<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Samuel Dalembert of the Philadelphia 76ers and the Miami Heat's Joel Anthony headline Canada's 12-man basketball roster for the FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament. Canadian head coach Leo Rautins named his roster Sunday, wrapping up a 10-day training camp in Toronto. “We're very excited about this team,” Rautins said in a release. “The guys have all been working extremely hard and we're just looking forward to getting things started.” Guard Rowan Barrett is the longest-serving member of the squad, having spent 10 years in the national program, while Tyler Kepkay, a guard for the University of Utah, will make his national team debut. Rautins' son Andy rebounded from knee surgery to make the squad. The guard for the Syracuse Orangemen led Canada in scoring at last summer's Pan American Games, but then tore his anterior cruciate ligament at the FIBA Americas qualifying tournament in Las Vegas and only returned to the court a few weeks ago. Canada needs to finish top-three in the last-chance qualifying tournament July 14-20 in Athens, Greece to book a ticket to the Beijing Olympics. The Canadians are in a pool with Slovenia and South Korea.</div> Globe & Mail
They actually have a decent team and a good chance to advance to the next round, especially with Slovenia missing Smodis. The next round will be much tougher for them, since Puerto Rico and Croatia are both great National Teams and will be tough to get past. If they manage to win there, they have Brazil/Greece/Germany to worry about.
