Kelly Olynyk of Kamloops is still in tryout mode ahead of his first game with the Canadian senior men’s basketball team.

Olynyk, a 19-year-old forward from Kamloops, is on the roster for Canada’s exhibition game against China at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena (formerly GM Place) tonight. It will be the first time Olynyk has suited up for the national senior team, after stints with the cadet and development team.

Following tonight’s game, Olynyk and his teammates will return to Toronto, where Basketball Canada held a tryout camp last week, to take on France on Thursday and Friday at the Air Canada Centre, the home of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.

After the three exhibition games, Canada head coach Leo Rautins will select 12 players from his 14-man roster to compete at the world championship in Turkey next month.

Olynyk is the youngest of the remaining 14 players, and will have something of a cheering section made up of Kamloopsians at the Vancouver game.

“That team will be (selected) right at the last moment, I think,” Olynyk wrote in an email. “But it’s been going well and smooth so far.”

Olynyk, a 6-foot-11 South Kamloops Titans grad, is heading into his second season with the NCAA’s Gonzaga Bulldogs, who are based in Spokane.

He spent part of last month with Canada’s development team on a tour of Europe, playing games in London, the Canary Islands, Belgium and the Netherlands.

After that tour, Rautins invited Olynyk to try out for the senior team. The team held a week of practice in Toronto, before setting out for Vancouver on Sunday.

Following this week’s exhibition games, Canada’s 12 selected players will head overseas for an exhibition tournament in Athens, Greece, from Aug. 17-19, and another exhibition event in Ankara Turkey from Aug. 21-23.

The world championship is scheduled for Aug. 28 to Sept. 12 in Izmir and Istanbul, Turkey. Canada will be competing at worlds for the first time since 2002, when it finished 13th.

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca