The Senior Women's National Team announced their camp invite list yesterday and they look pretty tough. Can Ball Ray gives his first impression on the team he sees on paper right now ...
Yesterday Canada Basketball named their list of invitees to the Senior Women's National Team training camp which is taking place beginning this week. I must say that the list of names is pretty impressive.
The players being invited to the camp reads as a who's who of the some of the best female players in the country. A very good mix of vets like Teresa Gabrielle and Kim Smith peppered with young bucks like current Syracuse Orange Kayla Alexander and the Plouffe twins Katherine and Michelle who play at Marquette and Utah respectively as well as some CIS youngins too.
I personally like this mix of players. I'm not going to say that it's the ultimate mix because there's always a set of players that coulda/shoulda been on any given invite list. And that's a fact. But this set of ballers is a real good set.
What we have is a mix of very good inside and outside players, good backcourt components and some rugged players for the frontline also. Best of all, the overall mix of international experience, even with some of the relatively young players is very good. Of the players currently in school, only Miah-Marie Langlois from Windsor and Justine Colley have played less than two seasons on a National Team and that says a lot.
The only downside I see, from the players invited that is, it that four of them will not be attending camp. current pros Kalisha Keane and Tamara Tatham will be unavailable due to commitments to their teams while two NCAAers, Notre Dame's Natalie Achonwa and freshman-to-be Nirra Fields will be unavailable due to school obligations. (I'm not going to include Kadie Riverin because she's hurt and you can't really get around that one.) These four players are all international vets, and in the case of everyone of them but Fields, former members of the Senior National Team.
Regardless, this is a solid lineup of players to have training right now. I'm not seeing the list being trimmed until they have to fly to Toronto to train before heading out to Europe for a host of tune up games before the Olympic Qualifier so it's going to be a dogfight I'm sure. I'm just hoping that injuries, if they do happen, take place before they're across the water. (At the very least I have my fingers crossed.)
I'll put it out there right now, I think that this team could be a special one.