We know Team USA both wants, and all but expects, to win this week's tournament in order to qualify for Beijing. But what about Canada?

Just one player on Team Canada has Olympic experience: that would be Teresa Gabriele, who was in Sydney in 2000. And just one player comes from the WNBA: that's Kim Smith, the Utah star lately seen on the end of the Monarchs' bench.

"I was hoping Tammy [Sutton-Brown] would play," said Canadian coach Alison McNeill, "but she called me and said she was pretty much fried. Her WNBA team had just finished so she's pretty much emotionally and physically drained." (What, no Thorburn?)

Despite her teams' inexperience, McNeill is stoked. "Of all my years coaching the national team, this is my favourite team," she tells reporters. "Our work ethic is phenomenal."