Halford & Brough in the Morning - Donnovan Bennett Talks Canada Basketball & Women's Soccer

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

In hour two, Josh Elliott-Wolfe and Jason Brough go through the listeners questions in "ask us anything". What's the best long weekend of the year? Would you rather be supremely talented or work your way up like Alex Burrows? Donnovan Bennett, covering the Olympics for CBC, joins the show. Donnovan weighs in on Canada Basketball, previews Spain matchup, Jamal Murray, RJ Barrett's dominance and Canada's biggest issue. Donnovan also discusses Canada Women's Soccer, previews the matchup vs Germany and how the players are currently feeling.  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

702 Halford & Brough No Mike Halford It's Josh Elliott Wolfe We didn't really roll with the double J name this week And that's okay That's okay Halford & Brough is brought to you by The Dilawri family of Honda dealers Experience the Dilawri difference today this week and that's okay that's okay half an abrupt is brought to you by the the delari family

of honda dealers experience the delari difference today visit your nearest delari honda dealer today in this hour of half an abrupt is brought to you by bridge brewing meticulously brewed for quality and taste primetime craft beers full flavor without compromise at a liquor store near you or visit the brewery to see how it's made. Also, you can text in your Ask Us Anythings or What We Learned to the 650-650 Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at DunbarLumber.com.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider provider powered by thousands of five-star google reviews sore feet what are you waiting for kintec that's what you're waiting for i've been waiting for this cough that i have to go away me too for like multiple weeks it's been incredibly long it's the the one that just were you were you sick first and then you've got the cough that yes that lasts forever i kind of lost my voice last week and so i i had to recover but then it was just kind of like phlegmy cough is oh that's nice now yeah it's really yummy okay i went to the doctor actually got an inhaler oh really yeah because it was just lingering forever and ever and

ever i've heard more and more people with their lingering coughs. Does anyone have any conspiracy theories about that? Let's get to the bottom of that. My theory is I have terrible lungs ever since I was a child. We're going to chat with AJ in just a bit. Let's do some Ask Us Anythings, though. Chris in Olympic Village has a question. If you can only beat the Americans in one sport sport to take a home a gold medal at this

olympics would you choose men's basketball or women's soccer and why okay so this is obviously a great question and i realized that if the women's team were to come back from their six point punishment and make it all the way to the gold medal final and beat the Americans in that, that would be an incredible story, but I'm choosing men's basketball, Canadian men's team. Like that is a, it's a much bigger upset.

That is, that is the story of the Olympics. If that happens, like the entire Olympics. Yeah. Because Canada, again, they haven't been to the Olympics in men's basketball since Sydney. And then to go in your return

and beat the American men in the gold medal match. That would be considered one of the great upsets in Olympic history. Miracle on wood is what they would call it, I assume.

Well, maybe not. Would that be bigger for Canada basketball than the Raptors winning the chip? It'd be bigger for me. Yeah. It'd be bigger for me. I think for... I wasn't a Raptors fan. Yeah, I think so.

I think in terms of growth, I think Raptors was bigger, personally. Just because it was a long... Yes. I feel like even non-raptors fans were pretty tuned into it um i always said that like that blues bruins stanley cup final did not get enough attention because everyone was focused on the raptors and that was like a really good stanley cup final and people were like yeah yeah yeah is it over yet we're watching the raptors aj's on the line now aj good morning buddy how are you good morning how is everybody uh we're

good uh i got two things off the hop okay go one you shaded my cowboys all morning that's not nice yeah well you know what maybe one day they could get it done like it's not the 90s anymore i don't have faith in the cowboys it's never happening and. And my second thing is, and Bruff, you can't enter this contest. Okay. But for the other three rooks, well, Laddie's not a rookie on the show. Can you show 1977 iconic movie based in Brooklyn? Can you name it? And you win a free dinner at AJ's if any of you can name what the movie is

and don't google it just a movie based in brooklyn it was based in brooklyn that's all we get john travolta oh my god this is so easy come on i know bruh that's why i couldn't let you do it i don't have it i don't do either of you have it i got no clue do you do okay okay here um do you guys like dancing saturday night fever you go. I own the record on vinyl. What? You just won a free dinner at AJ's. Attaboy, laddie. AJ, have you been enjoying

our dynamic of Josh and Ben before, but now Elon? It's been awesome. You've all been great as always. It's awesome awesome. You guys have been great as always. It's awesome. Have you felt old? Yes, I am old. But yes, I totally feel old.

What's the average? Everybody was born before 2000? Yeah, before. I'm 98. We're not that young. 99. 98. You're 1999, Elon. Ladi's like middle-aged. I'm a 90. I'm almost a 91.

Okay. I'm still in the 90s. You're almost a 91? Yeah, I'm still in the 90s, firmly. Hey, I got some respect for you there. Right? I'm a 71. AJ, what's happening this weekend, pal?

It's going to be great. You know, a lot of fun. Hey, we do have two gigantic air conditions in there, because I know if you get hot, you can run it at 500 degrees. But it'll be a great long weekend and Olympics on and thankfully we don't have to watch the Jays because nobody cares and yeah

everything else is going to be great. Alright buddy, have a good one. Everyone get down to AJ's this weekend. Best pizza in town. See you buddy. Thank you guys. Enjoy your long weekend. Take care. Alright, it is a long weekend. Oh yeah, yeah. Monday. Yeah, because I'm just going on vacation. Don't show up Monday. Yeah, yeah. There weekend. Take care. All right, it is a long weekend. Oh, yeah, yeah. Monday. Yeah, because I'm just going on vacation.

Don't show up Monday. Yeah, yeah. There's no show on Monday? No. No show on Monday. No show on Monday. No shows at all on the station on Monday. I don't know who's hosting the show next week.

Izzy Fair and Jimmy Dodd. Together at last. Together at last. I've been waiting. Nuts and gum. A-Dog and I will be here, so at least have the dogs. Okay, all right. Here it here is an ask us anything what is the best long weekend of the year this is from scott is it may long weekend canada day august long thanksgiving etc what is the best

long weekend of the year i think my my go-to a like it's tempting to pick the summer ones but i'm going thanksgiving thanksgiving because like you need the break at that point you need the break you don't want to come to work yeah you get the food too like there's a there's a food element to it and sports you get more sports at that time like may long weekend is fun because hey it's like summer's here yeah the the july like canada day for us we're always working so right yeah that's true that's like free agency that's like oh yeah this is a bad day yeah and august doesn't usually register much for me yeah i'm gonna take may because like that for me you said, is the official start of summer.

And usually there's hockey on TV that you can watch. And it's like, I love the beginning of weather stretches because you have it all in front of you. For example, November, I'm usually like, okay, we're in it now. We've got four or five more months of this darkness and this wet, and I am not a fan. Kevin on the road, ask us anything, Jason, what would it take for you to take phone calls on the show again? I remember you guys had an answering machine at the old show. Kevin, it would take my boss coming to me and saying, you have to take calls or you're fired.

Could you imagine Cam coming in and doing that one day? He is a tyrant. Yes, he is a relentless tyrant. I bet somebody said it. It's just not something we're going to do. You know, I think I provide enough secondhand embarrassment on the show for everyone clear enough hurdles along the way oh my god i was thinking about that the other day yesterday i was thinking about it and how bad that was i mean like i still like you want more

of that cringe from taking callers yeah what. What do you think about call-ins? I'm not a, I think for post-game shows. Post-game, you have to have it. I'm like, hey, I get this. Even then though, I will, and this is me listening to my station, I will turn off the station if I hear a call and I can feel it going off the rails. Yeah.

But some people enjoy that. Some people enjoy the whole cringe factor and like this guy doesn't know what he's talking about how many beers has this guy had uh this is entertaining and and it's kind it is kind of funny to listen to sat being like okay thanks for the call i'm not sure about that but i text sat i'm like i don't know how you do this at least once a month he's very uh he's not very vindictive he's like okay you know what i'll let you i'll let you talk and then they they do not listen when he says it's time to time to stop for entertainment purposes i get it but if you're looking at a real conversation call-in shows are not it's also in the morning yeah yeah like what

kind of lunatic would be like i want to talk to these guys at 7 12 in the morning like i have i have my day i have a pressing question and everyone in vancouver needs to hear it and also like we we have enough like we answer enough in the text box i think that we're not like ignoring people no we have a whole thing called ask us anything friday adam the former bath guy ask us anything if you were stranded on an island and later rescued a la tom hanks and castaway what would be the first thing you eat when you get back to the mainland okay can we assume that like we can have a full meal and yeah you're gonna be fine we're not so starved that like like you gotta be careful or your stomach's gonna explode it's not gonna work um i think for me it'd

be pizza possibly aj's right like pizza for me when i am really really hungry i don't think there is a better thing food related than waking up um and realizing and you're really hungry and you're like oh i don't know what to i don't know what to get for lunch or breakfast or like i come home i usually have a nap and then then i'll be like i don't know what to get to lunch like i gotta go go outside again what for the second time today. How dare I have nothing here to make. And then you remember like, Oh, I've got leftover pizza.

That is an amazing feeling. So I think it would be pizza. Are you a cold pizza guy? Or do you? Absolutely. And, and I, and I actually do not enjoy pizza heated up in the microwave.

I thought you were going to say warm pizza. Oven is where you want to go. If you, no, no, no, like pizza out of like the real pizza oven. If you go down to AJ's, they've got like the real pizza oven. That's incredible. But if I'm like, I can never get it quite right either when I warm it up in the air fryer or the oven. Like you get it to the point where you're like oh this looks good and

you just crisp it up a little bit yeah but no but then you you bite into it sometimes and you're like ah there's parts of it that are cold yeah right so i've got a mix here and if you put it in the microwave forget about it yeah everything's not doing something i'm just a cold pizza guy and um anyway what would be for you i i think it would just be like a real good cheeseburger. Yeah. Maybe even like just go to McDonald's and be a pounder. White spot would be good. Cheeseburger is amazing.

With bacon on it? I'm not much of a bacon guy, to be honest. I think bacon has verged. Who is not a bacon guy? Okay, look, I think it's fine. I'm a vegetarian. And even vegetarians are like, except for I think it's fine. I'm a vegetarian. Moving on. Out of principle.

And even vegetarians are like, except for bacon once in a while. Bacon has verged into overrated territory. No. It is wild. First of all, this is not overrated, underrated. You're on the wrong show here. And second of all, you're wrong. I disagree.

I just think it's fine. It's good. I eat it. If it's on a burger, I'm fine with it. But I'm never like... You're fine with bacon. I'm never paying extra for bacon. That's where I'm at.

Okay. And if I'm getting like a full breakfast, I'm getting sausage over bacon. You're getting sausage over bacon. So you're a hater. You're a bacon hater. I wouldn't say I'm a bacon hater. It's fine. You're not a lover.

I'm not a lover, though. I'm not a lover. Bert Hutt with Anascus. That's the first time all week that i've been like i don't know about this kid so you do that with alfred like first time times a show alfred it's just a way of life burt hutt ask us anything if you had to compete in the olympics with the goal of no one being able to tell you don't belong there which event would you choose and bird hut says i'm pretty sure i could pull off equestrian jumping i would be terrible but i could just blame it on the horse today is my birthday and i could sure use some pizza uh that is a very funny question

bird i think people would immediately know that you don't belong if you're in the equestrian jumping. If you have no experience with horse jumping. You have to guide the horse over the jumps and you have to look relatively balanced.

You have to know how to sit on a horse, sit up straight, I imagine. I don't know. Lean into the jumps. I have no idea. I don't know. Lean into the jumps. Yeah. I have no idea. I don't know the inner workings of horses. Well, I hope not. Which one would you choose?

Dude, I've been trying to think about this, and I don't think I could pass off anything. I'm looking at badminton right now, i feel like maybe badminton i would lose yeah but i think i could at least like return a couple and yeah that's because like there's very few people that like know what badminton is supposed to look like though yeah right here i would in asia they'd be like that guy does not belong this guy is awful canadians would be like oh he's pretty good i don't know if there's a single sport no because i i'm just disqualifying any like track and field event totally there's no way yeah golf we're nowhere near good enough even you and your candy cat yeah i think people would be like that guy's swing does not belong on this course yeah for sure and so i i actually hadn't

asked us anything and maybe this is the route you could go the ask ask us anything i had was if you had to play let's say you were an american you had to play on the american basketball team and they had to play you 10 minutes a game okay would you would they still win gold easily so 10 minutes essentially they're like killing a penalty can you foul out before the 10 minutes is up also like you're just are you gonna catch up to anybody or are you gonna do it are they gonna tell you just like you stay there stay out of the way because my honestly my biggest concern would be getting in the way yeah yeah you're kind of like you guys probably have like a play drawn up here right like where do i go like that corner over there um would they be able to uh would the

10 minutes you could hit a corner three bruh i could feel they would not they would not they would not pass to anybody here elon like you're pretty good at basketball i think the usa team can play good help defense enough to win that's what that's what i'm thinking like what okay so what's the cutoff where you're like okay like even the americans are gonna have a run go against them once in a while yeah right and i might just be out there for it right yeah yeah but what's the i guess what's the number of minutes you would have to play before they, like they lose? Is it half the game? That's a really good question.

I have no idea. I feel like a negative value. Do you think one person might be, it might be like 15, 20 minutes. So about half the game, because then you're like, man,

you're playing shorthanded essentially for half a game. You're also going to be dead after five minutes. Oh yeah. Well, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

you're not moving. Yeah. You're like, I'm open. You're like, uh-huh. after five minutes. Oh, yeah. No, no, no, no, no. I'm assuming I'm not running. Yeah, you're not moving. Yeah, you're like, I'm open. You're like, uh-huh. Yeah, good for you, man. Do you think you could rip down a board? No. I think you guys could. Elon.

I could definitely get an assist. You guys are tall. 100%. Yeah, but no, could you? Because they don't just give it an assist like they do in hockey. Yeah, I get the ball. I pass to Curry. It's a three. Is that an assist, though? Yes time yeah doesn't it have to like produce value no that produces value you

passed it to him and then he scored i thought they had to that it was like a little more advanced so you know how in hockey they'll give you an assist for anything that's like it hit his head and then it went to the other guy and scored. I do think it has to be within a certain amount of time if I remember correctly. I can't pass to Curry. He can't dribble for 10 seconds. If he shoots right after, it still counts. Catch and shoot, that's definitely

an assist. If you make a nice play to get a guy the ball and he's open. How did you get the ball in the first place? Something went wrong. Guys, I was not part of the play. What are we doing? Deflect it off your head. I also wouldn't be able to pass the ball confidently. I would just be like, I'm running it to you.

You'd probably throw up on court. Hopefully I get there. You'd be sending guys on breaks the other way. I would panic so hard. Okay, I've got an ask us anything as well. Would you rather, dratherather be an amazing natural athlete so you're a prodigy

basically from the first time you start your sport who has a successful career but people wonder eh he could have been better if he was a little more dedicated tried a little harder he wasn't always

the best teammate but man what an athlete or would you rather be the guy who works his butt off to overachieve against long odds but never quite reached the levels that the natural athlete reached for example alexei Kovalev. Do you remember him? That might be a bit before your time. I got him. Unbelievably talented hockey player, but sometimes you wondered,

he was the classic enigmatic Russian. Would you rather that career, Alexei Kovalev's career, or Alex Burrows, or Yannick Hansen. One of these guys that was never expected. Burrows was undrafted. Yannick Hansen was a ninth rounder. They don't even have that draft anymore, that round of the draft anymore.

What would you prefer? And try not to get confused by, like, Kovalev did this. Like, we're not, this isn't Kovalev or Burroughs. This is just the idea. Like the narrative around you. Just examples. But also not the narrative, but also your life experience. Like, you know, I think it would be pretty cool to be a very naturally gifted athlete but i also think that you would

learn a lot and probably be more successful after your career if you learned how to work hard and that became your identity like once i start something i'm very committed to it i work hard um and you know you you and also you get the recognition and the the appreciation of being this guy that you know overachieved we all know how beloved a guy like Alex Burrows was and and Yannick Hansen later in his career became very well respected and you know comes on our station and everyone listens to him and and you know and respects his opinion on things because they know that he put the work in himself which would you prefer i know halford would take natural athlete because he's always like i think i'd make more money with the natural

athlete fair i i have learned about myself that i love external approval. And so like if, if the road to, Hey, being someone who was a long shot, but I worked my way to the NHL, whatever it is, earns me like the approval of fans and I'm well liked. And I still like end up being relatively talented.

Yeah. Yeah. You're, you're, you're a good player and you can, let's, let's level like the team success is even like you have even team success right then i'm taking the the bros ask route as opposed to being

a guy who like i don't want to be hated yeah and that's that's kind of my issue you don't want to you don't want to be seen as not reaching your potential yeah Yeah. Right? I don't want to disappoint you. That being said, though, being a natural athlete would be really cool. That was going to be my point. Like a real natural athlete, being able to pick up, and you know,

if you're good at hockey, for example, you're probably good at other sports too, right? That'd be really neat. It'd just be cool to have skill. Yeah. Because I don't. To be in a body that's like, to be kind of talented.

Yeah. I mean like you see some of the, the runners, for example, in the Olympics and you're kind of like, no, that is just like, I mean,

there's hard work, but it's natural talent, right? It's amazing. Yeah. I always, you know, I've said this before on the show,

I hope they can get um i don't know if you'd call it virtual reality but to the point where i i could feel what it would feel like to be connor mcdavid skating like i don't know if that technology is ever going to be available like if they could put i don't know sensors in your body that would make you feel that or in your brain that would make you feel that. Because that would be incredible to be able to skate like that. I have thought that. Just like being, like even Patrick Mahomes, where it's like, you know what?

I can just, I am amazing at this sport. It comes naturally to me. And I am going to dominate every time. I see everything in front of me. The unbridled confidence I would have would be unreal. Can you imagine being on an NHL sheet of ice and just being like, I'm going to beat everyone in a race.

All these NHL players, I'm going to beat them all. That would be cool. That would be awesome to have, that skill. Jeff and East Hill, I definitely would take the Burrows, the Alex Burrows career, based on the fact that he earned everything. It wasn't a skill

thing purely. Obviously, he's talented, but not at a supremely easily level. And I know that every time you stepped on the ice, your teammates looked at you and respected you for working so hard and how far you've come. I remember one of the first times I saw Alex Burrows play, I was at a game with a buddy and the Canucks were protecting a one goal lead and the other team had, the net was empty and there was kind of a loose puck in the middle of the ice and Burrows stopped on the puck, like stopped hard and then took some hard steps back to the puck and got the puck. And I think he scored into the empty net. And I remember thinking like, first of all, that's not a super high bar to reach in the NHL. Like everyone should be stopping

on pucks, but the way he did it and the way he didn't just kind of like, oh, there's a loose puck there. I guess I'll just kind of glide back to that one. Like he just did it. I was like, this guy might be a player. Like this guy might be the type of, I'm not saying like supremely skilled, but do you remember when Burroughs came into the NHL and some of you guys might not,

a lot of people were like, like, are we such a bad team that we need this guy on our team he's the hl guy like seriously that's the way it was like like this guy who's just like yapping all the time and like are we really at this level that we need this guy um and then gradually people realize like this guy's a really smart player and he works his butt off and then as he was given more and more opportunity he just kept on reaching new levels because he worked yeah and that's why that's why like i would go for that career is because we we talk about him and we have this like respect and admiration for how he got there

and that's just something to me that seems more enticing than especially if we're like talking connor mcdavid levels of skill okay then obviously i'm taking that but if we're talking about alexi no but no but no but like that that would be the option though right but also like you never reached your potential yeah which to me no i don't think anyone says that about mcdavid though no no yeah you have to have that element of supremely talented like Who are some other athletes that you think about in that way? Kovalev was the first one that came to mind for me. Kovalev, I feel like there's been,

to a much lesser extent, Nikolai Goldobin. Yeah. I was thinking Alexander Dagg, guys like that are clearly talented, but just never put it together. But they got a ton of skill. just never put it together. Yeah. But they got a ton of skill. Right.

Maybe Johnny football. Yeah. Unbelievable skill, but had some personal issues that dragged him down. There were some reasons. We should probably have a break, by the way. We got Donovan Bennett coming up on the other side,

covering the Olympics for CBC. You got Canada basketball today. Also want to talk women's soccer as well. That's coming up next on Halford and Brough on Sportsnet 650. 734 Halford and Brough. No Mike Halford. It's Josh Elliott-Wolf Here with Jason Brough Coming to you live From the Kintex studio

And Halford & Brough Is brought to you by The Dilawri family Of Honda dealers Experience the Dilawri Difference today Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today

And also This hour of Halford & Brough Brought to you by Bridge Brewing Meticulously brewed For quality and taste primetime craft beer is full flavor without compromise at a liquor store near you or visit the brewery to see how it's made gonna connect in moments with donovan bennett covering the olympics

for cbc canada taking on spain in about 40 minutes from now in their final group stage game of men's basketball i'm wondering so if they i'm not stressed about this game which is nice because even if they lose they move on right but they also play tougher competition if they lose they'll be second in the in their group um but yeah i'm not not really stressed do you think you're just gonna are you not stressed as in you mean you think they're gonna win or just like it doesn't matter what happens uh the latter um i was a little concerned that this game when i looked at the pool i was like oh they could lose one of those first two games um and that greece one got interesting at the end um but i just wanted them to get through don't get me wrong i want them to

win today and get the best possible seating but i'm not going to be sitting there watching it like oh my god like come on yeah and i actually wonder how the coaching staff will uh approach it you know who we should ask uh donovan bennett to the phone lines we go donovan bennett covering the olympics for cbc appreciate you taking the time donovan uh in terms of how canada might approach To the phone lines we go. Donovan Bennett covering the Olympics for CBC. Appreciate you taking the time, Donovan. In terms of how Canada might approach this final game in the group stage, do you think it's a foot off the gas type thing? Maybe spread the minutes around a little bit more?

Are they still going heavily for this win? Foot off the gas, no. Spread the minutes, yes. I don't know if we'll be seeing a long run of Melvin Egyem just because. But I do think they're going to want to win this game for a couple of reasons. One is, you guys know, in the Olympics there's three groups of four, and the top two in each group move on, and then the two best third-place finishers, best third-place finishers, also move on. So for a couple reasons. One, if they not only beat Spain but run up to plus-minus,

there's a chance they could be sending the Spaniards home. And I think certainly Jordi Fernandez, who's had some history with the Spanish Federation, and quite frankly a team that is expecting to contend for medal. If you could end that trip early, you'd want to do that too. You want to be one of the top seeds as you get into the quarterfinals

to give yourself an opportunity not to play potentially one of the second place teams or even make sure you don't fall to second yourself with a loss and have to play a first place team or a good sex place team you want to play one of those third place qualifiers and so for all those reasons i think the goal for them remains the same to make sure they win they get

through the group they keep a nice path as best as possible through the quarterfinals to potentially the semis and final and you want to delay when you play the americans for as long as possible and so i think for them they understand that this game matters in the short and long term tell us a bit about this spanish team what is the one thing that you think about when you think about the Spanish team? So, I mean, I'm reticent to say this, you know, half hour before tip, but overrated? I just, so many people... Oh boy, there's the jinx. Canada's losing tonight. Yeah, right? I mean, I whispered it.

Does that make it better? So many people came in saying, you know, oh, group of death, and man, you know, it's terrible that canada had to be the same group as spain and australia and greece and i was like actually australia scares me the most by far they've got eight nba players uh you know outside of obviously the united states who has all nba players in canada with ten of the highest. And the NBL, their local league, is the best league for me,

the best domestic league outside of the NBA. We remember the great Spanish generation teams because of the Gasol brothers and because of Canadians, Raptors fans, Jose Calderon and Jorge Garboza. We are far away from that. So yeah, Rudy Fernandez in FIBA is still a real player, but it's a team that lacks athleticism,

that really, quite frankly, had some scary moments versus Greece, as did we, to be fair. But I think this is a team where the name on the jersey and those colors are a little bit more scary. I think if we're worried about Spain as Canadians, it's because Alcaraz knocked out Felix Rogel, not because their basketball team is as much of a threat. Well, I'm an England supporter,

so I'm not too impressed with Spain right now anyway. I'm still thinking about the Euro finals. So I'm hoping Canada wipes the court with Spain. Is it possible that they use a game like this, and I'm talking about the Canadians, to try and get Jamal Murray going? Or have they pretty much just accepted that what they're getting from Jamal Murray

is what they're probably going to get? I think they do use it to get him going, get him feeling confident and get him having a better understanding, you know, in a backcourt with Shea Gildas-Alexander, something that I think we're going to see increasingly in crunch time, certainly in scenarios where you're down and you need a bucket. Remember, as much as these guys have been a part of that core three-year commitment and as much as they've both played for Canada internationally in the past, they haven't really played together until now. Jamal played in the Pan Ams.

Shea played as a junior. They're separated by age, by year, and then also obviously Shea played outstandingly last year. So the fact that Jamal hasn't been starting, they haven't been sharing the court as much, I think we see more lineups with them together for them to understand, you know, time and space. And when I'm not dominating the ball the way I am for my NBA team,

where should I be? Where do you need me to be? Where do you want me to cut or spot up on the weak side? So I think we'll see some rotations just to have a little bit of a dress rehearsal for what we should be expecting when the games are for real. This will be qualifying for F1 or you want to put down a good time, but also you are doing some research and development for when the flag goes, the gun goes off, and things are really high stakes. What have you thought of R.J. Barrett in these first couple games and him maybe stepping up in the absence of Jamal Murray at the moment?

I've thought that the Raptors need him to wear a Team Canada jersey underneath his Raptors jersey because FIBA RJ is a problem, right? There's always, for every nation it seems, players who play better internationally than they do at times in the NBA. FIBA Patty Mills is certainly a thing. Olympic Mellow was, I'm telling you, R.J. Barrett. He just puts his head down and is a raging bull to the basket whenever he's playing for Canada.

Maybe it's because since he was born, literally, in his house in Mississauga, which the family still has, in the hallway from the living room to the kitchen was Rowan's jersey. And he had to pass it and see it every day. And he often said as a teenager, you know, I want to remove that and put mine up there. And Rowan's like, well, how about we slow down? Maybe we can move it over.

You can put yours up because that jersey helped to pay for this house. But I think when you've been desirous to get on this stage for so long and you're there you know that sweat equity is going to push you to a different level so yeah he's he's been aggressive offensively he's knocked down the three ball which has been inconsistent for him at times but really something that this team needs in terms of the spacing it provides. But I think the biggest thing is how many times when there's a 50-50 ball, when there's a contested rebound, and you're just screaming at your TV to get it and corral it, and you do, and then you look up, and as people come down the court, it's like, oh, that's right, that single digit is RJ. That's him, you know, putting himself in harm's way

time and time again. So the intensity, the effort, and quite frankly, the buckets have been much needed. And I'm so happy for him personally, but certainly so happy for the family, given, you know, the tragic loss that they had with his brother, Nathan, dying earlier this year. You know, I want to give them some joy, and he's certainly found joy in Paris.

What other things does this team need to work on? I'm not acting like this game against Spain is a practice or anything, but where do they need to improve so that they can get rolling right into the quarterfinals? I'm going to tell you verbatim the thing that I've texted to my Canada basketball group chat, which is just an amazing thing to be able to say. I'm so happy that this team is back on the stage, and we're able to have Canada basketball watch parties and group chats.

But in all caps, with an angry emoji, I've texted so many times just don't foul yeah and this team is aggressive and you love it especially as a canadian but they're also athletic they're so athletic they you don't have to pick up you know 90 feet all of the time and you don't have to pick up 90 feet all of the time, and you don't have to run through the screen all the time, and you don't have to use your hands. You can just stay in a stance and use your feet. They're so athletic. We've seen it in long stretches, both in the World Cup and in the Olympics. When they lock in and just defend, they're hard to score against.

That's going to be true forever. Quite frankly, that was true for the Americans to start the first exhibition game. When they get overaggressive, and it's not even as if it's something obscene or wild, the issue is that the officiating in FIBA is so unpredictable that you don't know from one possession to the next what's a play on and what's a foul.

And so take the referees out of it. Show your hands. Use your feet. Be smart. And if you do that, you're going to be fine. I think they have enough depth that they can get through some spot foul trouble if their guards are in foul trouble or their bigs are. But again, when these games are close and it's tense

and you're playing for the right to advance and the right to determine the color of the medal, you don't want to be worried about foul trouble and having to play cautious. So for me, I think the thing would be, you know, all Canadians would love to get to the fourth quarter and not have Dan Shulman update us on the amount of fouls on Dylan Brooks and Lou Dort and Dwight Powell.

So that would be the thing. Well, all three of those guys fouled out against Greece. And in a related story story Greece has Giannis is that easier said than done to not foul when Canada could potentially be going up against some of the big you know the elite bigs in in the world and they don't really have one themselves yeah no question and I think in the case of Gian, sometimes the best advice would be two fouls. Instead of having a dunk on your head, put him on the free throw line and cross your fingers. But when you look at what could be potential opponents over the next couple days as you get into the knockout round, you're looking at Germany with the Wagner brothers.

You're looking at, obviously, Serbia with a multi-time MVP in Jokic. You're looking at France, who starts two seven-footers. Again, in the case of one of them, Rudy Gobert, it might be better two-foul or just get out of the way if he has the ball on offense because that means it's not in a better playmaker's hands. But I think to your point, you're going to have a lot of size over the next couple of days. And that's not even including playing the United States and the Americans who have two great centers coming off the bench.

Never mind Embiid as an MVP, if they decide to go back to starting him. So it is easier said than done, but I'm going to share with you another thing I said in my group chat, and it was, why is Ken Burch in the game? And he was in the game because of foul trouble, but you know, after some choppy minutes, he actually gave them some energy and some presence around the basket. So it will be certainly a point of emphasis as we get through this tournament.

40-minute games just go by in a flash. The difference between 5,000 and 6,000 is significant. So we'll see how they can do. Yeah, it does seem a lot easier to foul out. It certainly did against Greece because they did it three times. We're chatting Olympics with Donovan Bennett here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Donovan, let's talk a little women's soccer. So the women got through the group stage incredibly, considering they were docked six points for the drone spying scandal. They won all three of their games. That France match was

incredible, the way they were able to pull that off late on French soil against a very good French team. They got the one key goal they needed against Colombia. And it kind of felt like in Canada, it was like they did it. They did it. Well, they haven't really done it. Now they're going to get Germany in the quarterfinals. And remember, Canada is defending a gold medal here. What are the challenges that germany

presents canada yeah congratulations you did it you raised the six-point deficit you got through you didn't lose a game in the tournament uh your reward you play the fourth ranked team in the world who qualified it out of by far the most difficult region in Europe with Spain and France and England, who are the one, two, and three ranked teams in the world. The women's football in Europe is so good, and it helps when you have domestic leagues, so thank God that the NSL is on the way. England, who won Euros, didn't even qualify for the Olympics. Spain, who won the World Cup, even qualify for the Olympics. Spain, who won

the World Cup, has been building for a while and so has Germany. You have a sense that it's their time. As I mentioned, England won Euros, Spain won the World Cup, Germany's been knocking on the door and this will be their breakthrough. They did look

shaky versus the United States, especially defensively, but the real threat from germany is offensively there's so many offensive playmakers the second amount of goals thus far in the tournament and so it's essentially you know unstoppable force versus a movable object because canada has been very good defensively with the clean sheet that was clutch versus Columbia and I'll be really interested to see how they set up because they knew essentially uh in the third game and really for the better part of their second game they had to go for it what we saw in their third match against Columbia was three four three pushing up going for it offensively, trying to score, no holding midfielder to start

as Quinn came off the bench, because they knew they had to not only win, they knew they had to score goals to get through. Germany, as I mentioned, a great offensive team. Are you a little bit more pragmatic, a little bit more cagey, or do you throw caution to the wind because

without the all-time leading goal scorer in Christine Sinclair, you know you're going to have to get goals from all different types of areas, even if it means two from a center back. That's my big question with Canada. Do they have enough goal scorers, clutch goal scorers? Well, I think the question, and this is the question we have in my Canada soccer group, Jack, great that we can have those as well, is has anyone determined yet who their best 11 is, who their best front three is?

We've seen six different attacking players start matches thus far in this tournament for Canada. I'm not convinced. We know what the best combination of three is. And that's not even including Janine Becky, who's been used more in a depth role, whether it be as a wingback or a midfielder, but we know she has the capability to play in the final third. So I don't know. I'm fascinated to know what the team sheet will look like.

That will give us an indication on how they plan to set up and if they try to nullify the offensive threat for Germany or they try to activate their own offensive threat. But think about it. The second best player probably when they won in Tokyo was Quinn. The person who scored the game-winning PK was Julia Grosso, and both of them have been somewhat peripheral players in this tournament. Grosso obviously got the start alongside others in the midfield. We'll see how they set up.

I'm really interested to see what, I suppose, Andy Spence decides, although I'm sure Beth Priestman is FaceTiming and giving input. I wonder if she is. You know what, I think she is. I think so. Is that allowed? She probably shouldn't be. What if that comes out?

I hope Rick Westhead doesn't get information about that. I don't know if what allowed has been a cause for concern for this federation and some of the coaches for the last little bit. I don't, I don't necessarily know. And I'm not alluding to the fact that she might be FaceTiming in game. And I'm talking about in the lead up in terms of preparation. I always thought,

you know, Herdman would be wearing an AirPod while he's coaching. I thought like, who is he talking to? Like what, who, who is he on the phone with at this time? But I do think, though, in terms of motivation, because let's be honest, Pat Priestman has coached her last game for Canada Soccer.

One, she's spent it for a year. Two, there's no coming back from this. But I do think if she, you know she plans to work in football moving forward, which I assume she does, her being able to say, yes, I have this scandal. I've learned my lesson. You know, I have gone away.

I've paid my penance. However, I will remind you, I did win Olympic gold and I did win fill in the blank, whatever this team does. I do think launching her to whatever her next role is, the performance of this team will matter. And so I think for sure, even though she knows she's not going to be moving forward with Kansas soccer after this, I think she would be invested in the performance being as good as possible because that's going to look good on her LinkedIn page when she goes to update it. Hey, Donovan, real quick here.

We've only got a minute or two, but how do you think the players feel about Bev Priestman? Do they still have a love and respect and appreciation for her, or are they pretty angry at the position that she put them in? Enraged. All the things that I've heard has been that the camp was borderline toxic to the kin with, and this obviously pushed it over there. Do I think anyone, you know, if you've been in a relationship, when someone cheats on you, it could be someone you deeply loved and have feelings for and had great memories with, but you're

done with them and you just want to cut them out of your life. And I think that's the stage that these women are at. They're annoyed. Once again, they've been put in this position. Normally their fight was with the Federation and Bev could have been a sounding board because she was just an innocent bystander. Now

she's in their crosshairs and i get it quite frankly totally absolutely donovan always appreciate chatting with you i'm off on vacation for a couple weeks but i just wanted to say that i've really enjoyed uh chatting about the olympics with you whether it's uh soccer or basketball it's been a pleasure i've enjoyed it as well enjoy your vacation and canadians enjoy being able to wake up different times depending where you are and throw on sports and just watch our athletes compete this is the best see you donovan enjoy buddy wait uh that was donovan bennett um that was interesting what he said right at the end there the things he's heard is that

they're enraged makes sense sense. At that priesthood. And I would be. Oh, yeah. That's a good analogy. I am still enraged about, I'll bring it up every day. Even when I come back from vacation, the gall she had to get up there

and act like she was acting all heroic by offering to sit out the New Zealand match really bothers me. What should she have said, though? That info wasn't out yet. Shealand match which really bothers me what should she have said though like that info wasn't out she didn't need to go as far as she she did you don't have to say anything she she said she made it seem like uh i'm not responsible for this but for the sake of sportsmanship and because i'm a leader and because I'm accountable and because I have so much respect for our opponents that I will sit out one match. And it's like she's like she expected.

And now you can all give me a standing ovation. in this, to go up there and to not only deny it, but to take it a step further past that denial and say like, and this is what good leaders do. They fall on their sword. No, what you're doing right now is lying and throwing your coaching staff under the bus. Following your drum. I never, ever want to see her coaching another game for Canada. Moj is coming up next. The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions. 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. We'll talk to the Moj.

On the other side, it is Halford and Brough on Sportsnet 650.