It’s a rather forthright Jay Triano who tries to explain what he might see when the Canadian national basketball team finally plays a game.

“I don’t know where we are,” the head coach said. “I just don’t know how good we are. Every day we’re happy and mad at about the same time.”

Triano’s team — which will be chasing a spot in the 2014 Basketball World Cup in Spain later this month at a qualifying tournament in Venezuela — plays a rare home series starting Thursday night at Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre against Jamaica.

The two games — the series winds up Saturday night — are little more than a benchmark to determine how much work is left to do. The team will travel next week to a training camp in Orlando, Fla., before an exhibition tournament in Puerto Rico as a final preparation for the FIBA Americas qualifying tournament.

“When you’re playing against yourself all the time, you’re going to be happy and mad. One day we think we’re going to be great defensively, then we can’t make a shot. We need to find out what we’ve got.”

But it’s not going to be easy. It’s expected that veteran forward Carl English will miss the games against Jamaica because of lingering back pain and there are other nicks and bumps that come with a week of intense training.

And Triano also has to be worried about showing too much of the team’s best stuff. He’d like to keep something in reserve for when the games really matter.

“We have to figure out what we have to do,” he said. “We have to figure out what we want to show.”

Triano isn’t ready to even think about a possible consistent starting unit or a playing rotation. The grind of international basketball tournaments — Canada could play nine games in 12 days to earn one of four FIBA Americas berths at the qualification event — makes depth far more important than who starts and who finishes.

There are still 17 players in camp and Canada expects to take just 14 when the trip to Florida rolls around. They’ll take just 12 to Venezuela.

“We’re not sure if we’ll play 12 in one game and then rotate guys from there or what,” he said. “It’s just important that we get out and play against someone else to find out where we are.”

MATTAMY ATHLETIC CENTRE

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Canada vs. Jamaica

TV: SN 360, 8 p.m.