With its NBA players unavailable, sa国际传媒 Basketball has called on Conor Morgan of Victoria to step into the breach as the national team looks to clinch qualifying for the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
sa国际传媒 named a 16-player tryout camp Tuesday, comprised of overseas pros, which will gather next week ahead of the qualifying games Nov. 10 against Venezuela (7-1) and Nov. 13 against Panama (2-6), both in Edmonton.
The six-foot-eight stretch forward Morgan, a graduate of the Mount Douglas Secondary Rams, played last season in Andorra before moving to Slask Wroclaw in Poland this season. Other names of note getting the call include Phil and Thomas Scrubb, Melvin Ejim and Trae Bell-Haynes.
sa国际传媒 is 8-0 and the only undefeated team in Americas regional qualifying. That includes the 99-87 victory over world top-10 Argentina, with some of sa国际传媒’s NBA players in the lineup, before 7,000 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in August. sa国际传媒 needs just one victory over its final four games to cement qualification.
The FIBA World Cup from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10, 2023, in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia, is important on several levels because the top-seven teams from that tournament next year will qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Qualification appears imminent for sa国际传媒, but the national side wants more than the minimum.
“We want to get as many wins as we can in qualifying and finish as high as we can so that our seeding is good. We’ve got to clip off as many as these qualifying games as we can,” said sa国际传媒 head coach Nick Nurse, when in Victoria for the previous home qualifying game against Argentina.
With Nurse currently head coach of the Toronto Raptors in the NBA, sa国际传媒 will be guided by assistant head coach Nate Bjorkgren for the qualifying games in Edmonton.
