Theirs is not to question why, theirs is but to qualify.
Conor Morgan of Victoria was named Wednesday to sa国际传媒’s team for the sixth and final Americas’ regional FIBA 2023 World Cup qualifying games in Mar del Plata against Argentina on Feb. 23 and in Caracas against Venezuela on Feb. 26. Both games will be broadcast live on Sportsnet.
The 13 players selected know they likely won’t play in the FIBA World Cup this summer, or Paris Olympics in 2024 if sa国际传媒 qualifies, when NBA players will be available. But the depth players know their roles, which is to serve when needed. sa国际传媒 used 39 players to qualify for last year’s soccer 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar and will have used 33 players to get to the 2023 FIBA World Cup from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10 in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia, out of which seven teams will qualify for the Paris Olympics.
With its NBA players in mid-season and unavailable for this round of qualifying, sa国际传媒 Basketball has again called on its European-based pros such as Morgan, 28, who won silver in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and represented sa国际传媒 in the 2019 World Cup in China. The marvellously fluid six-foot-eight stretch forward is a graduate of the Mount Douglas Secondary Rams and can play both at the basket and three-point line. Morgan plays professionally for Istanbul-based Bahcesehir Koleji of the Turkish top-flight Super League. Bahcesehir Koleji was playing in Spain this week in the European Champions League.
sa国际传媒 is 10-0 in qualifying and has already clinched a 2023 World Cup berth. Morgan scored 12 points as sa国际传媒 beat Panama (2-8) 112-71 and also 12 points in sa国际传媒’s 94-56 victory over Venezuela (7-3), both in November in Edmonton, that clinched sa国际传媒 a spot in the World Cup.
“It was really good to be able to qualify as a team and set up sa国际传媒 in a really good place for the summer with the World Cup,” Morgan told the sa国际传媒.
Several of sa国际传媒’s NBA players were available and played in the key 99-87 victory over world top-10 Argentina before 7,000 fans at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in August that kept sa国际传媒 rolling in the qualifiers.
Although they realize their roster spots will be taken by sa国际传媒’s NBA players for the World Cup, the depth players are proud of their roles.
“We’re a really tight-knit group as of the past couple of years and it’s been great to see these guys year-in and year-out,” Morgan has said.
Morgan is among three players from sa国际传媒 named for this month’s South American set of games that will close out the qualifying period. Also selected are the Scrubb brothers of Richmond, Phil and Thomas, the reliable veteran depth players who have always been there when needed for sa国际传媒. The Scrubb brothers, graduates of the Carleton University Ravens basketball dynasty, both play pro for Monbus Obradoiro of the Spanish top-flight Liga ACB.
With Canadian head coach Nick Nurse busy in the NBA with the Toronto Raptors, associate head coach Nate Bjorkgren will handle the bench duties in Argentina and Venezuela.
