FIBA Americas Women's Championship Tournament Starts Today

Y'all know I wasn't going to let the FIBA Americas Women's Championship tournament getting started in Neiva, Colombia today and running through October 1 get cranked up without showing them the same love I did in commenting on the 'menz' one earlier.

This is not only a qualifier for the London Games, it is also the first time a FIBA Americas women's tournament has been conducted with ten teams and it's about time they did so. 

One of those ten teams will not be the FIBA world number one ranked USA since our women handled their Olympic basketball business by winning the FIBA Women's World Championship in the Czech Republic last summer.   Coach Auriemma now has time to decide who be on the USA Olympic women's squad that will attempt to claim a fifth consecutive gold medal in 2012.

However, there is a difference from the just concluded men's tournament in that only the FIBA Americas champion winner will automatically qualify for London.  The next three teams will head to next summer's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Women that will be conducted June 25-July 1 at a to be determined site.to determine the last five slots in the Women's Olympic basketball tournament.

The FIBA Africa Women's Championship started yesterday in Mali and will run until October 2 to determine the FIBA Africa representative in the London Olympics and fill the two spots in the Olympic Qualifying tournament alloted to the FIBA African representatives.

The Olympic basketball tournament picture on the women's side looks like this.  The USA has already qualified along with host Great Britain, Russia, China and Australia.   The teams that are in next summer's FIBA Women's Qualifying Tournament are Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Turkey, Japan, Korea and New Zealand..

So the stakes are high as always for this tournament.  The draw for the 2011 FIBA America's Women's Championship was held May 5 with Group A being comprised of Chile, FIBA world number 10 ranked Cuba, Argentina, Puerto Rico and host Colombia.      
 
Group B looks a little nastier.  It will consist of  FIBA world number 6 ranked Brazil, FIBA world number 12 ranked Canada, Jamaica, Mexico and Paraguay 

After playing games within their groups from today through September 28, top two teams in Groups A and B will move on the knockout round semifinals on September 30 with the Group A winner taking on the Group B runner up and the Group B winner taking on the runner up team from Group A.

Winners go on to the FIBA Americas women's title game October 1 and battle it out for the lone Olympic ticket to London.   The championship game runner up, third  and fourth place teams will be the FIBA Americas reps at the Olympic Qualifying tournament.  
 
So let the games begin and may the best team win.   As to who I'm rooting for?   I get to relax and enjoy it.  

Team Canada Headed Home From FIBA Americas Tournament Empty Handed

If the Canadian men's squad was going to play in the semifinals of the 2011 FIBA Americas tournament and stay in contention to get their first Olympic berth since 2000, they were going to have to step up their level of play to do so.

Sadly, it didn't happen.  The teams that will move on to the FIBA Americas semifinal knockout rounds being contested later today are Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the host Argentines.   .

Brazil will play the Dominican Republic and Argentina will face off with Puerto Rico with the winners qualifying for London and playing in the FIBA Americas title game tomorrow and the losers headed to the third place game and the Olympic Qualifying tournament next summer. 


The Canadians got their FIBA Americas quarterfinal party started with a blow out loss on September 5 to the host Argentines 79-58.  Because of the earlier loss to Venezuela in group play, they faced a must win game against a weakened Puerto Rico squad the next day. 

Canada got off to another storng start only trailing 22-21 after the first quarter, but scored an abysmal eight points in the second to fall behind 42-29 at halftime.  They did a better job in the second half outscoring Puerto Rice 47-35 in the second half but still fell 79-74.

The Road Warriors' then followed that up with a narrow 70-68 win over Uruguay to bring their record to 3-4 in the tournament.  

Despite that, they still had a slim shot on September 8 of getting that fifth place spot that would guarantee them a place in next summer's Olympic Qualifying tournament if they handled their basketball business against a one win Panama squad and Uruguay upset Venezuela.


Umm no.   Despite having four players in double figures, the Canadians regressed on defense with the ankle injury to Joel Anthony and watched the Denver Nuggets Gary Forbes personally wreck their 2012 Olympic hopes by dropping 39 points on them.

Eighteen of Forbes' points came in the fourth quarter, and after Canada tied the game with 1:30 left Forbes scored the next five points to stake Panama to a narrow 91-89 upset victory.  The disappointing loss led to the resignation of Canadian men's head coach Leo Rautins after the game.

The sad part is that Canada could have made it to the FIBA Americas semifinals.  Flip those four narrow losses to the Dominican Republic and Venezuela in group play and the Puerto Rico and Panama ones in the quarters and they would still be playing this weekend.  Once there, with some breaks Canada could have played in either the title game or the third place one. 

Canada played defense well enough at times to get them there, but their offense got lost or was non existent for long stretches of games and it cost them.  


The FIBA championship trophy is named for Canadian James Naismith who invented the game in the States and I find it ironic that Canada won't be there for next year's Olympic basketball tournament in London.

It'll be up to the Canadian women to defend national basketball honor when the FIBA Americas women's championship tournament kicks off in Colombia on September 24.

But back to the Canadian mens ballers.   Despite Steve Nash's retirement from international play, they have talented players with international experience like Jevohn Sheperd.   They also have NBA ballers such as Samuel Dalembart, Jamaal Magliore, Andy Rautins, Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph and Joel Anthony that would make an interesting team.   The San Antonio Spurs Matt Bonner is in the process of trying to acquire his Canadian citizenship so he can play for the team.  

Dalembart, Thompson and Magliore weren't on this squad and seeing the way this tournament played out, they were needed. 

The Canadian men's program does have serious young talent in their development pipeline.with players such as incoming Gonzaga freshman Kelly Olynyk, incoming Texas Longhorn freshman Myck Kabongo, Andrew Wiggins and Dwight Powell.  But it's clear they will need a coach that can get the maximum output from these players.

Canada also needs an offensive and defensive system that will allow them to play the high caliber FIBA ball they will need to get to the Olympics and FIBA world championship stages, give them a chance to win and create a culture and buzz in their nation that makes it cool to play for the Canadian national squad again.

2011 FIBA Americas Tournament Enters Quarterfinal Round

After a rest day, quarterfinal round action in the 2011 FIBA Americas tournament being conducted in Mar del Plata, Argentina continues this week toward its Sunday finish. .  

The preliminary round got cranked up back on August 31 and in Group A the Dominican Republic and Brazil tied for the group lead with 3-1 records.  The Dominican Republic finished atop the group due to their 79-74 win on September 2 over the Brazilians.  Venezuela and Canada also advanced to the quarterfinals with 2-2 records. 

In Group B it was the Argentines who finished atop the group with a spotless 4-0 record in front of the home folks with Puerto Rico second at 3-1 after their 81-74 showdown loss to Argentina on September 2. 

Uruguay finished third in Group B play at 2-2 and Panama was 1-3, but advanced to the quarters due to their narrow 89-86 September 1 win over Paraguay.

Cuba and Paraguay finished winless in their respective groups and were eliminated.

In the FIBA Americas championship quarterfinal round which runs through September 8 and can be seen on ESPN3, the remaining eight teams are combined into a single group with their preliminary round records carrying over. 

Robin robin play will start with the Group A leader (Dominican Republic) playing the fourth place team from Group B (Panama), the Group A second place team (Brazil) will play the Group B third place squad (Uruguay)

Group B leader Argentina will face off against Canada and Group B runner up Puerto Rico will play Venezuela.   Top four teams left after this round will head to the knockout round semifinals that start on September 10.  

The teams that reach the September 11 title game will automatically qualify for the London Games as the reps from the FIBA Americas zone.   The third, fourth and fifth place teams will have one final shot to qualify at next July's FIBA Olympics World Qualifying Tournament at a site to be determined. 

As for Team Canada, they have a tough few days ahead of them if they want to make it to the knockout round and stay in contention for that 2012 Olympic berth.  In addition to starting off quarterfinal round play with the homestanding Argentines, they play Jose Barea and Puerto Rico tomorrow before finishing up with Uruguay on September 7 and Panama on September 8.    

The 'Road Warriors' have three NBA ballers of their own on this FIBA Americas squad in the Heat's Joel Anthony, Andy Rautins of the Knicks and Spurs draftee Cory Joseph but have had some up and down games in this FIBA Americas tournament. 

Canada jumped out to a 17-12 lead in their opening round robin game with Brazil and was trailing by only a point headed into the fourth quarter until a Brazilian 14-0 run broke it open and led to a 69-57 loss

They had a 12 point lead in the fourth quarter against the Dominican Republic and held a 10 point bulge with two minutes to go until the John Calipari coached Dominican squad made the Canadians sweat down the stretch.

It took clutch free throws late from Aaron Doornekamp with 2.9 seconds left to build a four point lead for Canada which they needed because a buzzer beating three pointer swished in to make the final margin 73-72.

Team Canada then blew out the Cubans 84-62 before falling in overtime to the Grievis Vazquez led Venezuelan squad 103-98.   

They may want to step it up because with all the strong European squads that will not qualify via the FIBA Eurobasket tournament currently being contested in Lithuania,  you'd rather handle your basketball business now rather than have to do it in the much deeper talent pool of the last chance tournament later.

We'll see if Team Canada can make a successful run to Olympic qualification and if the host 'Golden Generation' Argentine ballers run the table and walk off the court with the FIBA Americas title and a ticket to London in hand.

2011 FIBA Americas Tournament Gets Underway

We are less than a year away from the start of the 2012 London Olympic Games, and the qualifying to see who gets those coveted spots in the Olympic basketball tournament next summer is happening as I compile this.   

Since the USA men won the 2010 FIBA world title in Turkey last summer and qualified for the Games in the process, they and Coach K get the luxury of watching everybody else on the planet play as they take their time deciding who will be on the USA Olympic roster when the tournament tips off on July 28.

But everyone else who wants to be in London besides the defending Olympic champion and FIBA world number one ranked USA and host nation Great Britain will have to play their way into one of those nine remaining tournament spots. 

FIBA Africa Champion Tunisia pulled off a huge upset against perennial African champ Angola 67-58 on Sunday to punch their first ever Olympic basketball ticket. The silver medalist Angolans and bronze medalist Nigerians will get a final opportunity just before the Games commence to qualify at the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament July 2-8 in which the final three spots in the men's tournament will be up for grabs.

Speaking of spots up for grabs, the FIBA Europe Championship gets started in basketball mad Lithuania today and runs until September 18 with two Olympic berths for the taking and their third, fourth, fifth and sixth place finishers heading to the Qualifying tournament.    

The USA handling its basketball business also meant we didn't have to play in the FIBA Americas Championship like we had to do in 2003 and 2007 to qualify for the Athens and Beijing Olympics.  That ten team tournament started yesterday and will run through September 11 in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

The 2004 Olympic champion and 2008 bronze medalist Argentinians have every intention of making the home folks happy by taking one of those spots for themselves..

So why am I'm paying attention to this tournament if the USA isn't involved in it?   I'm paying attention because I want to see who will be playing in London next summer. Like the FIBA European Championship, there will be NBA players participating with their national teams. 

Sixteen NBA ballers will play for seven of the ten national teams participating in this tournament.  The way the NBA lockout negotiations are going, this might end up being one of those rare opportunities to see NBA players dribbling on somebody's court.


The tournament draw was held back on January 27 and in Group A we have the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba and Canada.  Group B is comprised of FIBA number three world ranked Argentina, Puerto Rico, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Panama    

In case you're wondering Canadian readers, Team Canada starts FIBA Americas Group A play in a few hours with a game against the Tiago Splitter led Brazilians, then on September 1 faces the Dominican Republic and its trio of NBA players in Al Horford, Charlie Villanueva and Francisco Garcia.   Canada then plays Cuba on September 2 and finishes up group play September 3 with the Grievis Vazquez led Venezuelans

But one thing that puzzled me was why isn't Tristan Thompson, Corey Joseph or Dwight Powell playing on this squad?


The group play phase will run through September 3 with top four teams in each group going to the quarterfinal round and playing against each other which will run from September 5-8.  

After the quarterfinal round the top four teams will proceed to the knockout round on September 10-11 to determine who gets the two Olympic berths alloted to the Americas    The third, fourth and fifth place teams in the FIBA Americas Championship will play in the Olympic Qualifying tourney next summer

Should be interesting to watch.

TransGriot Note: Corey Joseph is playing on the Canadian FIBA Americas squad.