By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
After deciding on the four wildcards FIBA announced the draw procedure for Monday’s World Cup draw (19.00 CET). According to the official press release: “The 24 teams have been classified on the basis of the FIBA Ranking Men as well as geographical principles with teams from the same continent being evenly distributed in six teams pots. Teams will be picked from these pots and placed into the four Preliminary Round groups – A, B, C and D.
• Pot 1: Argentina, Lithuania, Spain and USA. This pot consists of the top four teams in FIBA’s Men Ranking (#1 USA; #2 Spain; #3 Argentina; #4 Lithuania).
For the next five pots, the sequence does not reflect the strength of the teams:
• Pot 2: Angola, Egypt, Senegal and Finland.
• Pot 3: Iran, Korea, Philippines and New Zealand.
• Pot 4: Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
• Pot 5: Brazil, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
• Pot 6: Australia, France, Greece and Turkey.
– There are four other pots, called A, B, C and D. Each one contains numbers 1 to 6. These numbers will determine the position of each team within their Preliminary Round group and the subsequent order of games. The position of a team placed in Group A is determined by the number drawn from Pot A, Group B is from Pot B, Group C from Pot C and Group D from Pot D.
Three of the teams pots are special:
• Pot 1: As per the competition system, the teams ranked 1 (USA) and 2 (Spain) in the FIBA Ranking Men will be placed in either half of the draw. Therefore Spain will be in Group A and the USA in Group C. Argentina and Lithuania will then be drawn into either Group B or Group D. (ed.note: that means that Spain and USA may cross paths only in the final game)
• Pot 2: In order to balance the geographical principles, Finland shall not be placed in a Group that already contains a European team and therefore will be drawn in a Group with the USA or Argentina.
• Pot 6: in order to balance the geographical principles, Australia shall not be placed in a Group containing New Zealand and shall be placed in one of the Groups that already contain two European teams.
– When all teams have been drawn and placed in each Group, FIBA shall assign one group to each city”. That’s were we will have real agony, as everyone would like to play in Las Palmas during the group phase.