Canadian basketball is in a good place

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With a new coach and an injured star, expectations for Canada's women's basketball team at the World Cup were cautious at best. Grouped with the second-, third- and fourth-place finishers from the Olympics, it seemed like a tall task just to reach the quarter-finals.

Instead, Canada wound up placing fourth for its best finish since 1986, falling in the bronze-medal game to host Australia. A successful tournament like this was a long time coming for the fourth-ranked Canadians, who announced themselves on the international scene with a run to the quarter-finals at the 2012 Olympics but failed to progress in the ensuing years.

Roaming the Canadian sidelines for the first time at a major tournament, Victor Lapeña achieved almost exactly what he was brought in for, short of reaching the podium. He instilled instant energy, seemingly bringing joy back to a program in need. And the players adapted quickly to his ramped-up strategy without becoming overly aggressive, averaging the fourth-most steals and third-fewest turnovers per game.

WATCH | Canada drops basketball worlds bronze to Australia:

Since we're talking about Canadian sports on a CBC platform, let's name the team's three stars:

Canada's next big task — booking its ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics — begins with a pre-qualifying tournament in November 2023. In the interim, it'll use a few international windows and next July's AmeriCup to continue learning Lapeña's system and building on the foundation laid at the World Cup.

Luckily for Canadian basketball fans, the wait for more interesting games is already over — the