TBs Miss Asia, Africa Champs
Tagged in: FIBA World Championships for Men, Tall Blacks
The Tall Blacks have avoided China, Asian champions Iran and African champions Angola in pool play at next year’s FIBA World Championship for Men.
With the draw scheduled for 10.30pm (NZ time) tomorrow, the world basketball body has released their seedings in six groups. One team from each group will land in each of the four pools.
The teams have not been grouped on qualifying performances or world rankings, but according to “sporting competitiveness”.
At first glance, New Zealand doesn’t seem to have gained any obvious benefit from winning this year’s FIBA Oceania Championship for Men, falling two “lines” below Australia despite their runaway victory in the home-and-away series. The Boomers will avoid Americas champions Brazil, runners-up Puerto Rico and Canada.
But while the first and sixth lines are clearly the top and bottom-seeded teams, very little separates the middle four lines in terms of world rankings. The configuration does guarantee that no pool will have more than three European teams or two American teams.
The Tall Blacks probably would have preferred facing any of their group-mates to another European or American team, but may have dodged a bullet in landing alongside China. While they were disappointing in losing to Iran in the Asian championship, the Chinese are potentially a different proposition if NBA centre Yao Ming (2.28m) returns to the lineup from injury.
The seedings (and world rankings) are …
Line One - USA (2), Argentina (1), Spain (3), Greece (4)
Line Two - Serbia (5), Slovenia (20), France (15), Turkey (18)
Line Three - Brazil (14), Puerto Rico (10), Canada (19), Australia (11)
Line Four - Croatia (15), Russia (17), Lithuania (6), Germany (7)
Line Five - New Zealand (13), China (9), Iran (21), Angola (12)
Line Six - Jordan (37), Lebanon (24), Tunisia (42), Ivory Coast (40)
The draw for the 2010 FIBA World Championship can be followed live on www.turkey2010.fiba.com and www.FIBATV.com.
