Indonesia’s World Cup qualification process flawed and lacks creativity

From the International Basketball Opinion Blog. This week FIBA announced Indonesia’s World Cup qualification process for the 2023 FIBA event. It is flawed, lacks creativity, and does nothing to promote basketball in Indonesia nor its national team. It also does not give them much of a chance. Three-game winner-gets-the-last-spot play-in series in Indonesia in a…

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Canada gearing up for FIBA World Cup with stacked camp

The FIBA World Cup is just over a month and change away and national teams are getting ready for what should be an intense tournament. The event is set to take place from August 31st through September 15th. Training camps are opening or about to open across the world as teams get their preparations underway.…

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2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup Draw

The 2019 FIBA World Cup draw took place today in China, and the 32 national teams have been divided into to eight groups. GROUP A (Beijing): Cote D’Ivoire, Poland, Venezuela, China GROUP B (Wuhan): Russia, Argentina, Korea. Nigeria GROUP C (Guangzhou): Spain, Iran, Puerto Rico, Tunisia GROUP D (Foshan): Angola, Philippines, Italy, Serbia GROUP E (Shanghai):…

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Nigeria and Tunisia Qualify for FIBA World Cup

 Nigeria and Tunisia rode on their perfect 9-0 records in the African Qualifiers to the FIBA World Cup to secure their invites in 2019. They were assured qualification a few days ago when both teams notched their eighth straight wins, but that did not stop them from asserting their dominance in the event to top…

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Lithuania Grinds Out 2OT Win, Qualifies For FIBA World Cup

 Lithuania completed a clean sweep of their first eight games in the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers on Monday to punch their tickets to China in 2019. The win was against the Netherlands and the Dutch were in no mood to serve the win on a silver platter. It was a critical game for the Netherlands…

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Czech Republic, Germany, Greece Soar To The FIBA World Cup

 It was an eventful Sunday as the Czech Republic, Germany, and Greece all punched their tickets to the FIBA World Cup 2019, hosted by China. Both Greece and Germany secured their eighth wins to stay perfect in the qualifiers and top  Group L. The Czech Republic emerged as the first team to advance out of…

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Ukraine Hands Spain First Loss of FIBA World Cup Qualifiers

 One of Europe’s Titans received its first loss of the 2019 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers, as Ukraine stunned Spain 76-65 in Group I action on Saturday. At 6-1 Spain remains the leader of the group and are still the favorites to advance from the second stage as the top team in Group I. For Ukraine,…

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2019 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers are a mess

The second round of the 2019 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers takes place in mid-September (13-17). Nothing has changed, though, as many top stars will (once again)  not play for their national teams. To start with, the second round of the 2019 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers consists of three windows (September, November, February). The first three…

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Brawl Mars AUS-PHI Game At FIBA World Cup Qualifiers

 Things got ugly in the Group B game between Australia and the Philippines in the Asian region of the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers. A massive bench-clearing brawl took place and 13 players were ejected. It spilled over into the area behind the basket and a chair was even thrown at a player in the melee.…

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