Tyler Kepkay acknowledged that when he started training camp with the Canadian national team recently, he was a long-shot to make the team for its final chance to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games in China. He was scarcely on anybody's radar.

Not anymore.

The 21-year-old senior made the Team Canada roster today, beating out incumbent Ryan bell for the back-up point guard spot behind Jermaine Anderson -- though he was characteristically calm about it when I reached him in Toronto.

"I feel great about it," he said quietly. "It has sunk in a little, but I guess it will sink in more when I put the jersey on and start playing."

Though he played for his native country's junior development team, Kepkay had never played for its full national team. Yet from the moment training camp began, he impressed coach Leo Rautins and his staff, and just kept doing so as camp progressed.

"Once we started playing and camp got past the first couple of days, I started getting more and more confident," Kepkay said, "and by the end of it, I wasn't as surprised as I would have been at the beginning. But I was still a little bit."

The Canadians will play a series of exhibition games against Lebanon and New Zealand in Canada over the next week, before playing two more against Germany on July 9 and 11 and then the final Olympic qualifying tournament from July 14-20 in Athens, Greece. They must finish in the top three in the 12-team tournament to reach the Olympics.

After that, the Canadians will meet Team USA in an exhibition July 25 in Las Vegas at the conclusion of the Americans' pre-Olympic training camp -- meaning Kepkay soon will be playing against the Jazz's Deron Williams, among others.

Here's the thing, though.

Kepkay might have to root for idol and fellow British Columbia native Steve Nash to stay retired from the national team. Though Nash has indicated he does not plan play to represent Canada at the Beijing Games -- he gave up the national team after signing with the NBA's Phoenix Suns in 2004 -- Rautins has not given up the possibility, saying in May that Nash has "never said no."

And if Nash returns once the Canadians earn a trip to Beijing ... well, you know what that probably would mean for the back-up point guard.

Nonetheless, Kepkay's achievement counts as a great honor, and a wonderful opportunity.

The Canadians figure to have a decent chance at the qualifying tournament, too, with a roster that Rautins believes is as deep as it has ever been. Center Samuel Dalembert of the Philadelphia 76ers and former UNLV forward Joel Anthony of the Miami Heat also were named to the 12-man roster.

Team Canada opens the qualifying tournament with pool-play games against Slovenia and Korea on July 15 and 16. As long as the Canadians avoid last place in their pool, they will advance to the quarterfinals, where they would play either Cameroon, Croatia or Puerto Rico to reach the semifinals.

The Canadians can qualify for the Olympics either by winning a semifinal game -- there will be no tournament championship game -- or by winning the third-place game against the other semifinal loser. Brazil, Greece, Lebanon, Cape Verde, Germany and New Zealand are the other teams in the tournament.