Canada Limp to an 8th Place Finish at U17 World Cup

Canada fell 80-71 to Spain in the final classification game and placed 8th overall at the U17 World Cup, their second worst finish all time. Historically, Canada has struggled at this age group on the international stage, winning just one medal since the U17 World Cup’s inception in 2010.

Through 3 U17 exhibition games, a notable story has been the development of Maxime Meyer (2008, 6'11").

He's still very raw, but his defensive positioning has impressed. The strides on offense too have been eye-opening. Become comfortable and in control rolling to basket pic.twitter.com/6WmrBBW9xY

— Jonathan Chen (@jonathancchenn) June 26, 2024

After a promising start to the World Cup that saw Canada race to a 2-0 record in Group D play, Canada went just 1-4 in the final 5 games. Among the losses was another rout to the USA (this time by 51 instead of 82) in the quarter-finals, which ended any medal hopes. If we include the exhibition tour, the U17 squad finished with a mediocre 3-7 record this summer. They did play elite teams throughout this World Cup campaign and some key players struggled with injuries, but I think this is still a disappointing result.

Miles Sadler had his first statement game of the U17 World Cup with 30 PTS (9/15 FG, 10/11 FT) and 7 AST vs Egypt.

Sadler has also wrecked havoc at the POA on defense (3.0 steals per game). Just hounding opposing ball handlers.

Favourite move is this poke from the side. pic.twitter.com/8xsftKaZEt

— Jonathan Chen (@jonathancchenn) June 30, 2024

As always, stay tuned as I’ll have more in-depth coverage of standout prospect mircoskills with the great Josh Codinera. Miles Sadler, Paul Osaruyi, Stefan Ilic, Maxime Meyer and Jordan Charles all impressed throughout the tournament, and I’m excited to dig deeper into what made them successful.

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