Title: Canada falls short against Schroder, Germany finishing 21st at World Cup
Date: September 9, 2019
Original Source: The Athletic
Synopsis: In my latest for The Athletic Toronto, I wrote about Canada losing their final World Cup game and the path that lies ahead for their Olympic hopes.
For a while Monday morning, it looked like Canada was about to make the very best of a bad situation. They had a roster they didn’t anticipate and the most difficult group of the FIBA World Cup. Finishing as the top team in the classification round wouldn’t have been a resounding success, but it would represent an achievement of a secondary goal. All they had to do was hang on to an 11-point second-half lead against Germany.
As has so often been the case over the last few years, things changed quickly and Canada landed in a less favorable, if still mostly acceptable, position. Germany stormed back, beat Canada 82-76 in their World Cup finale and dropped them from potentially 17th or 18th in the tournament to 21st. It’s not a huge deal. Canada will still get to compete in an Olympic qualifying tournament next summer in hopes of making their first Olympics since 2000. It does, however, continue a series of smaller losses for the program that snowball over time and continues to make it difficult for the senior men’s side of Canada Basketball to get out of first gear on the international stage.
Blame Dennis Schroder. We know Cory Joseph certainly will.
