All you need to know: 2019 FIBA World Cup
With the 2019 FIBA World Cup starting in China on Saturday, AGONAsport outlays the most important information about the competition.
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For the third time in history, the World Cup will be played in Asia; the Philippines hosted in 1958, before the tournament was then held in Japan in 2006. All matches of the competition will take place at eight separate venues located in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The tournament will begin on August 31 and end on September 15. The 32 participating countries have been split up into eight groups of four:
As per usual, the USA are considered the clear favourites, although the reigning champions gave their opponents hope last week when conceding a shock friendly defeat to Australia. Incidentally, it was the first loss for the Americans in 13 years since their setback against Greece in the semi-finals of the 2006 FIBA World Championship.
A grand combined total of 57 NBA players will play at the tournament.
Greece have been placed in Group F alongside Montenegro, Brazil and New Zealand, with the Episimi Agapimeni expected to comfortably qualify for the next round. Interestingly, with a population of just 600,000, Montenegro are the smallest nation ever to compete at a World Cup.
The World Cup is a crucial tournament in terms of qualification for the 2020 Olympic Games. The best two teams from Europe and the two highest-ranked nations from the Americas will directly qualify for the Olympics, as well as the best teams from Africa, Asia and Oceania.
The Greeks are rightly regarded as one of the favourites. With NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo in the team, Greece will fancy their chances against any opponent, and a medal is the minimum objective for Thanasis Skourtopoulos’ troops. Antetokounmpo has been in impressive form during the friendly games.
Serbia - despite the tournament-ending injury suffered by Milos Teodosic - have been ranked as the second favourites behind the USA and ahead of Greece. Olympiacos center Nikola Milutinov is on their roster.
GREECE GROUP F SCHEDULE (ALL MATCHES TO BE PLAYED IN NANJING)
Greece - Montenegro, September 1, 15:00*
Brazil - Greece, September 3, 15:00
Greece - New Zealand, September 5, 15:00
*Greek time
GROUP PHASE - 1ST ROUND
AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 5
8 GROUPS OF 4 TEAMS
Every team plays against the three other teams in its group for a total of 48 games (3 games per team, 6 games per group).
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the 2nd Round.
The bottom two teams from each group will play the Classification Round for places 17-32.
GROUP PHASE - 2ND ROUND
SEPTEMBER 6 - 9
4 GROUPS OF 4 TEAMS
The results of the three games from the 1st Round carry over to this 2nd Round.
Every team plays against the two teams in their group that they did not face in the 1st Round, for a total of 16 games. (2 games per team, 4 games per group).
The group layout in the second round is as follows:
Group I: A1, A2, B1, B2
Group J: C1, C2, D1, D2
Group K: E1, E2, F1, F2
Group L: G1, G2, H1, H2
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Quarter-Finals.
The bottom two teams from each group are eliminated and ranked in places 9-16 according to the Official Basketball Rules.
FINAL PHASE
SEPTEMBER 10 - 15
Quarter-finals to be played on September 10/11 (Losers of the Quarter-Finals will play the Classification Round for places 5-8)
Semi-finals to be played on September 13
Medal games to be played on September 15
Side note: Classification games and ranking principles are necessary as the final ranking of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 will be used to qualify directly 7 teams to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and 16 teams to the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.
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