MEXICO CITY —

Underdogs no more.

Gone are the days when Canada was the scrappy, gritty team punching above its weight, trying to claw its way to victories.

Nowadays, opponents see Canada much differently and that makes sense, considering only the powerhouse United States has more NBA players.

This Canadian squad has eight NBAers (nine if Brampton’s Melvin Ejim makes the Orlando Magic’s roster in a couple of months).

They aren’t quite the Ugly Americans, the bullies of basketball who have always stood head and shoulders above the rest of the world talent-wise, but they are the favourites, perhaps the heavy favourites, heading into the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament.

And they seem to be enjoying the switch from being perennial hunters to the hunted.

“I believe we have a little bit of a target on our backs,” head coach Jay Triano told a couple of media outlets after Canada’s first practice here on Saturday.

“We’re a team that went 4-0 in that tournament (in Puerto Rico last week), so people are going to be gearing up and giving us they’re best shot. Teams are going to start to ramp it up.”

The athletes themselves are embracing this new role.

“Yeah definitely. You know, after winning that tournament, we’re the team to beat now,” centre Kelly Olynyk said.

Which is why Triano spent much of Saturday’s session reminding the group that they can’t afford to get big heads based on what has happened so far.

“We have to be prepared for that (push from opponents), we can’t rest on any kind of laurels that we have, or any good feeling that we have about where we are,” Triano said. “We found a way to be very good in Puerto Rico, but all that doesn’t matter. Today is a brand new day, this is a brand new tournament and it starts in a couple of days and we’ve got to be prepared for that.”

The players appear to be listening to the coaching staff.

“(The coaches are) making sure we aren’t getting complacent and just satisfied with winning the pre-tournament,” said backup point guard Phil Scrubb.

“We know this is the real deal now and we’ve got to play well.”

Asked how much tougher he expects the competition to be in Mexico, Olynyk had a quick response.

“Tenfold. I mean, I don’t know if we played one team that played their whole lineup in that tournament,” he said. “So you expect to see guns a blazing, they’re going to be throwing everything they have at you.”

The good news for the Canucks is that they firmly believe they can be quite a bit more lethal as well.

“I thought we moved the ball pretty well (in Puerto Rico), (but) I think we still have a long ways to go,” Olynyk said. “I think we showed great glimpses of where we can be real tough on the defensive end and we showed glimpses where we can be real potent on the offensive end. So we just have to put it together.”

OLYNYK JOINS IN ON PRACTICE

MEXICO CITY — Kelly Olynyk isn’t committing to playing in Tuesday’s opener here against Argentina, but he’s moving in the right direction.

Canada’s starting centre injured his left knee in a collision against a player from Argentina a week ago and sat out the next three days.

On Saturday, he was finally back at practice.

“He went through I would say 85% of practice today,” said head coach Jay Triano.

“I thought he looked good and I think he’s still a little bit tender a little bit sore. We’ll monitor it over the next couple of days and hopefully he’s ready to go, but he’s made great progress thanks to our support team.”

Olynyk said it was “unfortunate” he couldn’t help out on the court, but doesn’t believe it will be hard to reintegrate with the squad.

“We had eight days of training camp in Toronto. I played the first game. I mean I missed three games, that’s not really a huge deal,” Olynyk said. “I definitely think II’ll be able to get back out there. It’s not like I forgot how to play basketball.”

That’s good, because Canada could really use the offence the Boston Celtics big man can provide with his versatile game.

Hopefully his return comes sooner, rather than later.

“We’ll see what happens. If Im ready, I’m ready. But I don’t wanna be detrimental, I want to help the team,” Olynyk said. “So when I’m ready I’ll be back out there.”