FIBA Conducts 2016 Rio Olympic Basketball Draw

We're getting closer to the start of the Olympics in Rio and the several weeks of competition that will happen during that multi week quadrennial sporting event eagerly anticipated by the sports fans of the world.

One of the team sports that matters to Americans is basketball, and right now the men's and women's teams are on a roll and are prohibitive favorites for the top step of the medal platform when the Rio Olympic basketball  tournament tips off on August 6 through August 21.

The USA women will be shooting (pun intended) for their sixth straight Olympic title since 1996, while the underachieving men's team will be vying for their third straight title.

We already know what group each team will be in because of the FIBA Olympic Draw Ceremony that took place at The House of Basketball FIBA headquarters in Switzerland back on March 11 even though the Women's and Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments haven't happened yet.




The FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament will take place in Nantes, France June 13-19 and will determine the last five women's Olympic basketball tournament spots among a dozen contenders.

The FIBA Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament will take place at three sites, Belgrade, Turin, and Manila from July 4-10.to determine which eighteen contenders get the last three Olympic men's tournament spots.

The women's Olympic tournament will take place from August 6-20, and the defending Olympic champion USA will be in Group B.   Group A will consist of the number 5 WOQT team, Japan, Brazil, Australia, WOQT 3 and WOQT 1.

Group B on the women's side will consist of Canada, WOQT 4, USA, Senegal, Serbia and WOQT 2

The men's Olympic tournament will also start on August 6, with the gold medal match happening on August 21.  The USA men will be in Group A with the MOQT 1 winner, USA, Venezuela, MOQT 2, China and Australia.

Group B on the men's side is shaping up to be the 'Group of Death', and will consist of  Argentina, Spain, Brazil, Lithuania, MOQT 3 and Nigeria

Both tournaments will have a group phase in which they play the teams in their group.   Top four team advance to the knockout phase and what the eight survivors of group play hope will end up with them standing on the top step of the Olympic medal platforms.

But we will have to wait until this summer to find out how this basketball dram plays out.  

Upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup Draw Friday

203 of FIFA's 208 member nations started playing matches on June 15, 2011 in order to earn one of the 32 spots in the 2014 World Cup tournament.  After two years of qualifying matches played around the globe that ended November 23, we now know the 32 nations that qualified to go to Brazil and play in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. 

For the seventh consecutive qualifying cycle the USA is amongst those 32 nations along with defending champion Spain.

What we don't know besides the host Brazilians are in Group A is which one of the eight groups they and the other 30 nations will be playing the opening round of games in from June 12-June 26.

On Friday the soccer world's millions of fans will turn their eyes toward Bahia as FIFA conducts the World Cup Final Draw at 1 PM local Bahia time (11 AM Houston time) to set up those eight groups as the world holds its breath to see the results, then pontificate on them once they are announced.

The 32 teams will be divided into four Pots, with Pot 1 containing the host Brazilians and the top seven seeded teams according to the October 2013 FIFA world rankings.   Those top seven teams in order are Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Uruguay and Switzerland.   The Pot 1 seeding carries a huge advantage in that you don't have to play the other seven seeded teams in the group stage. 

Pot 2 is comprised of the CONCACAF teams (USA, Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras) plus the four AFC Asian qualifiers (Japan, Iran, South Korea and Australia).

Pot 3 will be made up of the five CAF African teams (Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria and Cameroon), two from the South American CONMEBOL federation (Chile and Ecuador) and the lowest-ranked UEFA European country, France.

Pot 4 is comprised of the remaining eight UEFA European nations (Netherlands, Italy, England, Portugal, Greece, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Russia) 

The draw will be conducted based on a format to be decided upon no later than tomorrow. and as the groups are assembled not more than two European nations will be allowed in any of the eight groups.  

The draw is critical to your chances of advancing in the tournament final at Maracanã Stadium since only the top two teams in each group advance to the knockout rounds and the composition of teams in that four team group is determined by it. 

So we'll find out how the final group compositions and the paths of those teams to the July 13 final shake out on Friday.