University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's basketball head coach Tamara Tatham has been named an assistant coach of the Canadian national senior team, as announced by Basketball Canada on Friday, May 19.

Tatham will join head coach Víctor Lapeña's staff for the upcoming training camp in Edmonton, Rim-to-Rim exhibition game against Japan in Victoria, and the FIBA Women's AmeriCup 2023 in Mexico, July 1-9.

A two-time Olympian, having played for Canada at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Tatham returns to the bench after serving as a Guest Coach last summer at GLOBL JAM. Currently, the head coach of the University of Toronto women's basketball program, Tatham has been involved with several national team programs, including as an assistant coach at the FIBA U16 Women's Americas Championship 2019. 

In 2018, Tatham became the first Canadian woman on the coaching staff of a pro men's league when she joined Raptors 905 as a mentee coach under then head coach Jama Mahlalela.

The FIBA Women's AmeriCup 2023 will feature the top ten teams in the zone competing in the most prestigious senior women's basketball tournament in the Americas.  Last week, Canada was drawn into Group B for the competition and will face the host nation Mexico (July 2, time TBD) Puerto Rico (July 3, time TBD), Colombia (July 4, time TBD), and Dominican Republic (July 5, time TBD) in the Group Phase.

With the USA having already secured a spot at next year's Olympic Games in Paris, the best-performing team outside the USA will automatically advance to the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying tournament in February 2024.  The following three best teams will play in the regional FIBA Women's Pre-Olympic Qualifying tournaments in November 2023.

The team is coming off a fourth-place finish at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022, the team's best finish at the World Cup since a third-place finish in 1986.

Canada's Senior Women's National Team is ranked fifth in the FIBA World Ranking Women, presented by Nike after the rankings were updated following the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022.

Source: Basketball Canada