Canada Basketball tunes up at Pan Am Games

It’s about more than home-court advantage for Canada’s basketball teams at the 2015 Pan Am Games.

The tournament does provide a rare opportunity to play a meaningful tournament in front of a home crowd. More importantly, it will serve as a dry run for the Olympic qualifiers that will take place at the end of the summer.

“It’s a great tournament for our run-up to the Olympic qualifiers,” said Canadian guard Kia Nurse. “To have [the Games] here and to have our families be able to come and watch us play and have the country come and see how far we’ve come, it’s a really exciting experience.”

Nurse is a three-year veteran on a team that took silver at the 2013 FIBA Americas tournament. An NCAA champion in her freshman season with the University of Connecticut, she had the added benefit of playing under head coach Geno Auriemma, who also helms the U.S. women’s national team.

“The title was something that was really special to me because it has been a goal of mine and to be able to do it in my freshman year was something that was really special,” Nurse said of her UConn experience to date. “Being coached by a person who deals with international basketball all the time also helped.

The point guard has already stepped into the Pan Am limelight by participating in the torch relay with her brother, Edmonton Oilers draftee Darnell Nurse.

It’s hard for the team not to look ahead to the FIBA Americas tournament in Edmonton Aug. 9-16. That tournament offers one spot in the Olympic tournament to the champion. Canada enters the tournament ranked 10th in the world and trails only Brazil among FIBA Americas participants. The American team will not participate, having already qualified for Rio as 2014 World Champions.

Nurse acknowledges that the Pan Am competition has a role to play in the team’s quest to make the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

“We want to be great and we want to win games and we want to play really well, but we know that our peak performance has to be at the Olympic qualifiers because of how important it is for us to get to Rio,” she said.

Canada’s women’s team has won four Pan Am medals, most recently taking silver in 1999, but is still seeking its first ever Olympic medal.

The men’s team, meanwhile, features some NBA appeal. While there’s no Andrew Wiggins or Tristan Thompson, the Pan Am roster does feature 2013 first-overall pick Anthony Bennett and Orlando Magic power forward Andrew Nicholson.

Nicholson isn’t looking past the opportunity the tournament affords.

“We want a gold medal,” Nicholson said. “We want to be the top team at the Pan Am Games and we’re competing as one unit and we have the same goal: to win."

At 25, Nicholson is actually one of the older names in the burgeoning golden generation of Canadian basketball that extends all the way to his Pan Am teammate and future Kentucky Wildcat, 18-year-old Jamal Murray.

The pressure is on this group to take the next step and get Canada to its first Olympics since Sydney 2000, where a pre-MVP Steve Nash willed the team to first in its group before a disappointing quarter-final loss to France.

A result at the Pan Ams, where Canada has never earned a medal in men’s basketball, would be an important step towards the end goal of Rio.

“We’re all going in the same direction,” he said. “We have no egos and we’re all one unit and are always pulling for each other. Competing in practice and holding everyone accountable and we’re looking forward to a great [tournament].”

The men’s Pan Am competition kicks off on Tuesday with Canada opening against the Dominican Republic. The FIBA qualification tournament runs Aug. 31-Sept. 12 in Mexico City with two berths in the Olympic men’s tournament to be had. Canada is currently seventh among men’s teams in FIBA Americas. The U.S. will also not be competing on the men’s side, having qualified as 2014 FIBA World Cup champions.