Two weeks of basketball in Europe apparently wasn’t enough for Kelly Olynyk — he wants to do it again.

Olynyk, a South Kamloops grad and member of the NCAA’s Gonzaga Bulldogs, is in Toronto this week trying out for the national senior men’s basketball team. The tryout comes on the heels of a two-week trip through Europe with the national development men’s team that ended on Sunday.

If Olynyk makes the senior team, he will be playing basketball — lots of it — into the middle of September.

Canada is to play three exhibition games around the country next week, before heading to Greece for a tournament from Aug. 17-19. After that, there will be a tournament in Ankara, Turkey, from Aug. 21-23, and then the FIBA World Championship in Izmir and Istanbul, Turkey, from Aug. 28 to Sept. 12.

The tryout is being held at the Air Canada Centre, home of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors and NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs.

“We’re practising two times a day . . . in the morning and at night,” said Olynyk, a 6-foot-11 forward. “The trip with the development team was basically a tryout, and so are the practices this week.”

There are 16 men trying out for the senior team, which Olynyk figures will carry 14 players for its Canadian exhibition series — it begins Tuesday against China in Vancouver, before games against France on Aug. 12 and 13 in Toronto — and will carry 12 to Greece and Turkey.

Should Olynyk crack the roster for worlds, he would have to miss the start of his school year, but not his basketball season at Gonzaga.

“We’re not allowed to start practising until October, so it won’t affect the basketball,” he said, adding that Gonzaga head coach Mark Few apparently doesn’t mind if he’s late to the party. ”From what I’ve heard, he’s OK with it. But I haven’t talked to him about it.”

Olynyk, 19, is set to enter his second season with the Bulldogs, after playing all of the team’s 34 games in 2009-10 and averaging nearly four points and three rebounds.

He’s thrilled with the experience he has picked up this summer — during his trip with the development team, he played alongside former NBA player Denham Brown. Canada also took on Spain’s senior team, which features Rudy Fernandez, a 6-foot-6 guard who spent last season with the Portland Trail Blazers.

And while Fernandez and the hosts won the game, 84-38, in Gran Canaria on Sunday, Olynyk cherishes the experience.

“It was really good to see just how much better they are and what you have to do to get there,” Olynyk said. “It was a great experience to be playing guys at that level.”

The team opened its trip in Belgium, against Ivory Coast and Belgium, before games against Great Britain and Finland in London and a doubleheader against the host Dutch. The team took a week off before playing Ivory Coast and Spain back-to-back on the Canary Islands.

Canada went 3-5 on its trip, and Olynyk was somewhat pleased with his own efforts. His best games were a 95-92 victory over Ivory Coast in Spain on Saturday, in which he scored nine points, and an 89-73 loss to Finland in London on July 22, in which he had eight points and nine rebounds.

“I think I could have shot the ball a little better, but it was good,” he said. “The game is so different over there . . . it just moves so quickly. The shot clock (24 seconds) is 11 seconds quicker than I’m used to playing, but it’s the same as the NBA.

“Everybody shoots the ball so well, too. One through five, everyone on the floor can shoot it.”

Leo Rautins, a former NBA player and analyst for the Raptors, coached the development team, and also is head coach of the senior team.

Olynyk enjoyed playing for Rautins, who gave the players some time away from basketball to enjoy the trip.

“We were practising two times a day when we weren’t playing,” Olynyk said. “(Rautins) told us to make sure we got out and saw the beaches and enjoyed the trip, soaked it all up.”

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca