FIBA Decides Venues For 2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournaments

There was a FIBA Central Board meeting held in Madrid, Spain last weekend and one of the subjects on the agenda was who would host the 2012 Men's and Women's FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.  

The OQT's are the last chance venues for national basketball squads who wish to play in London in a few months to win those last available spots in the Olympic b-ball tournament which is scheduled to run during the Games from July 28-August 12..

FIBA awarded the hosting venues for the men's OQT to Venezuela who beat out finalist Lithuania for the honor.   On the women's side Turkey beat out the Czech Republic to host the OQT.. 

The Men's Olympic Qualifying tournament will happen July 2-8 in Caracas and the teams vying for those last three spots in addition to the host Venezuelans are  Angola, Dominican Republic, Macedonia, Greece, Jordan, Korea, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Puerto Rico and Russia. 

The women's tournament will be held June 25-July 1 in the Turkish capital of Ankara to determine who gets the final five spots available on the women's side. 

In addition to the homestanding Turks who are trying to play their way into their first ever Olympic games on the women's side, they  will also be joined by Argentina, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Japan, Korea, Mali, Mozambique, New Zealand and Puerto Rico. 

Mozambique and Puerto Rico replaced Cuba and Senegal, who qualified for it in zone Olympic qualifying tournament play but withdrew from the Women's OQT.

At any rate, it will be a tough assignment to play though this tournament just to get your Olympic spot, then if you're fortunate enough to get those tickets to London, get ready to play in the Olympic tournament.

But they are going to give it their best shot in late June and early July.

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.  

2011 Williams Watch-Serena To The Finals!

The US open women's semifinal match with world number one ranked player Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark was supposed to be a tough test for Serena Williams, who hasn't dropped a set in this tournament. 

But when Serena is on a roll like she is in this tournament, it doesn't matter who is the opponent is or what her seeding is as she steamrolled the top seeded Wozniacki in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 to move to just a win away from her 14th Grand Slam title and her first US Open title since 2008.

"I'm still No. 1 in the ranking and still No. 1 in the race," Wozniacki said. "No one can take that away from me right now. Serena played great today. She's a great champion and I wish her well."

Yeah, but how long are you going to hold that Number one ranking Caroline, especially since you can't seem to win a Grand Slam tournament in the process?  

28th seeded Little Sis will face number 9 seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia in a few hours.   She beat Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-3,2-6, 6-2 to reach her second Grand Slam tournament final.   Stosur also has the not so fond memory of being beaten 6-4, 6-2 by Serena in straight sets last month in the Toronto Cup final.

Serena is not only 18-0 on hardcourts this year, she has a 4-2 series lead in matches played against Stosur.   

Should be fun to watch.   Go Serena!

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.

London Olympic Medals Unveiled

When we hit the one year mark until the 2012 Summer Olympics start in London, there was a ceremony held at Trafalgar Square back in July in which the designs for the Olympic medals that thousands of athletes around the world are training for playing in qualifying tournaments for various teams sports were revealed.

They were designed by artist David Watkins and have the traditional goddess Nike on the front in the 1896 Olympic stadium on the front, and on the back the London 2012 Olympics logo and the River Thames over a group of lines meant to represent the energy of the athletes radiating through the city  

This is the prize that athletes around the world are training for.   The dream they contemplate as they do so is the same around the globe.   During the July 27-August 12 period next summer, they hope and pray they will be standing on the top step of the medal podium as the gold one is draped around their neck, watch their nation's flag being raised as their nation's national anthem is being played and they are forever recognized as an Olympic champion in their sport.

Going to be a lot of fun to watch that happen multiple times as the competition gets underway next summer.