Looking for World Championship success after a silver in last summer's Americas

This year’s under-17 team has a challenge to prove itself, on the world stage, as well as against Canada’s recent past.

In 2010, at the inaugural FIBA under-17 world championship, Canada won a surprise bronze. The team featured a 15-year-old Andrew Wiggins, alongside other future pros.

A top-three finish is this year’s goal, coach Dave DeAveiro told the Globe and Mail. “We definitely want to be on the podium.”

Team tryouts began Friday in Toronto and the tournament runs from June 23 to July 3. Last summer’s under-16 team is expected to form the core of the roster. Canada Basketball began shaping this group of players in 2012, the year when new leadership arrived at the national hoops organization. Steve Nash and Rowan Barrett – R.J. Barrett’s dad – had led Canada’s last Olympic basketball team in 2000 and returned as national team executives.

Source: Globe and Mail