Victor Lapeña’s first take a look at as the brand new head trainer of Canada’s senior ladies’s basketball program comes at the international level, as Canada will compete on the FIBA Girls’s Basketball Global Cup 2022 Qualifying Match in Osaka, Japan.
Lapeña will take Canada to stand off towards Japan, the host nation, in addition to Bosnia and Herzegovina in Staff C. In customary cases, the highest 3 finishers in each and every staff will solidify their spot on the FIBA Girls’s Basketball Global Cup 2022 in Sydney.
On the other hand, Belarus has determined they’re going to no longer be collaborating within the qualifying event, that means that Canada has routinely certified for a place in Sydney in September.
Whilst the roster nonetheless heads to Osaka to compete and get their chemistry in combination prior to the FIBA Girls’s Basketball Global Cup 2022, Lapeña will likely be tasked with a brand new problem he has but to stand – being the top trainer for a countrywide ladies’s staff.
Prior to now, Lapeña had served as an assistant trainer for Spain’s ladies’s senior nationwide staff, main them to an Olympic silver medal at Rio 2016, and a silver medal on the 2014 FIBA Global Championship for Girls in his 14 years with this system.
For Lapeña, the FIBA Girls’s Basketball Global Cup 2022 offers him a possibility to lend a hand Canada make historical past, as they target to make a twelfth look on the match and seek for their highest-ever end.
The best Canada has ever completed at a Global Cup is 3rd position, on the 1979 FIBA Global Championship for Girls in Korea and the 1986 FIBA Global Championship for Girls in Moscow.
Failing to earn a quarter-final berth on the Tokyo Olympics, Canada posted a 1-2 file in staff play, dropping out on a tiebreaker between the opposite “fortunate loser” groups. In each and every of the former two Olympics in Rio and London, Canada’s ladies’s nationwide staff misplaced within the quarter-finals.
Right here’s a have a look at what’s arising for Canada as they tackle step one of the FIBA Girls’s Basketball 2022 Global Cup.
How you can watch Group Canada play
Beginning on Thursday towards Japan, Canada takes its first step towards the FIBA Girls’s Basketball 2022 Global Cup. This is find out how to watch.
Video games
With a 14-hour time trade, Canada opens their event towards host staff Japan at 5 a.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 10, which is 7 p.m. native time.
Canada will then tackle Bosnia and Herzegovina at 1 a.m. ET on Saturday, Feb. 12, which is 3 p.m. ET native time, dealing with off towards the 2021 WNBA MVP Jonquel Jones within the matchup.
Since Belarus cancelled their participation, Canada will handiest play two video games within the event.
Broadcast
As Sportsnet is now the unique house for FIBA occasions in Canada during the fall of 2025, each video games will likely be to be had to observe on Sportsnet 360.
Qualifier layout
The FIBA Girls’s Basketball 2022 Global Cup qualifying is far other than the boys’s event, as the boys’s aspect qualifies of their continental areas such because the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe.
As a substitute, the ladies’s aspect has qualifying tournaments just like the Olympics, going down in Osaka, Japan, Washington, USA, and Belgrade, Serbia, and the video games will likely be performed from Feb. 10-13.
The event in Washington is composed of Belgium, Puerto Rico, Russia, and residential staff USA dealing with off, whilst the event in Belgrade will see two other qualifying teams.
Belgrade will host Australia, Korea, Brazil and residential staff Serbia in Staff A, with Staff B consisting of Mali, China, France and Nigeria.
The FIBA Girls’s Basketball 2022 Global Cup serves as a qualifer for the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games.
Canada’s Bridget Carleton (6), left, passes round South Korea’s Hyeyoon Bae. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)
Roster notes
Whilst Canada has numerous skill taking part in in a foreign country in addition to within the NCAA and WNBA, gamers in the ones leagues have usually no longer been made to be had for in-season qualifying home windows, with gamers like Natalie Achonwa and Bridget Carleton lacking out at the 2021 version of the FIBA Girls’s AmeriCup because of their WNBA commitments.
Despite the fact that 19 gamers had been named to the initial roster for Canada’s coaching camp, handiest 12 travelled to Osaka to compete.
The gamers named to the overall roster come with veterans Achonwa, Carleton, Kayla Alexander and Nirra Fields, who competed for Canada all through the Tokyo 2020 Olympic video games in addition to Alexander and Fields competing within the FIBA Girls’s AmeriCup in June.
Michelle Plouffe returns to the staff after lacking pageant in 2020 and 2021 because of FIBA 3×3 commitments for Group Canada.
Shay Colley, a key participant for Canada in Tokyo, used to be additionally named to the preliminary roster along side Aislinn Konig and Jamie Scott, who had been reserves for the Tokyo Video games.
NCAA standouts Laeticia Amihere and Merissah Russell go back for Canada, whilst UConn superstar Aaliyah Edwards is probably not collaborating because of her NCAA commitments.
Cassandra Brown and Quinn Dornstauder spherical out the overall participants of the 12 ladies named to the overall roster.
Coaches
Lapeña signed on to train along newly employed assistant trainer Noelle Quinn, the present head trainer of the Seattle Hurricane, along side fellow assistant coaches Steve Baur and Carly Clarke. The FIBA Girls’s Basketball Global Cup 2022 Qualifying Match can be a have a look at Lapeña’s training taste, as he’s going to lead many gamers at the present roster to the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games the place he hopes to make a observation as head trainer.
Former head trainer Lisa Thomaidis and this system parted techniques two days prior to her contract expired, finishing a nine-year run with the staff by which she compiled an 83-44 file and earned gold on the 2015 FIBA Americas Girls’s Championship and the 2017 FIBA Girls’s AmeriCup.
What’s subsequent?
Since Belarus cancelled their participation, Canada’s senior lady will by way of default seem within the FIBA Girls’s Basketball Global Cup 2022 regardless of how they carry out in Osaka, however the senior males are but to substantiate their spot and can play within the Feb. 24-27 qualifying window.
