Veterans Anderson, Anthony headline Canada's FIBA AmeriCup 2017 roster

TORONTO (FIBA AmeriCup 2017) - National team stalwarts Brady Heslip, Joel Anthony, Jermaine Anderson and Andrew Nicholson are on Canada's FIBA AmeriCup 2017 roster, the country's basketball federation has announced.

Heslip and Anthony featured most recently for Canada at the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in the Philippines while Anderson and Nicholson last played for the country at the FIBA AmeriCup four years ago in Venezuela.

Canada 12-player roster for FIBA AmeriCup 2017
Jermaine Anderson	Joel Anthony	Richard Amardi	Murphy Burnatowski
Junior Cadougan	Ammanuel Diressa	Grandy Graze	Olivier Hanlan
Brady Heslip	Xavier Rathan-Mayes	Andrew Nicholson	Dyshawn Pierre

"It's great to see some of the veteran guys still here to give to the young guys and try and help us in this qualifying process," Coach Roy Rana said to Athletes Unfiltered.

Anderson has a long history with Canada's senior team and also Rana, his coach in high school.

Exciting young talents include former Florida State standout Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Ammanuel Diressa, who plays for Rana at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Olivier Hanlan, a guard with a couple of years of European basketball under his belt at Zalgiris Kaunas (2015-16) and Le Mans (2016-17), is on the roster, as are Canada National Basketball League players Richard Amardi (Niagara River Lions) and Junior Cadougan (London Lightning).

This tournament is an opportunity for our players to earn some important international experience as we compete for an Americas Championship and beyond.

Rana

Another Canada player plying his trade overseas is Dyshawn Pierre, a shooting guard/small forward. After spending last season in Germany's Bundesliga, Pierre will play for Dinamo Sassari in Italy's Lega A and the Basketball Champions League in the 2017-18 campaign.

Rana, who guided Canada to the title at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup title in Cairo last month, is going into the AmeriCup with one eye on the FIBA Basketball World Cup Americas Qualifiers. He will be the head coach of the Canada side for the first two windows of Qualifiers, in November and February. Some of the players named in the AmeriCup team could feature in the Qualifiers.

"Following a successful selection camp, we're pleased to announce the players that will represent Canada at the upcoming FIBA AmeriCup 2017 as we begin our journey towards a berth in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019," Rana said.

"This tournament is an opportunity for our players to earn some important international experience as we compete for an Americas Championship and beyond."

Jay Triano, the head coach of the senior men's national team program, said: "The FIBA AmeriCup 2017 will be a great first step for our program towards our ultimate goal of qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

"While we are focused on winning every time we step out on the court, the AmeriCup provides our coaching staff with a valuable opportunity to evaluate our talent pool prior to the start of the qualification process in November."

Canada will travel to Bahia Blanca, Argentina, to be part of Group B and will take on the Virgin Islands on August 27 before facing Argentina and Venezuela to conclude the group phase.

The best team from each group will advance to the Final Phase, along with Argentina, who will automatically qualify as the main organizer of the competition.

FIBA