Locked On Women’s Basketball: Canada faces Group B adversity, 3×3 gains; WNBA Toronto moves forward

First, they discussed the overall cultural impact the teams are having, especially as Toronto gears up to welcome its WNBA team.

“I think it’s huge,” McGoldrick said. “We’re getting a WNBA team, but we don’t have one yet. And so having our national teams be on that stage front and center, even having the Canadians that we have in the WNBA, we only have four of them. But it means so much to us Canadians to just have that representation. Because we’ve never had that, you know, we have women’s rec leagues but we don’t have a women’s pro league here. There’s not a ton of representation. So having the women’s teams that we’ve had, that have done so well. Obviously, Tokyo 2020 wasn’t the best result, but you know, they want AmeriCup bronze … they finished fourth at the FIBA Women’s World Cup in 2022. It’s been phenomenal to have this Canadian National Team growing and growing.”

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“And I think that the success of this team as well has really helped kind of push for more women’s basketball in Canada. And that’s kind of how the WNBA Toronto team came about was that people saw people show up for the WNBA Canada game last year in Toronto, this year in Edmonton. And it’s just been huge, it’s continuing to grow. And when Canadians are presented the opportunity to watch and support women’s basketball, they always show up,” she continued.

Then, they covered Canada’s outings in the group stage of the 2024 Paris Olympics, a pair of losses to France and Australia, and how they can right the ship as they attempt to make the playoff stage.

“I think the biggest thing in both games … is the shooting. You’re not going to win basketball games when you’re taking 60 shots and you’re only making 21 of them,” McGoldrick said. “We saw it against France, so many shots not falling, but then it’s not even just the long range shots. It’s that easy layups as well … and those are ones that really need to be about 100% of the time you’re getting those layups.”

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“A player like Kayla Alexander, she’s a player who’s kind of a double-double machine. She’s great. But even [during the game against Australia], she shot three of seven … Bridget Carleton against Australia, she played amazing, she hit five triples, this is clearly her best game of competition. I mean, they’ve only played two, but she really broke out in this game, Kia Nurse played well as well. But I think number one, you really need the whole team to show up and it really just hasn’t been happening for Canada. … It was definitely a better showing than the game against France, but still, the shooting needs to improve. That’s the biggest thing, is that you’re not going to win basketball games when you’re shooting just over 30%.”

Tune in to hear more about the Canada basketball at the Olympics, including Natalie Achonwa‘s leadership role and the keys to making the medal rounds. Make sure to subscribe to the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast to keep learning about the WNBA, women’s college basketball, basketball history and much more!