Argentina’s collapse, escape from South Sudan, Tavares pulls Cape Verde

The 2023 FIBA ​​World Cup qualifiers have ended. Based on its results, a complete list of teams has been created that will challenge the title of the strongest team on the planet in August-September of this year.

Sport.ua has already covered in detail the ups and downs of the fight and summarized the results of the selection for the Ukrainian team. However, a lot of interesting things happened in other qualifiers around the world in the last days of February. In this article, we will try to pay attention to the main events of the final qualifying window and highlight its main surprises.

Europe

In Group I, three teams (Serbia, Turkey and Belgium) bought tickets before the final rounds. The best chance was for the Balkans, who had to win one of the two remaining matches to earn a ticket to Asia. The Serbs missed their first try, losing 92:97 in overtime to the Greek team away, but only a miracle in the form of a home defeat for the Great Britain team could prevent Svetislav Pesic’s wards from leaving the group. It makes sense not to. In a crowded arena in Belgrade, the Serbs scored an easy victory – 101:83 and officially entered the world championship.

Also, the subsequent victories of modular Latvia deserve attention. Although the Baltics solved all their problems in the last window, in the February matches, the wards of Italian coach Luka Banka did not slow down and defeated the strong teams of Turkey (away) and Greece (at home). It looks like Latvians are seriously ready to make some noise at the World Championships.

Group J has long solved all its problems and played the selection. In the February games, the German national team achieved local success in the form of two wins and a six-place final. We also note two victories from Estonia that help brighten impressions that the Baltic is not the most successful qualification.

Group K was expected to fight for the last ticket remaining between the national teams of Montenegro, Bosnia and Hungary. The Montenegrins, who had the advantage over the Hungarians in personal meetings and beat Bosnia by +19, were favourites.

The Bosniaks desperately clung to their luck and beat Montenegro 74:66 in the penultimate round, but the goal difference was not in their favor. After that, it was enough for the final World Championship participants to beat the Czech Republic by any score in the final round, and they overcame their task.

In parallel, in the final round, the French and Lithuanians determined the winner of their six. The tricolors won – 70:63 and Victor Venbanyama scored the most points (fifteen) in his team.

Africa

The most unexpected participants of the 2023 World Cup (these are also the main positive sensations of the election) were brought by the African continent. In the February game window, South Sudan and Cape Verde made their world championship debuts.

The biggest surprise is South Sudan’s success. The team is a true “terra incognita” for the vast majority of basketball fans around the world. Before the current election, this country in basketball was known only as the birthplace of Luol Deng, but now all fans of the orange ball will have to learn the pronunciation of the not so simple names of local players.

Led by American coach Royal Evey, with over five hundred NBA games but with a complete lack of experience as a head coach (despite a place on his resume for assistant positions at NBA clubs), the team has taken the continent by storm. with the hurricane, the pick and first place group qualified for the world title, and in the February window, South Sudan had three wins in three matches.

The second sensation was the Cape Verde team, but it includes a top player like Walter Tavares and some other well-known European basketball players like Polish Anvil forward Ivan Almeida. At the same time, Real Madrid’s star basketball player understood the importance of the moment and immediately flew to his team’s location after the Euroleague game last Thursday, helping them get two wins in three games. This result allowed the African islanders to be the best team among those who took the third place (no need to look at the rankings here, FIBA ​​eliminated Senegal, who was third in another group, equalizing the number of meetings for the opponents, two against the Kenyan foreigners who did not go further. match).

America

The main sensation with a minus sign took place in the American constituency. The Argentina national team, the finalists of the last 2019 World Cup and one of the strongest teams in basketball outside of Europe, failed to qualify.

For a successful final result, they had to beat the Dominican Republic team, which had made an entry to the planetary forum by then, at home in the final round. But the hosts, nearly the strongest of their roster, including stars like Gabriel Dec, Nicolas Laprovittola and Facundo Campazzo, were unable to cope. Even before the start of the fourth quarter, the Argentines were +10, but the last ten minutes were a complete failure for them. As a result, the favorite lost 75:79 and fell to fourth place in its group. And in the fourth-place away standings, Argentina let the Brazilian team take the lead, with the same number of points but with a much better gap between goals and conceded goals.

Asia and Oceania

Nothing interesting happened in Asia in the last game window. Teams that have not yet qualified for the world championship (Iran and Jordan) did as expected. Jordan was enough to beat an obvious outsider against the Indian team, for an overall positive result, but after that they beat the Philippines minimally away – 90:91. And the Iranian team did not need to win at all for this, it just had to wait for the logical defeats of the Kazakhstan team in their fight.

***

The full list of the participants of the world championship has been announced. Now, teams that pass the tough elimination will determine the strongest team on the planet in August-September. These exciting fights are still far away, but for now it is worth once again listing all future participants in this year’s main basketball tournament.

Hosted by Japan, Philippines

Europe: Italy, Spain, Georgia, Latvia, Serbia, Greece, Finland, Germany, Slovenia, Lithuania, France, Montenegro

America: USA, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela

Africa: Egypt, South Sudan, Cape Verde, Angola, Ivory Coast

Asia: China, New Zealand, Australia, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran

In six months, basketball courts in Asia will be very hot. Looking forward to four.