 74-73 when the match was abandoned.

Earlier in the game, with 8:55 to go and Serbia ahead 60-55, Serb coach Dusan Ivkovic was ejected with two technical fouls when he argued heatedly with a referee.

Wow. Serbia was making a game of it, too. Video! I want video! Sounds like a Three Stooges movie!

[ID ZAGFAN]

Love this line, ZN: This is the classic power forward strong and whose natural habitat is painting LOL

Maybe they were talking about his tattoos!!!




ZaGranny

[ZagNative]

Ask Youtube and ye shall receive, video of the game-ending brawl, with spectators joining the fray and at least one chair thrown.

[DZ]

That was NOT good

I do not know the rules governing international play but how can there not be suspensions or punishments that directly impact these teams during the "real" tournament?

I am so glad that our Cana/Zag team was not involved, it was ugly and NOTHING good could come out of it.

Anyway, been away from writing and just peaking lately, thanks to all who have provided all the news this summer. It seems there is this rumor going around that there is a pretty good big at Jesuit in Portland and that he would even play if he walked on - I am currently looking into it.

[thespywhozaggedme]

I thought this profile of Team Canada from the Spanish language site ACB.com was interesting. (Google translation of ACB.com post here.) I don't know anything about the site - maybe a betting site? Anyway, it contained more info than I would have expected.

So, do we know whether Andy Rautins will be joining the team at all between now and the WC?
On Rob and Kelly, the translator did not translate their stats correctly. The stats are correct in the original.

That article is wrong. Canada has two NBAers on their team; Joel Anthony of the Heat, and Andy Rautins who signed with the Knicks.

[ZagNative]

That article is wrong. Canada has two NBAers on their team; Joel Anthony of the Heat, and Andy Rautins who signed with the Knicks.

I think the implication in that fist paragraph is just a translator nuance failure. Elsewhere in the article it references Andy being with the Knicks and Anthony with the Heat.

[thespywhozaggedme]

I think the implication in that fist paragraph is just a translator nuance failure. Elsewhere in the article it references Andy being with the Knicks and Anthony with the Heat.

Ah, okay got it. As for the Greece/Serbia fight, Krstic should be banned for a long time; throwing a chair is bad, very bad, and Bourousis could've been badly injured.

[Radbooks]

There is an article in the Seattle Times about the fight and it has some interesting stuff:

Serbia basketball player Nenad Krstic, a center for the Oklahoma City Thunder, was released Friday after being held in police custody overnight following a chaotic brawl during a match with Greece.

The fight broke out during the last game of the Acropolis tournament, which was abandoned with 2:40 remaining and Greece leading by one point. The incident occurred just a week before the basketball world championship in Turkey, where both teams will play.

"This shouldn't have happened," said Serbian coach Dusan Ivkovic, who is due to take over Greek club Olympiakos next season. "Relations with the Greeks are now very bad."

FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann said in a statement Friday that the international basketball federation will conduct its own review of the violence.

"FIBA will take whatever steps are necessary against any individual player found to have been involved in this shocking incident," Baumann said. "FIBA wishes to make it clear that it will not hesitate from taking the strongest possible action against any individual found to have brought the sport of basketball into disrepute."

U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said he showed his team footage of the brawl as an example.

"We just told our guys that if something happens to walk away and not to pull anyone from another team, to just pull your teammate," Krzyzewski said in Madrid, where the Americans have been preparing. "This is not about getting into a fight but playing basketball - and you can be suspended. You represent your country so you shouldn't do that."

Krzyzewski said that Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, teammates of Krstic on the Thunder, were "surprised because he is such a quiet guy, smiling all the time."

[sanders]

Today's Globe has an article with some injury updates:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...rticle1679210/


Topping the list of concerns is his son, Andy Rautins, a New York Knicks draft pick and the national team’s leading scorer last summer. He is sidelined with pain in his surgically repaired left knee, in which he tore his anterior cruciate ligament while playing for Canada at the Tournament of the Americas in 2007. Rautins tweaked the knee in the second of two games against France in Toronto last week, and did not play in a subsequent tournament in Greece.

“It’s totally up in the air,” Rautins said of his son’s availability. “He could be back on the court in three days or he could be gone for three weeks, we don’t know right now.”

...

Toronto’s Jevohn Shepherd led Canada with 13 points against Slovenia, but Edmonton’s Jermaine Bucknor sprained an ankle, and point guard Jermaine Anderson of Toronto struggled to regain his form after missing most of the team’s pretournament preparation with his own knee problem.

[ZagNative]

Thanks, Sanders. Good stuff to know.

Tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 7:30 AM PDT (17:30 Ankara time), Canada faces a tough test against Argentina, currently ranked #1 in the world, in the first leg of the Efes Pilsen Tournamnt.

Live stats will be here.

Argentina FIBA Video profile here

Argentina FIBA Team Page

Argentina's NBA players: Fabricio OBERTO, Washington Wizards; Luis SCOLA, Houston Rockets; Andrés NOCIONI, Sacramento Kings

[BobZag]

Thanks, Sanders. Good stuff to know.

Tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 7:30 AM PDT (17:30 Ankara time), Canada faces a tough test against Argentina, currently ranked #1 in the world, in the first leg of the Efes Pilsen Tournamnt.

Live stats will be here.

Argentina FIBA Video profile here

Argentina FIBA Team Page

Argentina's NBA players: Fabricio OBERTO, Washington Wizards; Luis SCOLA, Houston Rockets; Andrés NOCIONI, Sacramento Kings

Ouch time.

[thespywhozaggedme]

Thanks, Sanders. Good stuff to know.

Tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 7:30 AM PDT (17:30 Ankara time), Canada faces a tough test against Argentina, currently ranked #1 in the world, in the first leg of the Efes Pilsen Tournamnt.

Live stats will be here.

Argentina FIBA Video profile here

Argentina FIBA Team Page

Argentina's NBA players: Fabricio OBERTO, Washington Wizards; Luis SCOLA, Houston Rockets; Andrés NOCIONI, Sacramento Kings

Noc got traded to the Sixers with Spencer Hawes for Dalembert, who use to play for Canada before a falling out with Leo Rautins. How's that for six degrees of separation?