Manny and Kelly with a busy couple of weeks coming up

[ZagNative]

First, the All-Canada Classic wekend starts today with a fund-raising reception, leading up to the game on Saturday: There was more posted about this weekend here on guboards in this thread.

Then it looks like they'll be traveling to the 2009 Douai World Tournament in Northern France from the 10th to the 14th of June, in preparation for for the U19 World Championship in New Zealand in July. This post from January announced the teams confirmed to attend in Douai:

The Douai World Tournament has announced 7 of its 8 participating teams. This year’s edition will be played with U19 National Teams that are in their preparation phase for the U19 World Championship that will be played in July in New Zealand. I take a quick look at the teams and who are the possible players to arrive in Northern France from 10th to the 14th June 2009.

The current confirmed teams are USA, France, Australia, Croatia, Lithuania, Puerto Rico and Canada. The 8th team to join will probably be Spain but this has not been confirmed yet. While the United States team is always quite a surprise to be announced, this year, the possibility of seeing the U19 National team participating may give them another dimension. The presence of Australia and Canada, which both were already present in Mannheim in 2008 gives the whole tournament a real “World” color and makes this edition one of the most impressive of the last years. Additionally, the participation of Puerto Rico will be very interesting with their usually spectacular playing style.

Manny gets a mention in this post today oh europeanprospects.com today:

Australia come to Douai with a nearly identical team to Albert-Schweitzer Tournament 2008 in Mannheim. The team is probably the most used to play together as they are all coming from the AIS background. The back court around Jorden Page and Matthew Dellavedova will be the attraction of the team as both of them will also head together to St.Mary’s next season in order to take over the guard positions from Patty Mills.

What counts for Australia is also true for Canada, similar squad to Mannheim 2008. Future Gonzaga forward Mangisto Arop will be the leader of a team that created some buzz one year ago and it will be interesting to see how they have developed since then. The surprise may come from Puerto Rico that features also a highly NCAA-like team around A10 Freshman of the Year Jio Fontan and Rutgers Freshman Mike Rosario.

The players from the United States will however not be the U19 National Team selection to play in New Zealand but the 2K Sports 2009 All-American Team. You can check the link above to see the full roster.

Europeanprospects.com will be in Douai on the 2 final days for coverage from Northern France. You can also follow the tournament through the official website. This year again, you can also order official Video tapes of all the games which will be produced by Images B-Ball Video Services. They have also produced the official presentation Video of the 2009 edition.

Bon voyage and best of luck to Kelly and Manny!

Edited to add: I haven't seen the travel roster for the Canadian U19 squad for this year but assume Kelly must be on it along with Manny. That basketball.ca site is going to make me old and gray before my time with its lack of up-to-date news about prospects, especially the plans for the junior national kids ....

[BobZag]

This will be fun to follow, then NZ in July.

[OZZag]

ZN you are amazing with your pickups!

If it is the Junior National team (preparing for FIBA worlds as noted) that goes over for Canada, the poster obviously missed three big inclusions, Tristan Thompson, Marc Trasolini and KO, as none of them where at the Manheim tournament in 2008 (itv was last year's NEDA squad).

FWIW I see the USA. Canada and Puerto Rico as the three strongest teams. The Australian squad was beaten by Canada at Manheim 2008 without Thompson, Traz or KO.

[CaliforniaZaggin']

Great post, ZN! You're the best!

[ZagNative]

FIBA U-19 World Championship: I came upon this tidbit in my morning google for Manny and Kelly, from the America East forum. I don't know where the author got the roster for the U19 Canada team, as I haven't been able to find anything official. Of course, this is what we'd assume it would look like, though I have no idea how big the travel roster would be, or if the guys listed are projected to be the starters plus two:

t's that time of the year, and the rest of the world is getting ready for the FIBA Under-19 World Championships to be held from July 2-12 in Aukland, New Zealand.

Juan Antonio Orenga, Head Coach of the Under-19 Spaniard Select team and one of the European teams that qualified for the tourney, told ESPN Deportes that his players face a good challenge since now they will be facing teams from other continents outside of Europe.

He thinks that Canada and Puerto Rico come very improved to the tourney. He says the Canadian team has most of their players in Div. I colleges in the United States.
About Puerto Rico, the new FIBA rules allowing second generation nationals to play for select teams helps the island.

The America East Conference has a few players from the Under-19 Canadian Select team:

Murphy Burnatowski, 6'6", Waterloo, Ontario (Maine)
Michael Allison, 6'9", Lynen, Ontario (Maine)
Taylor Johnston, 6'6", West Hill, Toronto (Binghamton)
Rob Gagliardi, 6'2", Whitby, Ontario (Canisius)
Mangisto (Manny) Arop, 6'6", Hamilton, Ontario (Gonzaga)
Marc Trasolini, 6'8", Vancouver, BC (Santa Clara)
Kelly Olynik, 6'10", Vancouver, BC (Gonzaga)

Puerto Rico Under-19 Select (and its first Jewish player)

Raymond Cintrón,Jr. 6'1", (University of New Orleans)
Jio Fontan, 6'0", (Fordham University)
Mike Rosario, 6'3", (Rutgers)
Kevin Young, 6'8", (Loyola Marymount)
Darius Morales, 6'9" (East Carolina)
Carlos (Yao) López, 6'9" (UNLV)
Josh Nirenberg, 6'9" (Appalachian State)

Douai World Tournament: Of course, this comes before Aukland. I haven't been able to find anything helpful about Canada's role here, beyond what's been posted above in this thread. There's an official site but, unfortunately, I'm not finding a version in English.

Back to the U-19 World Championship: The official site is fleshing out more details and is helpful. Here is a summary and some links:

When: July 2-12, 2009

Where: North Shore & Auckland, North Shore Events Centre & ASB Stadium

Participating teams

Argentina
Australia
Canada
Croatia
Egypt
France
Greece
Iran
Kazakhstan
Lithuania
New Zealand
Puerto Rico
Spain
Syria
USA

Schedule: http://newzealand2009.fiba.com/pages.../schedule.html

Canada preliminaries scheduled:

Thurs, July 2: Canada - Australia, 17:00 hr
Fri., July 3: Syria - Canada, 12:30
Sat., July 4: Canada - Spain, 17:00

Standings: http://newzealand2009.fiba.com/pages...-standing.html

Players: http://newzealand2009.fiba.com/pages...er-search.html

Teams: http://newzealand2009.fiba.com/pages...am-search.html

[ZagNative]

More from the hooplife.ca/raptorshq , as it Introduces Canada-Basketball HQ site today, with a review by Ray Bala of the players and game at the All-Canada Classic

Ever since the slow demise of Hooplife, this is something we’ve been wanting to do for a while and last fall we grabbed former Hooplife writer Ray Bala for the task.

Ray has been working tirelessly behind the scenes and has already secured some incredible access to upcoming events, something that should be interesting not only to our current Raptors-specific readership, but to the many basketball-junkies out across the nation who just aren’t getting the fix they need.

While Ray will primarily be looking at Canadians playing D1 in the US and professionally overseas, he’ll also be scouting local tournaments, looking at the Canadian University basketball landscape and the National Team, and even working on some cultural stories fusing the game, music, fashion…you name it.

Eek! I do without the music and fashion fusion, but here's a bit of a game story:

The game itself was great and it played out like any other all star game; a lot of offense, little defense, sloppy play early and a lot of ooohhs and ahhhs. The players for both teams definitely had the game to be at this event but those prospects playing Stateside seemed to be a cut above the others with Junior Cadougan (signed letter of intent with Marquette) in particular looking unstoppable.

It was a seesaw battle between the East and West in the early minutes with the West taking a ten point lead into the break. The second half would be a little different as both teams were looking to lock-in on defense, but the offense still flowed well. Turnovers were still abundant (this was an All-Star type event) and Cadougan was still showing why he was invited to the National Team try-out a couple of years back. Tristan Thompson, probably the most highly regarded player in recent memory from Canada, looked a little sloppy and uninterested at times, though his skill set was noticeable. I wasn’t able to stick around for the whole second half but I had seen enough to know that the event had definitely succeeded in bringing together the best of the best.

-Finally, Alwayne Bigby (Northeastern) was the best athlete playing in the game with Gonzaga bound Manny Arop coming a close second.

[OZZag]

Here is a website with much more in depth coverage, I was a bit dissapointed in Bala's comments re: down south players as three of the standout players in the game played north of the border this year (Heslop, Manny and Ty Nurse). There was alot of talent on show and court time was hard to come by, KO did not get a mention which I am also dissapointed in. I mentioned in another thread that I felt that it is the best ever collection of Canadian high school talent ever assembled, that was even without Marquette bound Junior Cadougan, who ended up playing and almost helped the East win the game, but The NEDA-dominated west team still won as I predicted.

Here is the link thanks to Crown Magazine's crew.

http://crownmagonline.com/

Ontario's Phase 1 basketball hosted the event, so far there is no scorecard for the "Rumble" game which was the senior High school all star game.

Here is a link for the Phase 1 website that will hopefully post stats and video of the game.

http://www.phase1basketball.com/acc

Here is a link to a Crown article mentioning that the Zags have shown a bit of interest in hulking centre "big Mo" Maurice Walker (he also has interest from Pittsburg and Minnesota)

http://crownmagonline.com/latest-news/big-mo-to-brewster-for-all-the-right-reasons/

[OZZag]

Correction on the teams for Douai

ZN you are amazing with your pickups!

If it is the Junior National team (preparing for FIBA worlds as noted) that goes over for Canada, the poster obviously missed three big inclusions, Tristan Thompson, Marc Trasolini and KO, as none of them where at the Manheim tournament in 2008 (itv was last year's NEDA squad).

FWIW I see the USA. Canada and Puerto Rico as the three strongest teams. The Australian squad was beaten by Canada at Manheim 2008 without Thompson, Traz or KO.

Correcting myself here, the Canadian team for this (now 6 team) tournament is the NEDA team with some of the extra players invited to the Canadian Junior National trials. The strange thing is that the USA team (represnted by the 2k pre season all americans contains not one, but two Canadians......
one of which is Texas comit Tristan Thompson, the other his Findaly Prep teamate Cory Joseph.

Here is a link to the teams for the tournament.

http://www.tournoi-douai.com/effectifs.php

Don't worry if your French is not up to scratch the names are easy.

Hopefully Manny and Kelly will get plenty of competition, and quite a bit of it will come from their countrymen. It seems rather odd that Tristan plays for the USA team this week and last weekend he played in the All Canada Classsic and next month he is back playing with the Canadian Junior team.

[Goshzagit]

It looks like Canada squares off vs. France tonight. Should be a great game. Speaking of Manny playing in this tourney, I just received a somewhat concerning message from him via Facebook.

His message was as follows:

Hey, i have tendonitis in my right knee so its hard to run or jump but i'm icing and stretching my knee and hopefully ill be able to go tonight against france. We'll see.

I wasn't aware Manny was suffering from an injury so hopefully he doesn't push it too hard before arriving on campus this Summer.

[ZagNative]

Oz, these are the rosters I'm finding listed so far for Canada:

Douai, France:

Allison, Mike
Arop, Mangisto
Baker, Jordan
Bibeau, Simon
Burnatowski, Murphy
Dewar, Robert
Dugas, Roger
Gagliardi, Rob
Langley, Nic
Manigat, Jahenns
Ndaye, Ludovic
Nurse, Ty
Olynyk, Kelly
Rivard, Laurent

Aukland, NZ

Michael David Alison
Mangisto Arop
Simon Bibeau
William Murphy Burnatowski
Robert Kenneth DeWar
Roger Alexander Dugas
Nicholas Quinn Gangley
Robert Anthony Gagliardi
Jaehens-Ley Manigat
Typhoon Dusk Nurse
Kelly Tyler Corness Olynyk
Laurent Ducharme Rivard
Marc Christian Trassolini

I'm not finding Tristan Thompson any place on that NZ list. Are the N.E.D.A. and Grassroots wars on in earnest?

[OZZag]

Canada beat France, hopefully I will locate the scoresheet overnight. The USA 2K team lost to Puerto Rico, who have two D1 players in their squad.

ZN regarding Tristan Thompson I have got mail that Canada Basketball is still trying to convince him to go to New Zealand, but that AAU and the bright lights/exposure of the circuit are proving more attractive to Tristan than playing for his country which personally disgusts me if that is the case.

The only upside of the situation is that Kelly looks more like a starter with Thompson not on the team, as Kelly would most likely start at the 3 or 4 depending on where Manny plays.

[Baldwinzag]

Canada beat France, hopefully I will locate the scoresheet overnight. The USA 2K team lost to Puerto Rico, who have two D1 players in their squad.

Thanks OZ! I'm excited to see how Kelly and Manny performed vs France. Apparently, Manny is suffering from tendonitis in his right knee, so I hope he was healthy enough to play. I look forward to viewing the scoresheet.

[guballer]

La France se fait surprendre par le Canada 79-71 après un match serré.

La France joué son premier match sans son meneur MVP du dernier tournoi Andrew Albicy (qui joué au même moment avec Paris et qui rejoindra l’équipe dès aujourd’hui). La tâche s’annoncé donc difficile face à une équipe Canadienne de talent à l’image de son intérieur Kelly Olynyk (21points, 3 rebonds et 3 passes).Le premier quart temps voit la France s’imposer de 2 points malgré la maladresse aux tirs de l’équipe (seulement 3 sur 13 à l’intérieur). Les canadiens reviennent ensuite dans le deuxième quart temps grâce à Rob Gagliardi (24 points, 5 rebonds) et prennent l’avantage avant de regagner les vestiaires pour le mi temps. Le troisième quart temps est disputé et est marqué par la réussite des canadiens à 3 points (6 sur 10). Les Français courent derrière le score mais le big man des bleus Alexis Tanche (10points, 8rebonds) ramène son équipe à égalité avec deux énormes dunks consécutifs. Le dernier quart temps reprend donc sur un score de parité et c’est un nouveau match qui commence. La France enchaîne une succession de tirs manqués et laisse le Canada s’échapper. A 24 secondes la fin Murphy Burnatowski , plutôt discret jusqu’alors, marque un panier plus la faute et permet à son équipe de mener +4. Ty Nurse se chargera d’alourdir encore plus le score en marquant ces 4 lancers francs, ramenant la victoire pour son équipe. La France à mal gérée le dernier quart temps (elle perd 22-14) malgré les deux big men de l’équipe de France Tanghe Alexis (10pts, 8 rebond en 28 min) et Jacques Yohann (14 pts, 7 rebond 1 passe en 21 min)

[Baldwinzag]

Nice to see Kelly lead his team in scoring while still getting the win. He appears to be a natural scorer and points come easy to him. It will be interesting to see if Manny played much considering the tendonitis in his knee.

[CanadianZagFan]

Nice to see Kelly lead his team in scoring while still getting the win. He appears to be a natural scorer and points come easy to him. It will be interesting to see if Manny played much considering the tendonitis in his knee.

It would seem as if Rob Gagliardi (signed with Canisius) was top scorer for Canada with 24, Kelly did have a nice stat line, a little shy on rebounds but the 3 dimes are nice. If Manny was out he may have been more on the perimeter this game.