USA/CAN – North American U17s to keep focus on own teams

TOULOUSE (FIBA U17 World Championship for Women) - The USA and Canada are accustomed to facing each other in top sporting events, and with only two groups making up the field for the FIBA U17 World Championship for Women, it came as no great surprise that they got drawn together in group A.

USA head coach Barbara Nelson gave her impression of the teams they will be facing in the first round this summer.

“Competing against the host team in France will make for an exciting game for the players and the fans” she said.

“We are familiar with Canada as we played them in the FIBA Americas championship last summer, and Russia, Turkey and Japan typically are very disciplined and well coached.

“I am excited to watch film on all of the teams as we know very little about them at this point other than we are all striving to win the gold medal.”

Nelson’s Canadian counterpart, Jacqueline Lavallee agreed that the field they will be facing is difficult to evaluate.

“It’s hard to know what to expect from each country represented because the talent at this level does not necessarily correlate with the top teams we see at the senior national team level” she argued.

But in spite of discovering their opponents, both countries’ coaches insisted they should not look too closely at the opposition but instead concentrate first and foremost on their own performance.

“Every team in this tournament is very talented but with such a young age group it’s going to be very important for our team to focus on ‘us’ and what we are trying to accomplish as a team; executing our stuff and bringing the intensity and toughness that we are known for” Lavallee said.

A point shared by Nelson : “The competition will be greater than what we faced last summer, and our game plan will be to use our own measuring stick. One of the aspects we will be preaching to our players will be ‘reach for your best.’”

“That will be asked of them every day in practice, it will be asked of them in their conduct off the court and it will be asked of them on the court during games. I'm hopeful that they will be focused every game as if it is the championship game, and then when we emerge from pool play and every game is crucial, they will be ready” she said.

But on 18th July, when the two teams come face to face in Rodez, it will be tough for players and coaches not to have at least an eye on their opposition.

FIBA