Canada announces U19 World Cup Roster

Canada Basketball announced Thursday the U19 Men’s National Team for the upcoming FIBA U19 Men's Basketball World Cup 2023.

The FIBA U19 Men’s Basketball World Cup 2023 will take place from June 24 to July 2, 2023 in Debrecen, Hungary and will feature the best 16 teams in the world. All the action will be streaming live on FIBA’s YouTube channel.

Patrick Tatham will take the helm as Canada’s head coach at this summer’s U19 Men’s World Cup after leading both the U17 and U18 men’s age-group teams last summer. Last summer with Tatham as head coach, Canada captured bronze at the FIBA U18 Men’s Americas Championship 2022 and finished ninth at the FIBA U17 Men’s Basketball World Cup 2022. 

Joining Tatham on the bench are Justin Serresse, Nathan Grant and Craig Beaucamp, who were all named assistant coaches for Canada at the tournament.

Canada is in Group A following the FIBA U19 Men’s Basketball World Cup draw and will face Spain (June 24, time TBD), China (June 25, time TBD) and France (June 27, time TBD).  All 16 teams participating in the event will advance to the competition's Final Phase with a single-elimination format in place from the Round of 16 onwards.

Canada has been no stranger to the podium in recent renditions of the tournament. Canada’s historic gold medal at the tournament in 2017 served as the country’s first gold medal in an international FIBA competition. R.J. Barrett’s 38 points helped Canada to a 99-87 semifinal victory over the United States, before defeating Italy 79-60 in the gold medal game. 

Led by the likes of Zach Edey, Ryan Nemhard and Caleb Houstan, Canada won its second-ever medal at a U19 Men’s World Cup in 2021. Canada defeated Serbia 101-92 in the bronze medal game, bookending a tournament in which they went 6-1 en route to the podium.

The team participated in training camp and several exhibition tournaments in Europe in preparation for the FIBA U19 Men’s Basketball World Cup 2023.

Players previously took part in a Canada Basketball Men’s High Performance National Team Age-Group Assessment Camp, which was held at Humber College in Toronto from April 7-10, 2023.

Canada is currently ranked 7th overall in the FIBA boy’s age-group rankings, presented by Nike, following the conclusion of the FIBA 2022 Youth Events.