U19 World Cup Preview: Team Canada featuring Elijah Fisher, Caleb Houstan, Ben Mathurin, and more

[Hair Canada]

I noticed that Duke had a jersey on that said "Simpson" on the back. Is he going by that now?

I believe his name is Kyle Duke-Simpson. So you could take your pick.

[casoldi]

Nembhard is playing extremely well. The bench on the other end...

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[Hair Canada]

Thoughts about the 30-point win against Senegal:

The difference this time around was that we came to play right from the get-go and made it an easy game against one of the few teams in this competition that can match our size and athleticism. In terms of talent, though, there’s a really big gap between the two teams and it showed today.

THE GOOD

The first unit. For the first time, this unit played well right from the start and it’s looking like coordination, familiarity, and comfort are picking up.

The defense. This was particularly evident on the defensive end, where we were able to contain the Senegalese bigs and not let their size bother us. Naturally, that gets a lot easier against a team that completely cannot shoot it from 3, but you have to play the odds and we did it well today.

Nembhard. This time Ryan showed right from the start, which demonstrated how much we depend on him, as it made the whole team look great. He hit his shots (4/7 from 3), played aggressively, as usual, made good decisions, and also had a great passing game (8 assists). A terrific PG all around.

Edey. Our most consistent player throughout this group stage with another day at the office – 18 points, 17 rebounds, and 2 blocks. The nice thing was to see that he can bring it even against imposing bigs. Ibou Badji had 6 blocks per game in the tournament, but Edey kind of dwarfed him and had a relatively easy time on defense since the Senegalese bigs can’t shoot. You still feel like Edey can do even a bit more, as he still rushes shots a bit instead of just gathering and dunking everything. But he plays with a great aggressive mindset and a will to dominate, has good hands, and is really good on the boards at both ends of the floor. It is a pleasure to watch.

THE BAD

The second unit. The first unit built a 35-point lead in 2.5 quarters. It was time for the second unit to show what they have. And again, they were absolutely terrible. Duke-Simpson, Kalambay, and Brown-Ferguson (playing with Owuwu-Anane and Fisher) just couldn’t hold on to the ball or do anything positive on the court and within five minutes the Senegalese brought the margin down to 20 and forced Weir to bring the starting unit back in. Unfortunately, this means that we’re going to war against better teams with only 7.5 players (Osuwu-Anane being the half) and really have nothing behind Nembhard and a bit of Mathurin and Houstan in terms of handling the ball. And again, against teams that apply constant pressure on the ball, it might prove costly.

The shooting. I’m talking here in particular about our two shooters, Mathurin and Houstan, who shot together 2 of 13 from behind the arc. Houstan’s shooting so far is particularly concerning. He’s at 5 of 29 (17%) so far in the competition and today it seemed to have gotten to him, as he was missing them wide, sometimes not even touching the rim despite fairly open shots. I do like that he continues to look for his shot and doesn’t get discouraged. He still manages to score in the paint and from mid-range and contributes in many different ways. The stats are bound to straighten up at some point, especially for Houstan, who's too good of a shooter to keep missing like this. But we really cannot afford to have both him and Mathurin shooting like this if we want a chance to be competitive against the Americans. And it can also be quite dangerous against the European teams or Australia.


Tomorrow we’re likely playing Iran, in what should be our last easy game of the competition.
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[Bruin]

Edey is impressing me a lot. Seems he’s not just one of those tall guys that don’t really do anything like Tacko Fall

He’s got a decent shot at the NBA if he keeps this up

[And1Skip]

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[ItsDanger]

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Zach took it personal.

Read on Twitter

[frumble]

With Iran's upset over PR today I believe PR loses the 3-way tiebreaker and drops to 4th in Group B (and becomes our R16 opponent).


Edit:
The standings have now been updated and PR does indeed finish 4th in B.

So we play PR in the round of 16 and then, if we win, the winner of Spain-Australia in the quarters.

As Hair Canada mentioned above, we are in the same half of the draw as the US and would play them in the semis.

(The US plays Korea in R16 and then winner of Latvia/Senegal in the QFs).

[Hair Canada]

With Iran's upset over PR today I believe PR loses the 3-way tiebreaker and drops to 4th in Group B (and becomes our R16 opponent).


Edit:
The standings have now been updated and PR does indeed finish 4th in B.

So we play PR in the round of 16 and then, if we win, the winner of Spain-Australia in the quarters.

As Hair Canada mentioned above, we are in the same half of the draw as the US and would play them in the semis.

(The US plays Korea in R16 and then winner of Latvia/Senegal in the QFs).

I'd rather have Iran. The PR always put up pesky overachieving teams. They beat Latvia and were competitive in the game with Serbia (the game was tied at the half). They also have two of the 4 leading scorers in the competition, SG Aaron Clark and SF Rafael Pinzon (Canada, by the way, has 3 players in the top-10 scorers). But eventually, there's a talent and size disparity here that should bring us the win, provided we come fully focused and committed.

The QF is going to be tough. Australia, from what I've seen, is one of the best 3 teams in the competition not named the US, even though they lost two of their games (the two others for me are Canada and France). I expect them to beat Spain. We'll talk more about them if and when it's relevant, but I really liked what I've seen from guard Dyson Daniels, who's has clear NBA talent on both ends of the floor, and they also have a few other nice guards and more size and athleticism than is usual for Australian teams. No doubt, we're in the tougher part of the draw.

[frumble]

Our group looked strong in the earlier games today, with Japan in it against Serbia until the last seconds (lost by 3), Lithuania crushing Iran, and Senegal upsetting Latvia.

Spain beat Australia, so will be our QF opponent if we win today.

US-Korea and Canada-Puerto Rico are the last two R16 games.

[TheFutureMM]

Our group looked strong in the earlier games today, with Japan in it against Serbia until the last seconds (lost by 3), Lithuania crushing Iran, and Senegal upsetting Latvia.

Spain beat Australia, so will be our QF opponent if we win today.

US-Korea and Canada-Puerto Rico are the last two R16 games.

Spain has a super tough path this tournament. Australia -> Canada -> US -> Winner of the other side. Hopefully we can put them to bed and earn our second ever Top 4 finish.

I'm excited to watch the Spain vs Canada game on Friday morning. Would be great to meet the Americans in the semis.

[frumble]

I'm excited to watch the Spain vs Canada game on Friday morning. Would be great to meet the Americans in the semis.

Looks like Canada-Spain will be the first QF game, so 2:00 AM PDT. Ugh.
ESPN+ in the US.

[Bruin]

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[niQ]

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[Hair Canada]

Thoughts about the 30-points win over Puerto Rico and the next game against Spain

I had some mild worries before the game based on the history of Canada playing Puerto Rico at the WCs in recent years (two upsets in the last 3 years), but they turned out to be misguided about 5 minutes into the game. The difference in talent and size is just too huge to bridge. The game was done already within the first half but 5 very good minutes at the beginning of the 3rd quarter put the seal on another blowout. Good for us!

THE GOOD

The Montverde Duo. Nembhard and Houstan had some bad moments in this tournament. Both have some physical and athletic limitations but they are such a pleasure to watch. Great basketball IQ on both ends of the floor, composure, and elegance. Nembhard pushed the rhythm while remaining in control, shooting well, and dishing 10 assists in 23 minutes. Houstan finally got the 3-ball to fall (the official stats say he had 2 but I think I saw 3 go in), while also leading the offense, dishing, and playing his usual efficient defense (3 steals). Together with Mathurin and Edey, who were also efficient in limited minutes, we have 4 players with whom we can go to war every evening against the best of teams.

Fisher. After a strong first game, the next two were more mediocre. But today he looked good. When he’s in the open court, he’s a real menace (two great dunks today). But today he was again good on defense and was able to play better offense (even put an open 3-pointer, his first of the tournament). There’s still much to work on. The obvious is going to and finishing with his left. But he also lacks the wiggle that someone like RJ Barrett had when he was his age (Fisher is often compared to Barrett and for now it doesn’t look very favorable comparison in my mind) and completely lacks any in-between game. Sorry, I meant this to be a positive reflection on Fisher and for the most part, he was indeed positive today and quite good throughout the tournament so we’ll leave it at that.

THE BAD

Brown-Ferguson. In previous games, I tried not to single out one player, as the entire unit beyond the 6th or 7th player looked bad. And it was certainly also the case today. Game after game they manage to finish with a (-) on the box-score despite even in blowout games. Today they even played with some of the starting five at times but the result was the same. Duke is kind of the negative image of Nembhard – mostly looks out of control (questionable handle) and rushed. Kalambay mostly looks lost. Hill lacks confidence and skills and does little other than shooting the 3 (inaccurately I might add). Bediako and Owusu-Anane also didn’t look very good out there today.

But Javonte Brown-Ferguson seems to take this to another level. He has size, length, and decent athleticism and mobility. But somehow, all this goodness manages to translate into very bad play. A mix of very shaky handle, difficulty finishing in the paint, deficient defensive awareness, bad decision making, and lack of focus. At some point toward the end (something like 3 minutes left in the last quarter) he got open in the paint, signaled to Kalambay for the pass, but one second before just averted his look and the ball went flying out. I think that was too much even for Weir, who quickly took him out even though the game was well beyond reach. Brown-Ferguson almost didn’t see playing time in UConn this year after being highly recruited and I wondered why. The way he plays, I wonder no more. Should not see the court anymore unless there’s somehow another blowout.

THE QF

I thought Australia will prevail in the other game, but they disappointed (me at least), while Spain had a very good game and won the matchup fairly easily. SG Ruben Dominguez shot 6 of 30 in the group stage (20%). So today he doubled his total made threes but this time he did it without missing a single shot and finished with 24 points on a great game. He actually looked pretty good even before, but when his shot is going in he’s a menace.

Except for Dominguez, I have to say that I was not too impressed with the Spanish team. But they beat France and Australia, perhaps the two best teams in the competition besides Canada and the US, play generally good defense, and are certainly dangerous if the 3-ball is going in as it did today. And boy, how they love jacking up these threes. They are by far the team that puts the most 3s per game in the competition (about 35 of them per game). I watched them today against Australia and you could see that was a system. Anyone who sees a sliver of daylight right away pulls the trigger. And given that they are quite limited in the paint, it seems like a sound strategy.

So on Friday, we’ll have to really close out on the 3-ball, but also be very mindful on the boards. The talent advantage is clearly in our favor, but Spain is unpredictable and we’ll need to stay very vigilant, disciplined on defense, and execute well on offense. Hopefully, the game today got Houstan into his rhythm.

[TheFutureMM]

I'm excited to watch the Spain vs Canada game on Friday morning. Would be great to meet the Americans in the semis.

Looks like Canada-Spain will be the first QF game, so 2:00 AM PDT. Ugh.
ESPN+ in the US.

Yeah, I'm probably not getting up for 5AM here in Ontario. Too bad as it would have been cool to watch.

[NotMyKawhi]

we need suggs and chet

[aminiaturebuddha]

I think the thing that impresses me most about this team is the defensive potential. Against PR they were really doing a good job of forcing them into the kinds of shots that Canada wanted them to take. This meant taking away almost anything in the paint, as well as limiting 3-pointers, and only really allowing them to take off-the-dribble mid-range jumpers. This looked like the clear strategy, and the guys on the team were able to execute the plan perfectly.

It'll be interesting to see if they're able to impose their will as much as the tournament goes on against better teams. Also, would the strategy be the same against a team such as the US, who have better off-the-dribble players? Hopefully the coaching staff can continue to come up with effective game plans, and if they can hang their hat on playing solid defence, this team should be able to hang with anyone, especially as they get more comfortable with each other at the offensive end.

[Hair Canada]

A really good cover story of Caleb Houstan on the tournament website. Seems like a very humble kid, yet not lacking in self-confidence and, as we could all see, much more than just a shooter. Doesn't have a Twitter or Instagram account. Gotta love that.

http://www.fiba.basketball/world/u19/2021/news/calm-houstan-showing-he-s-more-than-a-sniper-out-to-repeat-barrett-s-magic

Meanwhile, they also did another power ranking and Canada is second, while Spain is third:

http://www.fiba.basketball/world/u19/2021/news/fiba-u19-basketball-world-cup-power-rankings-volume-2


The game tomorrow is really early morning in North America unfortunately (5:00 ET).

Wrote a little about the Spanish team already. They love the 3-ball and are led by their two guards, Rodriguez (17ppg) and Jimenez (15ppg). No one else scores in double figures. The young PG Nunez was expected to dominate but so far has been mediocre (not shooting great and turning the ball over 4 times per game). In the paint, they are rather thin. No one over 6'9 and their leading big, Godspower, at just 6'7 (though a pretty big body).

Keys for the game:

* Maintain the good defense from the last few games and make sure to really close out diligently on the 3s. The Spanish bigs, Godspower and Exteguren don't shoot 3s so no need for Edey to worry about them too much. The others have to chase, go aggressively above screens, and keep their concentration. With Mathurin, Houstan, and O-Max, Fisher, and Owuwu-Annane, we should have enough length, quickness, and depth to maintain this pressure and make life harder for the Spanish marksmen.

* Let Edey do his thing in the paint, but without forcing the issue. I wouldn't just push balls to him and expect him to work in the low post, because he's not great with making quick decisions when the double team comes. Instead, he should keep moving, work the P&R and get on the offensive boards where no one should be able to really slow him down.

* Run whenever possible, but otherwise play patiently and wait for good shots. The Spaniards play good committed defense, so we'll need to not let them get to us. Particularly Nembhard and Mathurin, our two ball handlers, must be very careful with the ball and value every possession.

* Open well. Against good and disciplined teams, we cannot afford to come sluggish and get ourselves into a hole like we did against Lithuania in the first game of the tournament. We have a history of doing that in the past and it never ends well. Once the pressure of thinking you might lose despite being the better and more talented team sinks in, hands start to shake and it's really hard to dig yourself out.

[TrueNorth31]

I'm not seeing the game listed on the Fiba Youtube channel quite yet, I'm a little afraid that DAZN has picked it up.

Dazn has the rights and I now see Canada's game is listed on their schedule.

Having said that you can sign up for Dazn free, then cancel before the month is out and not pay.

We'll see how this develops ( I intend to watch the game later in the day ).

I watched a bit of Spain/Aussie, the Spaniards play at a very quick tempo.

[Hair Canada]

I'm not seeing the game listed on the Fiba Youtube channel quite yet, I'm a little afraid that DAZN has picked it up.

Dazn has the rights and I now see Canada's game is listed on their schedule.

Having said that you can sign up for Dazn free, then cancel before the month is out and not pay.

We'll see how this develops ( I intend to watch the game later in the day ).

I watched a bit of Spain/Aussie, the Spaniards play at a very quick tempo.

Sounds about right, as I am seeing all the Quarterfinal games showing up on ESPN+ down here.
Makes it easy to watch on-demand at a later time.