'I love basketball': Victor Lapeña sparks joy as Canada's new women's coach

Victor Lapeña's excitement is infectious.

Canada Basketball's newly named senior women's head coach had recently touched down in Canada — his first time in the country — and he was about to observe a U23 practice at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

With a smile stretched across his face, Lapeña eagerly talked about his new job. Standing nearby, Denise Dignard, the team's general manager, couldn't help but grin.

Dignard has been around Canada Basketball since playing at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and few understand better how promise has devolved into frustration for the program, especially in recent years.

And so Lapeña's exuberance is almost jarring. He explained that his ultimate objective is to elevate the world's fourth-ranked squad onto the Olympic podium as soon as 2024 in Paris, to flip disappointing defeat into cathartic victories.

The first step in the Spaniard's plan is a heavy dose of good vibes.

"In my language, when you use like and love, it's very, very clear the difference,"  Lapeña said. "I was watching some films in English in the last days now, and I realized that I like you. OK. I like you, so I'm going to do everything to be with you and to enjoy.

"But I love you. I love basketball. It means that I'm going to do everything to enjoy my experience each minute, each second."

There hasn't been much to enjoy in Canadian women's basketball lately, despite the promise of solid WNBAers Kia Nurse and Bridget Carleton plus a cache of college up-and-comers.

After a hopeful run to the quarter-finals at the 2012 Olympics, the team could only match that in 2016 and then failed to even advance past the group stage in Tokyo last summer.

Shortly after those Olympics, Nurse tore her ACL and missed the ensuing WNBA season.