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Reports: Jamal Murray ‘not expected’ to play for Team Canada this fall

murray

It’s looking less and less likely that incoming Kentucky freshman Jamal Murray will have a chance to play for his country at the FIBA Americas tourament.

ZagsBlog.com quoted a source close to Team Canada as saying that the likelihood of Murray’s participation is ‘not looking good', while TSN’s Toronto Raptors beat writer tweeted that Murray is ‘not expected’ to be a part of the team.

The issue at hand is a drop-dead date that head coach John Calipari has referred to regarding Murray. He has to be on campus an in class by that date -- which has not been specified -- in order to attend Kentucky for the first semester. Team Canada’s training camp is this week, but the tournament itself won’t take place for another two weeks, as it will be held from Aug. 31-Sep. 12 in Mexico City.

The first day of classes at the University of Kentucky is Aug. 26th, and the final day to add a class is on Sept. 1st, which also happens to be the last day that students are allowed to withdraw and still receive a refund.

If Murray does manage to find his way onto the Team Canada roster, it’s unlikely that he’ll start at the point guard spot; that honor is expected to go to Cory Joseph. But after the performance he had for Canada at the Pan-Am Games, it’s understandable that the team would be trying to get him involved in the program as much as possible.