2010 FIBA World Championship

[Paulie]

I know this won't get nearly as much coverage as FIFA, even though it's so much better to watch, but here's the thread for this year's basketball world championships. It looks like there's a lot of stars missing from various team's rosters this year, such as Andrew Bogut, Manu Ginobli, a whole host of American superstars, Yao Ming and many more. It's sort of a disappointment, but it will still be a good championship to watch. My predictions for each group are:
Group A- Australia or Argentina
Group B- USA
Group C- Turkey
Group D- Not sure, Canada maybe.

I don't even know how many teams from each group get through. Naturally I'm cheering for Australia, come on guys! The games start on the 28th of August.

I just realised after creating this thread it's over a month away, I was reading it as 28th July, next week, for the games to start.

 

[JohnBM01]

I'm going to be honest... I wanted to create a thread on this topic. But, it's great that it's released. If it's one thing I've learned since joining message boards since about 2000, if you don't post it, somebody else will.

Griping aside, this FIBA World Championship is seen as second-tier to the Olympic basketball competition. I still pull for the USA. That's even if we somehow get upset by a very good European or a tough Latin American team.

Good luck to ALL teams nonetheless.

 

[Omnis]

Wow, Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose are only 21? Suddenly I feel like I have accomplished nothing in my life. I can't believe how young the USA team is.

 

[Paulie]

Sorry John.

At least some countries give this their all. I also didn't realise how young Durant or Rose were, they have promising careers ahead of them.

 

[JohnBM01]

Here's the 24-team field for this year's FIBA World Championship:


--- Participating Teams ---

Direct Qualifiers...
* United States of America
* Turkey

Africa...
* Tunisia
* Angola
* Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

Americas...
* United States of America (auto qualifier)
* Canada
* Puerto Rico
* Brazil
* Argentina

Asia...
* Lebanon
* Jordan
* Iran
* China

Europe...
* Spain
* France
* Germany
* Turkey (auto qualifier)
* Lithuania
* Russia
* Slovenia
* Croatia
* Serbia
* Greece

Oceania...
* Australia
* New Zealand


--- Groups ---

Group A.
* Angola
* Argentina
* Australia
* Germany
* Jordan
* Serbia

Group B.
* Brazil
* Croatia
* Iran
* Tunisia
* Slovenia
* United States of America

Group C.
* China
* Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
* Greece
* Russia
* Puerto Rico
* Turkey

Group D.
* Canada
* France
* Lebanon
* Lithuania
* New Zealand
* Spain



Action happens between August 28 and September 12. Good luck to all 24 nations in this year's field.

UPDATE: I had to update the code because I was going to post this same context in my blog.

 

[Paulie]

I'm not so sure Australia will even get TV coverage now.

 

[Paulie]

The championship kicked off today! Unfortunately Australia is getting no coverage at all unless you have Foxtel. (And there is nowhere to watch proper highlight reels either) I'm happy to report though that Australia won their first game! (By only 1pt to Jordan ). Team USA has come out as the obviously dominant favourite, and I have to say Lithuania looked pretty good against New Zealand. (All based on 1min highlight reels and final scores). I was surprised to see Canada have a game 1 loss, but no surprises to see Turkey come out as a force to be reckoned with.

 

[a6m5]

My boy.....

 

[Paulie]

I was actually surprised to see so much dunk activity going on in the highlights, I wasn't expecting that in the Worlds.

 

[JohnBM01]

It was a near-miss for the United States. We beat Brazil 70-68 in Istanbul. This tournament helps you to appreciate international talent in addition to the various American talent and Americans who play in overseas leagues.

 

[Paulie]

Australia obliterated Germany today, nice to see we finally showed up. There weren't many games today. I was surprised to see Brazil come so close, especially after USA's performances in the first 2 games.

 

[Paulie]

Australia still sucks at basketball, we got annhilated by Slovenia and knocked out.

 

[JohnBM01]

VERY old news, but the United States won the FIBA World Championship over Turkey. It was said to be our first FIBA championship in 16 years.

 

[Paulie]

It was, and it was no surprise really. FIBA was disappointing for me, Australia got licked despite all the hype, and most countries didn't have half of their best players.