Details released for Olympic qualifying tournament draw

FIBA has released details of the draw procedure for the 2020 Olympic qualifying competition.

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Tomorrow, the Greek national team - to be coached by American legend Rick Pitino - will discover its opponents in the 2020 Olympic qualifying competition, with the Episimi Agapimeni placed in Pot 1 of the draw. Here are all of the six pots containing the 24 participating nations:

POT 1 

Serbia (H)*

GREECE

Lithuania (H)

Russia

POT 2

Czech Republic

Brazil

Italy

Poland

POT 3 

Croatia (H)

Turkey

Slovenia

Puerto Rico

POT 4

Germany

Dominican Republic

Venezuela

Canada (H)

POT 5

New Zealand

Mexico

China

South Korea

POT 6

Angola

Tunisia

Senegal

Uruguay

*(H) indicates host country

Each tournament in Serbia (Belgrade), Lithuania (Kaunas), Croatia (Split) and Canada (Victoria) will have six teams divided into two groups. The eventual winner of each of the four tournaments qualifies for the 2020 Olympic Games, which will take place in Japan.

Here is a detailed explanation of the draw procedure: 

• 24 teams have been distributed into 6 pots of 4 teams each, based on the FIBA World Ranking;

• In order to balance the quality of the tournaments and their respective groups, Pots 1, 4 and 5 will feed groups A;

• Pots 2, 3 and 6 will feed groups B of each tournament;

• There will be eight additional pots containing numbers 1 to 3 for Group A and Group B of each tournament;

• These numbers will determine the position of each team within their Group and the order of games;

• To equally spread teams from the same continent across the different groups, teams will be drawn and placed in the first available group following the Host Cities’ alphabetical order. Available groups will be determined by Draw Software;

• Pot 1 will be the first one drawn, filling in the remaining two spots in groups A for Greece and Russia;

• Pot 2 will feed all groups B with a straight draw. Pot 3 will also feed all groups B;

• To balance geographical principles, Puerto Rico cannot be drawn in the same group as Brazil;

• Pot 4 will feed all groups A. To balance geographical principles and to avoid having more than three European teams in one group, Germany will be drawn in a group which already includes a nation from the Americas;

• Pot 5 will also feed all groups A. To balance geographical principles, Mexico cannot be drawn in groups already including a team from the Americas;

• Pot 6 will feed all groups B. To balance geographical principles, Uruguay cannot be drawn in the same group as another team from the Americas.

by Shaun Nicolaides

Image Source: sport-fm.gr

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