It wasn’t the storybook gold-medal sweep that anyone with ties to Canadian Basketball would have hoped for, but there were plenty of winners at GLOBL JAM, the second annual under-23 event that is shaping up to become a fixture on the summer hoops scene.
The second edition was bigger and better attended — thanks in large part to the loyalty of the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville fans who travelled north in good numbers to watch their Wildcats and Cardinals represent Team USA on the men’s and women’s side of the four-team draws — and gave signs that it will have legs in the future as Canada Basketball works to create more awareness and opportunities for national team and national team adjacent athletes.
Both the Canadian men and women — with rosters drawing from players who are just on the periphery of the national teams as the athletes transition from university basketball to the pro game — made it to the finals on Sunday night.
That was the key: having both Canadian teams in the finals gave the event some oomph.
But the sweep wasn’t in the cards. The women lost a last-minute thriller to Louisville 68-66 as the two teams traded buckets down the stretch before the Americans made three with less than 30 seconds on the clock to pull ahead. Canada missed a two-pointer to tie and buzzer-beating three-point attempt that would have won it.
The men – who had to come back from down 17 to Germany midway through the third quarter Saturday to even make it to to the final – lost to powerhouse Kentucky for the second time in four days, falling 89-72. Addison Patterson of Milton, Ont., led Canada with 20 points, though only two in the second half as Kentucky pulled away after leading by six at half.
But while winning is the ultimate goal, development is a very close second, and in that respect GLOBL JAM proved its worth again. Canadian guard Keishana Washington is a perfect example. The former Drexel University star averaged 27.7 points a game in her last season playing for the mid-major school in Philadelphia, good for third in all of NCAA Division I.
It earned the Pickering, Ont., resident a tryout with the Minnesota Lynx and a professional contract in Poland for next season, but GLOBL JAM provided something more: a chance to compete at home with Canada across her chest.
“It’s great. The last five years I’ve been in Philadelphia. My parents have been out to see me maybe once a year in my time there, so it’s been great to play in front of friends, family, supporters, fans, an overall great experience,” said Washington, who scored 25 points against Louisville in the final and averaged 16 points a game for the tournament to lead Canada.
“I’ve considered myself an underrated player, especially because where I went to school kind of fell under the radar,” she said. “But I think this tournament allowed me to put on a show and show everyone what I’m capable of doing on a national level like this, so looking forward to my next steps.”
It’s a theme. Being a head coach at the national level is a hard gig to get. There is only one Canada and a limited number of teams spread across the various age groups. The U23 category adds one more and the opportunity is welcomed.
“It’s a big-time honour,” said Canadian men’s U23 head coach Nathaniel Mitchell, the former Toronto Raptors assistant who will join Adrian Griffin’s staff in Milwaukee for the upcoming NBA season. “There’s not many opportunities to be a head coach but I’m blessed to have a great staff that supports me, and I appreciated the fans and our country supporting us, being at home. I’m a Toronto kid, so getting a chance to do this, I can’t think of the words. But I really appreciate everybody and our organization giving be an opportunity to coach.”
Christa Eniojukan has had plenty of head coaching reps with the York University Lions, but this was her first chance to take on the role for the Canadian women’s team after years as an assistant at different age groups and working on the development side.
“I was challenged in different capacities all around,” said Eniojukan. “We have such talented players, so using Xs and Os to play to their strengths … they can all score, they’re all great players, so what was the best way for us to execute for us to win and how do we get them to share the ball and player as a team? That’s a huge challenge at this level. It was huge for me in terms of my coaching growth.”
The format of the tournament still creates some difficulties. Many of the Canada’s top U23 players on the men’s side are either in the NBA or trying to navigate Summer League and the tryout process and so aren’t available for the second week in July. Others, such as Purdue centre Zach Edey, have their sights on joining the senior men’s team.
But with a 3-on-3 tournament in the week leading up the event, the strong showing of Canada Basketball alumni and other prominent figures in the burgeoning Canadian basketball scene, it feels like GLOBL JAM is on the verge of taking over a week on the basketball calendar.
It promises to be a big summer for Canadian Basketball. The senior women’s team already earned bronze at the AmeriCup in Mexico, after narrowly losing in the semi-final to Team USA and the senior men look like they will have the most talented roster in the program’s history when they head to Indonesia in August for the FIBA World Cup and a run at both a podium and a berth at the 2024 Olympics.
GLOBL JAM is smaller in scale but provides a kick start to the international calendar.
It’s the on-floor opportunities that make it go. Kellen Tynes grew up in Dartmouth, N.S., played high school basketball in New Brunswick and started his college career at Montana State before transferring to Maine this past season. He ended up leading all of Division I in total steals and steals per game and proved at GLOBL JAM his brand of defence travels, highlighted by his eight steals for Canada against Germany on Saturday night.
“We start him to start our defence and our intensity,” says Mitchell. “I get on him, like, ‘you don’t have a steal’ and he’ll go and try and get one. And it’s not gambling, jumping the passing lanes, it’s on ball, disrupting their offence. I think it’s really special, like, high-level, NBA special, to be honest. So as he continues to grow the rest of his game, he’ll have a chance to make a lot of money.”
But first there’s experience to gain. And for a group of Canadian athletes and coaches getting opportunities that didn’t exist not very long ago, GLOBL JAM has paid them handsomely.
