The partnership between Edmonton and the Canadian women’s national basketball team continues to grow into something special.

In preparation for Team Canada’s road to Rio for the 2016 Olympics, Team Canada will make a pit stop in Edmonton to host China in three-game series in the 2016 Edmonton Grads International Classic at the Saville Community Sports Centre on July 9-11.

“It’s going to be a weekend of incredible basketball,” said Basketball Alberta’s executive director Paul Sir.

“We have the No. 8- and No. 9-ranked teams in the world going head-to-head. You have Canada, an Olympic qualifier and China, an Olympic hopeful this will be a great tuneup for the Olympics for both teams.

When Sir looks back at how the relationship between the city and Basketball Canada has grown over the last several years, he couldn’t be more proud. It literally started from nothing, and the Saville Centre has become the home for the Canadian women’s national team.

“It’s one of those unique relationships that I think literally came out of a single idea five years ago when the Saville Centre opened up,” said Sir.

“I was talking to one of the members from Basketball Canada and I asked him what the status on the Canada basketball program was, and he said they don’t have a home, and they were switching from centre to centre every year and then it just grew from that conversation.”

Since then, the Saville Centre has played host to the 2015 FIBA Americas women’s tournament last summer. The national team will be holding a training camp next month leading up to the Olympics and they’ll be back for the EGIC in July.

Team Canada’s training camp in May will begin shaping the final roster for Rio. The team that won gold at the 2015 FIBA Americas tournament last summer will likely feature the majority of the Olympic team, but with an influx of young players from the NCAA ranks that includes Edmonton’s Adut Bulgak, who was recently a first round pick in the WNBA draft by the New York Liberty, that could lead to some tough decisions on the final roster.

“They could very well carry over the exact same team that was so successful last summer, but how do you not discount the growth of players like Adut Bulgak, or a Ruth Hamblin or a Jamie Weisner, who led their teams to the NCAA Final 4?” said Sir.

“Canada basketball has the best of both worlds. They have a talented lineup returning that has evolved into something special, and they can add even more to it. This is the deepest pool of talent they’ve ever had to choose from in their history.”

The rise of Canadian basketball has been incredible over the last several years. In particular on the women’s side, the ascension of the sport can draw many parallels to the Canadian women’s soccer team.

Back in 2002, when Edmonton hosted the FIFA U-19 championships, a young core led by the likes of Christine Sinclair and Kara Laing helped build the women’s team into one of the best in the world, leading to an Olympic bronze medal in 2012.

The Canadian women’s basketball team turned a lot of heads in the 2012 Olympics, and many feel that they could win an Olympic medal in Rio this summer.

“You can absolutely draw similarities,” said Sir.

“As with women’s soccer in Canada, the same credit has to go to Canada basketball and its steady development. You’ve seen this pool of young talent build around this veteran corps that have gone through ups and downs to get to this point.

“As great as our team was in 2012, this team has even more talent. To be knocking on the door to potentially winning a medal in 2016 it would just be an incredible fuse to a bigger stick of dynamite and it would ignite the game even more across the country.”

@hillsyjay

jason.hills77@yahoo.com