O Canada

Rice Owls women's basketball players Kadie Riverin and Tara Watts would have an easy time discussing the topic "What I did during my Summer vacation..."

This summer, the two of them represented their native Canada during international women's basketball competitions.

Both played on Canada's Under 21 Team in the 2007 FIBA U21 World Championship held in Moscow, Russia; then, both went their separate ways as Riverin played for Canada in the World University Games held in Bangkok, Thailand. Watts played on Canada's Under 19 Team in the 2007 FIBA U19 World Championship which were held in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Both young women enjoyed their time on the teams and both of them hope to continue playing for Team Canada in the future.

"When I was in grade 10, I got involved in this program called CP that's run across Canada," said Riverin describing the process of her joining Canada's National Teams. "There's about 30 to 40 girls involved in each regional program. Playing on the provincial teams, you gain recognition. It was either that year (grade 10) or the year after, I got invited to a tryout and I made the team and ever since then I've being playing for Canada. I started on the junior team and I've worked my way up. I've done U21; the University Games; the next is the National Team."

In order to qualify for the National Team, Riverin has to "train really hard this year"; however, Canada's team still needs to qualify for the Olympics which means beating teams such as Cuba and Brazil in regional competition.

Tara Watts got involved in a similar way as Riverin; however, Watts started in CP in grade eight. Watts practiced every week "all through high school" in British Columbia. She tried out for the provincial teams in the summer; and, she made those squads. She earned invitations to the open tryouts and the invitational tryouts in Ontario and she beat out nearly 70 players to earn a spot on the 12-player roster.

Riverin and Watts helped Canada's U21 team finish sixth in the Under-21 competition while Watts and her teammates on the U19 team finished ninth in Slovakia. Riverin and her teammates on the World University Games' team finished seventh in Bangkok.

The sixth place finish in Russia was the best finish for Canada in an Under 21 women's hoops world competition.

Watts said the competition and the level of play in Canada is improving because "the girls a couple of years younger than me are learning so much more technical skills than the older players who didn't have CP and all those training programs. So, it's definitely getting a lot better and we're competing a lot harder."

"Russia was interesting," Watts said. "It was different than anywhere I've ever been. We were in a hotel with all the other teams. We had to travel at least 20 minutes to the gym. Usually, it could be up to an hour though. We had a police escort -- there and back. We all had to eat in the same cafeteria. Our meal was a white fish; spaghetti noodles; beef balls; cut up tomatoes and cut up cucumbers -- for breakfast (lunch and dinner)."

To break up the monotony, the girls brought peanut butter and ate peanut butter on bread with bananas.

The two weeks they were in Russia they had two days of training before their first game. During the tournament, Canada played Belgium; Russia; France; Mali; China; Australia; and Brazil. Canada defeated Mali; China and Brazil; split with Belgium and lost to Russia; France; and Australia.

Watts described Riverin's performance in the U21 as "awesome!" Tara added "Kadie played pretty much the whole game. Nobody could stop her on the other teams. She was our leading scorer a couple of times. She pretty much drove to the basket and nobody could stop her."

Watts' playing time went from 20 minutes to about five minutes toward the end of the competition; but, she was okay with it because "it was a good experience nonetheless".

Playing for the U21 team was "a good experience," said Riverin. "Russia was a little different. We were staying in not the greatest part of town; so, we weren't really allowed outside the hotel much. It was fun to play against all the teams; and, we did better than we've ever done at that age group. We got to see how we match up against the top teams in the world like Australia."

In the now three plus years I've known Riverin, she's very modest -- almost shy -- on and off the court. She described her play for the U21 team as "all right".

"I handled the ball well. I didn't take too many shots. I"m still working on my jumper; so, I was focusing on other things and trying to be a leader for the team and get people shots where they like to shoot the ball."

Without a doubt, playing international basketball is very different than competing in Conference USA.

"It's much more physical," Riverin stated. "You're allowed to get away with a lot more; and, the players are way more physical. It's a faster game. I liked it. You have the eight-second rule to get the ball across half court."

After playing in Moscow, Riverin participated in the World University Games in Thailand which she described "as an amazing experience. It's a tournament similar to the Olympics -- it's the second biggest competition -- next to the Olympics. We stayed in an athletes village. There were about 120 countries participating and everyone stayed in the village."

This team was a little older than the Under 21 team; and, they didn't have as much time to train and prepare. Despite that team consisting of more veterans, Riverin still started. She said the team played games at a slower tempo in order to take advantage of their big post players.

"We finished seventh. We had a chance to go top four; but, we lost to Poland with four seconds left by two. That was a shot to the heart because there were two girls from UTEP (C-USA rival, Texas-El Paso) playing for Poland; but, our finish was still the best Canada has ever done at the University Games."

Watts played for the Under 19 Team in Slovakia; and she said the training camp was the "hardest training camp I've ever been to. We did two practices a day for three hours each. We had one afternoon off. The coach was very intense; but, we were really prepared when we got to Slovakia. I thought the tournament their was a better experience than in Russia. We were in every game until late in the fourth quarter. The competition was great. The team just clicked. We got along really well. Our hotel was located five minutes from the gym so we could walk there if we wanted to watch other games. We were five minutes from the shopping center which was close by; so, we went grocery shopping or clothes shopping at any time of the day. Compared to Russia -- where we were pretty much not allowed to leave our hotel -- we had so much more freedom. Overall, it was so much fun."

Watts thought she played well in Slovakia; but, "the coaches got on me all the time about not shooting the ball and they told me if I didn't shoot the ball I'd be sitting on the bench; so, I finally started shooting the ball. (Tara heard similar words from the Rice coaching staff repeatedly during her freshman year last season.) I took the ball to the basket more and tried to learn to be a little bit more selfish."

Watts hopes to bring the team's intensity and the ability to bond to her Rice teammates in 2007 - 2008.

"If every one can bond as well as we did in that two or three weeks in Slovakia," Watts commented, "If Rice can do that, there's no way we can get down on each other after a loss. If I can get every one to play that hard, then you know you've done your best. Learning to take open shots; make the extra pass; or do the little things are things I can bring to Rice this season."

Since Canada has moved from the Under 20 team to a development team, Watts is uncertain what she'll do in the near future; but, she will tryout for the development team.

Playing in these competitions helped Riverin prepare for her senior season at Rice. "I got my confidence up handling the ball. I felt no pressure when I had the ball in my hands."

Though Riverin is entering her senior season at Rice, she has begun thinking about her professional basketball career.

"I hope to continue to play. Either here in the States or overseas. I'd like to make the WNBA; but, also go overseas. I need to be aggressive; be a leader; and probably get a little stronger and a little bigger."

Riverin doesn't have a preference of playing overseas; however, France would be nice because she can speak French. "Russia, I don't know. I'd go. If they wanted me, if it was a good team and I was going to get good training and improve; then, I would take it. I'm not really thinking about the money. I just want to play basketball."

Watts hasn't made up her mind yet regarding her long time basketball career because she's hoping to go to medical school. However, she'd also like to play overseas; but, she's uncertain if she can put off med school for a little while.

According to Riverin, Rice Owls fans should be excited for the upcoming season. "I think we're going to do very well. We have strong players coming back. Val (Valeriya Berezhynska) has been training very hard this summer. She's gotten very strong. I think she's going to dominate everybody. We have key guards coming back. I think we're going to be just fine."

Watts added, "We've got five freshmen coming in that look pretty good so far. Lot's of key players coming back. We're going to compete hard."

With the 2007 - 2008 college basketball season quickly approaching, Kadie Riverin and Tara Watts hope to build on what they experienced this summer representing their native land.