Canada takes on the Dominican Republic on Thursday (7:10 p.m.) before facing Mexico on Sunday (2:10 p.m.), both games at SaskTel Centre.
Saskatoon is set to host a pair of FIBA Men’s AmeriCup qualifiers this week.
Canada will take on the Dominican Republic on Thursday (7:10 p.m.) before facing Mexico on Sunday (2:10 p.m.). Both games will take place at SaskTel Centre.
Canada Basketball will select a 12-man roster for each game from a pool of 15 players announced to Canada’s senior men’s national team preliminary roster.
The team converged in Saskatoon over the weekend to hold a training camp from Sunday to Wednesday at the University of Saskatchewan.
Canada opened the FIBA Men’s AmeriCup 2025 qualifiers with a pair of victories over Nicaragua in February and currently sits undefeated, 2-0, atop Group C. During three windows, in February 2024, November 2024, and February 2025, each team plays each opponent in their group twice under a “home-and-away” format.
There are 16 teams in the FIBA Men’s AmeriCup 2025 qualifiers, divided into four groups of four teams each. The top three teams in each group (12 in total) will qualify for the FIBA Men’s AmeriCup 2025.
Nicaragua has automatically qualified as the FIBA Men’s AmeriCup 2025 host. As a result, the top two teams from Group C (Canada, Dominican Republic and Mexico) will qualify for the tournament.
Canada is coming off a fifth-place finish at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, its first appearance in the tournament in 24 years. It was the team’s highest finish since fourth place at the 1986 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Canada’s preliminary training camp pool announced for Saskatoon included Fardaws Aimaq, Trae Bell-Haynes, Aaron Best, Marcus Carr, Nate Darling, Tyler Ennis, Kadre Gray, Quincey Guerrier, Jehvon Blair, Mfiondu Kabengele, Thomas Kennedy, Lloyd Pandi, Jackson Rowe, Stefan Smith and Josip Vrankic.
Meanwhile, Nathaniel Mitchell has been appointed Canada’s head coach for the FIBA Men’s AmeriCup 2025 qualifiers this week in Saskatoon.
Mitchell previously served as the senior men’s head coach at the FIBA Men’s AmeriCup 2022 in Brazil, where the team finished fourth.
The Toronto-born coach is currently the head coach of the Guangzhou Loong Lions in the Chinese Basketball Association.
Mitchell fills in for Jordi Fernandez, who is also in his first season as head coach of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.
“It’s an honour to return to the Canadian bench and lead our senior men’s national team,” Mitchell said in a release. “As a team, we’re looking to build on our two wins from the first window in February and take another step towards qualifying for next summer’s FIBA Men’s AmeriCup.”
Canada is currently ranked fifth in the latest FIBA world rankings.
The rankings were updated after the men’s basketball tournament at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
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