China one of top seeds for FIBA World Cup

By

CHINA DAILY

China will be one of eight nations with a No 1 group seeding at this summer’s FIBA World Cup, which will be played in eight Chinese cities.

FIBA announced the eight top seeds on Tuesday, based on the latest world rankings that were updated following the end of qualifying for the tournament.

China got a No 1 seed as the host nation. The other top seeds are the United States, Spain, France, Serbia, Argentina, Lithuania and Greece.

Each will lead a four-team group when the World Cup begins on Aug 31.

The US remains No 1 in the world rankings, with Spain, France, Serbia, Argentina, Lithuania, Slovenia, Greece, Croatia and Russia rounding out the top 10.

Neither Slovenia nor Croatia qualified for the World Cup. No 51 Tunisia and No 64 Cote d’Ivoire were the lowest-ranked nations to earn a spot in the 32-team field.

The World Cup also serves as qualifying tournament for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

With only one Asian place up for grabs, China must rank first among all teams from the continent (apart from Games host Japan) competing at the World Cup.

For the purposes of Olympic qualification, Australia and New Zealand will be classified as Oceanian rather than Asian teams at the tournament.

“The intensity and the pace of international games differ a lot from the CBA. Our players’ weaknesses may be more easily exposed,” said former Chinese national team coach Wang Fei.

China has implemented a system of dual national teams, a major step in the country’s basketball reform plan. Team Red and Team Blue, led by coaches Du Feng and Li Nan, are playing in different international competitions before merging later this year to prepare for the World Cup and Tokyo 2020.

“The reform gives young players more opportunities and allows us to see their potential,” said Li Nan, coach of both Team Red and the combined team that will compete at the World Cup.

“In those key matches of high intensity and pressure, their performances have exceeded our expectations,”

The World Cup draw will take place in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on March 16.

“On FIBA’s behalf, we now very much look forward to seeing history being made with the biggest FIBA Basketball World Cup taking center stage from August 31 to September 15,” FIBA president Horacio Muratore said.