Former Lumberjack Helps Canada Qualify for World Championships

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Former Lumberjack men’s basketball player Kyle Landry helped Canada advance to the FIBA World Championships last week.

“It is such a great accomplishment for us to qualify for the worlds next year in Turkey,” said Landry. “We haven’t been there as a country since 2002 and since we have a young team this will be big in our development process.”

Landry saw action in seven of 10 games in the FIBA Americas Championship in Puerto Rico, averaging 2.7 points and 2.1 rebounds per game.

Canada's Senior Men's National Team qualified for the 2010 World Championship by upsetting the Dominican Republic 80-76 Set. 4 at the FIBA Americas Championship. They lost in the bronze medal game to Argentina 88-73. Landry had 10 points and five rebounds in the loss.

“It was a great experience getting to play against all these other countries,” said Landry. “You learn a lot just by watching all these great players. I am really happy that I was able to be a part of the team that got Canada back there.”

The Canadians last played at the FIBA World Championship in 2002, when the event was staged in Indianapolis, and they came in 13th out of 16 teams. In 2004, Canada didn't reach the Athens Olympics and two years later, when the FIBA World Championship was expanded to 24 teams in Japan, Canada didn't qualify again. They also missed out on the Beijing Games after an early exit at last summer's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

"To see these guys achieve this, honestly, it's as satisfying a feeling as I can imagine having. It's tremendous,” said Coach Leo Rautins said of his team.

Landry says the experience playing for his country was unbelievable.

“Playing for your country is one of greatest things you can do,” said Landry. “To be able to play and have the name of your country and flag on your jersey is a special experience. I am honored to have been able to do it this summer and hope that I'll be able to represent my country for many years to come.”

Landry will begin his second professional basketball season playing for Prostejov in the Czech Republic. He averaged 12.2 points and 10.3 rebounds in 25 games for ISS Sportino Inowroclaw in Poland last season, shooting 51.3 percent from the field in 30 minutes a game. He had a season high 26 points against Znicz J. and 26 rebounds in a game versus Polonia.

KYLE LANDRY: "ONE OF THE GREATEST EXPERIENCES EVER"
Postgame Press Conference

On the final day of the FIBA Americas Championship, Canada Basketball held a post game conference call with rookie forward, Kyle Landry (Calgary) who grabbed 10 points and five rebounds in the match up against Argentina. Kyle shared his thoughts on playing with Canada's elite hoospters, the grueling FIBA Americas tournament and qualifying for the 2010 Worlds.

CB: Can you please tell us about your first year experience with Team Canada's ROAD WARRIORS?
KL: It’s been a tremendous experience. It’s been awesome spending time with all these guys on the team. It’s really a family environment here and I learned a lot from the guys that have been playing on the national team for a number of years. We have some great coaches who have taught me a lot and that’s going to help me in my development as a player professionally for my team next year and hopefully in the years to come in Canada Basketball as well.


CB: What was it like when Canada won the opportunity to play in the 2010 FIBA World Championship?
KL: It was probably one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. It was awesome to help Canada get back on the world stage like that. Everyone on the team was just as excited and they’re ambitious to work hard this year so when next summer comes around we’ll be ready for the worlds.


CB: Please give us your thoughts on Team Canada's performance in the Bronze medal game vs. Argentina?
KL: We had a pretty bad first half. No one really came out with the energy and emotion that we needed to play against a team like Argentina. In the second half we came together and we played hard for each other and made a game of it. It was a respectful win the way we played in the second half. Hopefully we can build on this and carry it on to the world championship next year.


CB: Looking back on the FIBA Americas, what did you learn most about the team?
KL: I learned a lot just playing against all these players and having a good coaching staff, you get to take away quite a bit from this tournament, what you have to work on and how you can improve, and how to prepare mentally for each game.

We played 10 games in 11 days, and it’s really draining. It takes a lot out of you, a lot of emotion and I think we used our emotion up and didn’t manage to recover and bring it back for these last games that were still huge games for us. It was one thing to qualify for worlds but it would have been another thing entirely if we were able to medal and establish ourselves even more on the world scene.

We’re a young team and we’ll have a lot of growing pains and stuff, but it’s a great experience and hopefully we can build upon this for next season.

CB: Congratulations again on qualifying for the worlds and for doing Canada proud!
KL: Thank you very much.