| FINAL STANDINGS 1. United States 2. CANADA 3. Argentina 4. Puerto Rico | CANADIANS Steve Nash (Johannesburg, South Africa) Rowan Barrett (Scarborough, Ont.) Sherman Hamilton (Toronto, Ont.) Greg Newton (Niagara Falls, Ont.) Pete Guarasci (Niagara Falls, Ont.) Michael Meeks (Patrick City, Jamaica) Todd MacCulloch (Winnipeg, Man.) Richard Anderson (Ottawa, Ont.) Andrew Mavis (Vancouver, B.C.) Jordie McTavish (Salmon Arm, B.C.) Shawn Swords (Ottawa, Ont.) Keith Vassell (Toronto, Ont.) Jay Triano – coach Dave Pendergraft – assistant Mike Katz – assistant James Hillis – assistant |
| POOL B | PUR | VEN | BRZ | DOM | PAN | Record | |||||
| Puerto Rico | —– | 81-56 | 96-88 | 103-95 | 85-71 | (4-0) | |||||
| Venezuela | 56-81 | —– | 91-68 | 70-86 | 76-72 | (3-1) | |||||
| Brazil | 88-96 | 68-91 | —– | 70-64 | 90-73 | (2-2) | |||||
| Dominican Republic | 95-103 | 66-70 | 64-70 | —– | 77-73 | (1-3) | |||||
| Panama | 71-85 | 72-76 | 73-90 | 73-77 | —– | (0-4) | |||||
| POOL A | USA | CAN | ARG | URU | CUB | Record | |||||
| United States | —– | 94-60 | 103-72 | 118-72 | 88-52 | (4-0) | |||||
| Canada | 60-94 | —– | 77-70 | 80-62 | 75-65 | (3-1) | |||||
| Argentina | 72-103 | 70-77 | —– | 97-81 | 81-76 | (2-2) | |||||
| Uruguay | 72-118 | 62-80 | 81-97 | —– | 87-84 | (1-3) | |||||
| Cuba | 52-88 | 65-75 | 76-81 | 84-87 | —– | (0-4) | |||||
| ROUND TWO | USA | PUR | ARG | CAN | VEN | BRZ | DOM | URU | Record | ||
| United States | —– | 115-76 | 103-72 | 94-60 | 83-61 | 90-73 | 107-71 | 118-72 | (7-0) | ||
| Puerto Rico | 76-115 | —– | 96-101 | 80-75 | 96-101 | 96-88 | 103-95 | 93-64 | (5-2) | ||
| Argentina | 72-103 | 101-96 | —– | 70-77 | 95-71 | 79-77 | 85-71 | 97-81 | (5-2) | ||
| Canada | 60-94 | 75-80 | 77-70 | —– | 84-55 | 95-75 | 81-64 | 80-62 | (5-2) | ||
| Venezuela | 61-83 | 101-96 | 71-95 | 55-84 | —– | 91-68 | 70-66 | 87-84 | (3-4) | ||
| Brazil | 73-90 | 88-96 | 77-79 | 75-95 | 68-91 | —– | 70-64 | 100-74 | (2-5) | ||
| Uruguay | 72-118 | 64-93 | 81-97 | 62-80 | 84-87 | 74-100 | 78-71 | —– | (1-6) | ||
| Dominican Republic | 71-107 | 95-103 | 71-85 | 64-81 | 66-70 | 64-70 | —– | 71-78 | (0-7) | ||
| Semi | Canada 83 Puerto Rico 71 | |
| Semi | United States 88 Argentina 59 | |
| Bronze | Argentina 103 Puerto Rico 101 | |
| Final | United States 92 Canada 66 | |
In the run-up to the Olympic tournament, national team head coach Steve Konchalski is fired in Oct-98 in the wake of Canada’s abysmal performance at the World Championships in Athens, where Canada finished 12th. Konchalski tells the press that he was planning for the Olympics. “If I had known that (success at the worlds was so important), I would have picked a more veteran team that would have given us a better chance. Instead, I went with young players because I didn’t feel the veterans would have been able to help by the Olympics in 2000, which was our stated goal.”
Basketball Canada president Art Rutledge called the firing a “terrible decision” to have to make. “The board felt the current structure wouldn’t result in us getting to the Olympics.”
Konchalski promptly hires Ottawa law firm Nelligan-Power and files a formal appeal of his dismissal. “My contract stipulated I’m entitled to have an opportunity to participate in any review process. I wasn’t given that opportunity,” he says. Konchalski appeals on the grounds that he wasn’t provided due process. He is successful in his appeal in Feb-99.
Konchalski is then promptly fired again two weeks later. Basketball Canada president Art Rutledge says the organization will honor the last two years of Konchalski’s contract. Konchalski argued he never got the opportunity to participate in the review process that led to his firing, a stipulation that he argued he was entitled to under the terms of his contract.
In March-99 Vancouver Grizzlies director of community relations Jay Triano, a former Olympian, is appointed head coach of the national senior team. Triano played at Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988 and watched the Canadian program flounder in the 1990s. Former head coach at Simon Fraser.
Heading into the Olympic qualifying tournament, there was concern that the Dallas Mavericks would persuade point guard Steve Nash to take the summer off given that he missed the final 10 games of the NBA season with a back injury. The team suffered a dismal (3-4) record on a swing through New Zealand and Australia. But with the addition of Nash, the squad’s weakness became a strength. Triano turfed such long-time stars as Joey Vickery, Martin Keane and Will Njoku and replaced them with young guns. Then Steve Nash came on board.
On arriving in Australia, “the Australians just kind of looked at us,” Triano said. “They were like: you guys didn’t bring Steve Nash or Rick Fox or Bill Wennington? What are you, nuts? Don’t you know that we’re playing with Luc Longley and Chris Anstey and other NBAers? They thought we’d brought our B team. I told them: now this is Canada’s national team.’ Then when we played, we surprised everyone.” On the Australian tour, there are several clashes with Australia players in the first four games. In one game, Australian Matthew Nielsen punches Ottawa-born Shawn Swords. In another game, Chris Anstey, who plays for the Mavericks, was ejected along with Ottawa-born Richard Anderson for fighting.
Shortly before the tournament, three of the players, Rowan Barrett, Shawn Swords and Greg Meldrum get married and soon leave their brides to head to Puerto Rico. Barrett is married one week before the team leaves for the qualifying tournament. Meldrum is married one month earlier and Swords two months prior. “I’ve been married for six weeks and I think I’ve seen her for three weeks,” Swords says. “It’s been crazy but she understands.”
In their opener, Canada defeated Argentina 77-70 despite committing 24 turnovers. “I’m not happy. I’m not pleased with our play offensively. Our defence won the game,” said coach Jay Triano. “They shot 21-56 (.450) from the field. We kept their big scorers from hurting us.” Canada led 33-30 at the half and shot .524 from the arc, while outrebounding Argentina 37-21. Sherman Hamilton led Canada with 18 points and held Argentine star Juan Espil to just 15, including 1-7 from the arc. Steve Nash added 16, Rowan Barrett 14, while Michael Meeks grabbed 14 boards. “Sherman Hamilton was our best player tonight,” said Triano. We played well, especially defensively, but we need to cut down our turnovers.” Triano was also unhappy about Canada’s foul trouble. “The Argentines did a good job of taking dives and flopping on the floor whenever they were touched.” But Todd McCullough played well off the bench. “He was 3-3 from the floor, sank his one fouls shot. He also changed a lot of shots with his inside game and made his presence felt,” said Triano.
Point guard Steve Nash scored 21 points and five assists and six rebounds as Canada drubbed Uruguay 80-62. Todd MacCulloch of Winnipeg and Rowan Barrett of Toronto each scored 17. Uruguay built an early lead before Canada rallied to a 38-34 lead at the break. ‘I was a little concerned that we got off to a slow start as far as our intensity level, but we were able to fight back,” said coach Jay Triano. Nash “needed to step up and he did,” Triano noted. “He had a great game, 3-6 on three-pointers, 8-14 overall. He took it to another level. We told him Uruguay would sag off on screens and he had the shots. He just controls the game, he used the clock wisely and made sure we executed down the stretch.” MacCulloch had 13 rebounds as Canada out-rebounded Uruguay 38-29. “He’s been gradually playing more and becoming more comfortable,” Triano said. “he hasn’t played since the college season ended and all he did was work out for NBA teams. He’s getting into a nice groove.” Triano added that “we did a very good job in the second half of getting the ball inside and getting it back out. We also did well on defence against a team that plays with a lot of discipline on offence.” Canada out-rebounded Uruguay 32-21 and shot .909 from the line, while Uruguay was .643. Canada shot .684 from the floor while Uruguay was .400.
Canada’s big men dominated in a come from behind 75-65 win over Cuba. Canada fell behind by 12 early but rallied to within 37-30 at the half. Working the ball inside in the second half, the Canadians took command. They took their first lead at 52-51 with 11 minutes to play. Cuba switched to a full-court press but Steve Nash picked it apart. Nash dished out 9 assists and had no turnovers. They out-rebounded Cuba 40-25. 7-0 centre Todd MacCulloch hit 7-11 from the floor for 14 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Greg Newton added 10 points and seven rebounds. Forward Peter Guarasci scored 10 and grabbed 9 boards. Rowan Barrett led Canada with 18 points. Canada shot 19-27 in the second half while holding Cuba to 28 points. “That’s the one thing we’ve been working on all summer is intense defence,” said coach Jay Triano. “You’ve got to have something that’s going to be consistent, game in and game out. Sometimes shooting goes but defence and rebounding has been very good so far.” Triano added that “in the first half, we played sluggish and took quick perimeter shots. In the second half, our front line was the key. We made adjustments to go inside to our posts. We shot .770 in the second half, so we were successful.”
Canada took solace in holding the U.S. Dream Team to under 100 points. The squad fell behind 24-4 after seven minutes of play. They rallied back to within single digits early in the second half before the U.S. took control. Gary Payton led the Americans with 10 points. Tim Duncan added 18 and Kevin Garnett 15. Jason Kidd handed out 11 assists. The match also featured a dust-up between Tom Gugliotta and Peter Guarasci after the American opened a gaping cut on Guarasci’s forehead on a foul. A visibly angered Guarasci was forced to bench and returned in the second half with stitches. Greg Newton scored 10 for Canada, while nabbing 5 rebounds. Keith Vassell scored 9. Todd MacCulloch had 7 boards. Steve Nash hit 2-7 from the floor and had 5 points, 6 turnovers and 1 assist. Canada cut the early American lead to 36-23 on a series of three-pointers. But Payton triggered a 22-7 run early in the second half with a fastbreak layup. “I’m pleased that everyone on our team saw some floor time,” said Triano. “One of our goals today was to give every player equal minutes, so that we are well rested to play against Uruguay tomorrow.”
Top four in Group A advance to final round-robin. Results from Pool A carry over.
Steve Nash scored 21 and handed out 9 assists, while grabbing six rebounds, to spark Canada to 95-75 victory over Brazil. Rowan Barrett added 16 and Sherman Hamilton 13. Brazil led 41-40 at the half despite Steve Nash’s 11 points. “We followed our game plan in the first half but had difficulty containing their two big posts,” said Triano. “We made some adjustments at halftime and our team responded by stepping it up on defence against a tough Brazilian team. This created some easy scoring opportunities which we capitalized on.” Canada shot 22-27 from the field in the second half. “This game was a lot closer than the score reflects,” said Triano. “I’m really pleased with our performance today and most importantly with our defensive intensity in the last five minutes, where we held Brazil to only four points.” No player on the Canadian squad shot less than .500 from the floor or the line. Canada led 76-71 with five minutes to play and closed out the contest with a 19-4 run. Canada shot .530 from the arc, .760 from the floor and .780 from the line. Nash had zero turnovers and hit 5-8 from the arc and 3-4 from the floor. Hamilton added 7 assists. Peter Guarasci scored 10 and grabbed 4 boards. Todd MacCulloch grabbed 7 boards. “We don’t want a lot of possessions. We want to focus on D,” said Triano. “But because of the way Brazil shot the ball, we were forced to play offensively. We had an unbelievable second half. We shot 81.5 per cent, 22-for-27. Brazil wanted to play a high scoring game and fortunately, we shot well.” Sandro Franca led Brazil with 22. Aristides Dos Santos added 20.
With Rowan Barrett playing against former St. John’s teammate Felipe Lopez, Canada whipped the Dominican Republic 81-64. 6-5 Barrett scored 15 points. The Dominican Republic took a slim one-point lead at 16:40 of the first half. But Rowan Barrett hit three from beyond the arc within three minutes to spark Canada. Sherman Hamilton hit two from beyond the arc in the final minutes of the first half as Canada moved ahead 43-32 at the break. They quickly stretched their margin to 17 midway through the second half before allowing an 8-0 Dominican run that cut the lead to nine. But a few defensive adjustments during a time out put Canada back on track. “We have to give credit to the Dominican Republic for not giving up,” said Triano. “This was a tough game for us because the Dominican is already out of contention and was able to play without a lot of pressure, where we needed a win. I’m happy with the solid defence that we played and with holding them to only 64 points. All 12 players played tonight and everyone had relatively equal minutes. We need everyone to be ready for the next two games. …We weren’t as hot as we were Monday but any time you shoot around 50 per cent, you’ll take it. We came out and played solid defence and that’s going to win us games: good defence.” Michael Meeks and Hamilton each scored 11 for Canada. Steve Nash scored 5, grabbed 8 boards and dished out 7 assists. Todd MacCulloch grabbed 8 boards and scored 7 points. Kevin Vassell scored 10 and Greg Newton 9.
Canada played Puerto Rico on its home floor before packed crowds, singing, band playing, sign waving and promptly lost 80-75. “This was a well fought game,” said Triano. “Puerto Rico played well and at the end of the game they went ahead making some big shots. It was a tight game both ways.” The game was evenly played the first 10 minutes before Puerto Rico moved ahead by 10 with seven minutes to play in the half. Canada closed out the half with an 11-1 run to take a one-point lead. Canada trailed 45-44 at the break. “It was a good experience to play in this type of environment,” said Triano. With 2:30 to play in the game, Canada led by three. But Puerto Rico took the lead with 1:35 to play on a Jose Ortiz three-pointer. Canada was held scoreless for the final two minutes of play. Rowan Barrett led Canada with 17 points. Todd MacCulloch scored 16 and grabbed 16 boards. Sherman Hamilton scored 12. Nash scored 9, dished out 10 assists, grabbed five boards and had only one turnover in 40 minutes of play.
Canada defeated Venezuela 84-55 to officially earn a berth in the semis. Canada led 44-30 at the half. Todd MacCulloch scored 12 points and grabbed 8 boards. Sherman Hamilton scored 12 and Jordie McTavish 10. “Despite a slow start to the game, our bench scoring was key to building a 14-point first half lead,” said Triano. “We picked up our defensive intensity in the second half, holding Venezuela to only 25 second half points.”
Top four teams qualify for semis. Canada tied with Puerto Rico and Argentina at (5-2) in round robin play. But when points were tallied in games between the trio, Canada was plus two, Puerto Rico even and Argentina minus two, placing Canada second. Triano said his youthful troops have played well above their heads. “We’re the youngest team here and the players have played with so much heart and unselfishness, more than any team that I have ever seen. Nobody cares about individual numbers. When we first got together, we told the players nobody here’s going to the Olympics without the rest of us, so let’s work together and be a good team. No one needs to score lots of points or play 40 minutes. Just do your job.”
Canada earns a berth in the Sydney Olympics with an 83-71 victory over host Puerto Rico before a raucous San Juan audience with a dominant second-half performance. It was an unexpected result for a team hurt by turmoil, underachievement and an unwillingness of top players to participate in recent seasons. They did it with teamwork, even avoiding San Juan’s nightlife for a quiet party at their hotel. “I told them to party like we played, together and with class,” said Triano. “It’s just like how we represented ourselves on the floor.” Triano said “we have a young team without these old veterans. This meant to be a step towards 2004. But at the same time how can you tell a Steve Nash or a Rowan Barrett that we’re working towards 2004? You can’t. I didn’t say a thing about our plans to anyone. They didn’t listen to what people said. They said: ‘no, we’re going out here to win now.” The victory over Puerto Rico avenged a round-robin loss, which saw Canada’s youth and inexperience exposed in a last-minute collapse. But in the rematch, Sherman Hamilton of Malton, Ont. hit seven critical free throws in the last three minutes to seal the win. Nash scored 26 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had four assists. Hamilton scored 19 while Barrett tossed in 18 and Meeks 16. “Our kids just played their butts off at the defensive end of the floor,” Triano says. “I tried to convince them that defence is what wins and they believe me now. … I’m so happy for them because they’re going to get to go to an Olympic Games now. They deserve it. We had a lot of support (FAXes from home) and it’s great to know we got Canada back on the basketball map again.” Canada led 38-32 at the break as Nash scored 15 in the first half. Michael Meeks scored the first five points of the second half and Nash added a pair of threes to give Canada total control. A jumper by Rowan Barrett with 10:45 to play gave Canada a 19-point lead. But Puerto Rico rallied back to within 69-60 on a three-pointer by Jerome Mincy. A three-point play by Jose Ortiz with 2:50 to play cut the lead to 73-66 but Sherman Hamilton iced it at the line. He hit 11-12 free throws in the final four minutes of play. Meeks scored 16 points and had seven rebounds. “Steve’s performance here ranks as one of the top clutch performances in Canadian athletic history,” Triano said. “One the bus back to the hotel, Steve was the one leading the cheers. I think he is really looking forward to Sydney.”
In the final, Canada fell 92-66 to the United States. Triano said few cared about loss. “We could prepare for weeks. We could watch film and go through the motions. The fact is there is no way we are going to beat that team. We don’t care right now. Nothing can take away what we accomplished.” Canada trailed by 12 at the half and cut the margin to eight at 48-40 early in the second half. But the US responded with a 15-0 run and moved ahead 63-40 with thirteen minutes to play. Todd MacCulloch led Canada with 22 points and 16 rebounds. Andrew Mavis of Richmond added 12 points and 11 boards. Steve Nash scored 11 and committed just one turnover. Gary Payton of the Seattle Supersonics led the US with 19. Tim Hardaway added 14, Tim Duncan 12, Steve Smith 11, Jason Kidd 10, Tom Gugliotta 10 and Kevin Garnett 10 “The team competed very hard tonight but we were overpowered by the U.S.,” said Triano. “But we came here with the goal to qualify for the Olympics and that’s exactly what we did. …We just wanted to make sure we got better today. You don’t expect to beat them. Today was a chance to give everybody some minutes. I really spread around the playing time.”