ATHENS - Canadian head coach Leo Rautins thinks the Canadian men's basketball team has a bright future to look forward to, even if he isn't a part of it.

Canada failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics after an 83-62 loss to Croatia in the quarter-finals of the FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament Friday.

Despite the setback, Rautins says the team is on the right track.

"You have a group of players who will be together for a while," he said in a conference call after the game. "I'm very optimistic about where these guys are going and what they're going to be able to accomplish."

But it remains to be seen whether Rautins will be kept on. He says he hasn't had any discussions about his status with the team.

"My concern is what's going on right now. I've never talked about that whatsoever," said Rautins, who took over as coach in 2005.

"I'd love to (stay)," he added. "When I started out the cupboards were bare, and we've gone into a different situation, and I'd like to see it through. But like I said, it's not something I've talked about with anybody."

Canada suffered from the absence of Philadelphia 76ers centre Samuel Dalembert, whom Rautins sent home prior to Wednesday's win over South Korea because he questioned the Haitian-born player's commitment to the team.

The Canadians missed the interior defence the six-foot-11, 250-pounder was meant to provide, and the circumstances surrounding his departure likely served as a distraction.

"Sam Dalembert not being a part of this team the way we anticipated was a major dynamics change," Rautins said.

The result is disappointing for a program that has been steadily aiming higher in recent years.

"Unfortunately we fell a little short," Rautins said. "If you remember in training camp, we made it very clear that our margin for error was slim to none. Some of the things that came into play here created that margin of error that we couldn't afford.

"I thought the guys who were here all the through, who were able to play, (they) fought but unfortunately we couldn't get what we wanted."

Olu Famutimi led Canada with 14 points on Friday, while veteran Rowan Barrett added 13.

Marko Popovic scored 17 for the Croats, whose defence was solid. Canada was held to a dismal 27 per cent from the floor and was just 29 per cent from three-point range.

"It wasn't a good tournament for us in terms of shooting the ball," Rautins said. "Even today's game, we had a lot of great looks, we didn't make a lot of shots and unfortunately, these teams are so good offensively, if you don't capitalize on your own opportunities they come down and score."

Canada hasn't qualified for the Olympic men's basketball tournament since 2000 in Sydney, where they finished seventh.

Barrett was on that team. He says this group needs more FIBA experience and more time together on a unit to reach the heights of earlier Canadian squads.

"I think that we have a young nucleus of guys that are growing and need these experiences to be able to push through and get to that next stage and bring Canada back to a level of prominence," he said.

"It's good to see there's some young guys in the stable, and they're going to get better."

An Olympic berth will be on the line when Croatia faces the winner of the Germany-Brazil quarter-final in the semis.

"If we're going to be successful, we're going to have to keep playing good defence," said Croatian point guard Zoran Planinic, who returned to the lineup after missing a game with the flu. "As long as we play good defence, we're going to have a chance."

Croatia broke open a close game early in the second quarter and led by as many as 10 before taking a 36-29 advantage into halftime.

Canada out-rebounded Croatia 41-36 with Miami Heat forward Joel Anthony pulling down a game-high 11 to go with his eight points.

"Croatia did a very good job being extremely physical, and they were able to do a lot of things to us at the defensive end," Rautins said.

The Canadian squad still has one game left this summer. They'll face the Americans at the State Farm USA Basketball challenge next week in Las Vegas. The exhibition game will serve as an Olympic tune-up for the Americans.

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