MEXICO CITY—As Canada Basketball officials toy with the idea of bidding to host one of three last-ditch men’s Olympic qualification events next July, the promising group of players vows to stick together for another run at the Rio Games.

The sting of failing to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics seems to have steeled the resolve of the youngsters who acquitted themselves so well at the FIBA Americas championship until the one game they had to win to earn a berth in Brazil next summer.

“Obviously in this tournament we didn’t reach the goal that we wanted to reach but . . . I feel like we took a step in the right direction as a group and we’ll continue to build for next summer,” said Cory Joseph, who emerged as one of the team’s leaders during the marathon tournament.

Canada Basketball officials met Saturday here to “kick the tires” on making a bid for one of three six-team tournaments that will determine the final Olympic participants. They have until Sept. 28 to let FIBA know whether they are interested. Formal bids have to be submitted by Nov. 11 and FIBA will announce the three sites the final week of November.

It’s likely going to take an outlay of between $3 million and $5 million to host the event July 5-11, 2016, depending on the location officials decide on.

“I think just for the profile of the game in our country, to host an event like that, especially with all this young talent that we have, to have that sort of visibility and intimacy with the fans in our community is a big step for us,” Steve Nash, the senior team’s general manager said.

“I think as much for qualifying, it’s just as positive for the growth of the sport and our national team in the country. But we can’t worry about that, we have to grow as much as we can from this experience and come back with the resolve to make it right next year.”

Next year now becomes more pivotal for the long-term prospects of the most talented generation of Canadians ever. Missing the Olympics won’t be a crushing blow, but the next major tournament is the World Cup in 2019, and that’s a long way away.

But can the painful lessons learned here help in some way? The players grew closer (“There is no other place I would rather be right now but with this team. I love those guys,” Joseph said), and they experienced the pain of losing the one game that mattered (“Probably the toughest loss I’ve had,” said Andrew Wiggins).

But maybe that’s a good thing in some way.

“They’re still hurting for sure and they’re going to hurt for a while, until they get a chance to right it next summer. But at the same time I think they understand that this is a process,” Nash said.

“I think they see what happened to them a little bit and that they weren’t themselves (in the semifinal loss to Venezuela). I think it’s something they’re well aware of, and they’re smart enough guys and they’ve been through enough to know they were in a strange spot. It wasn’t a natural thing for them and you need to go through this.

“There’s no cheating experience, there just isn’t. It’s unfortunate, but there isn’t.”