By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
FIBA is pleased to announce the procedures for the Draw Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Basketball Tournaments (Men and Women) taking place at 15:30 local time (CET/GMT +1) on Friday 11 March at the House of Basketball in Mies, Switzerland.
The twelve (12) teams in each tournament will be divided into two (2) groups (A and B) of six (6) teams each. At the end of each draw, the groups should be of equal strength and there will be a strict separation of teams from a same region across the groups.
Official Draw for Olympic Basketball Tournament
Nine (9) teams have already qualified. They are:
Host: Brazil
World Champions: USA
Africa: Nigeria
Americas: Venezuela, Argentina
Asia: China
Europe: Spain, Lithuania
Oceania: Australia
Three (3) more teams will qualify through the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTs) taking place in Belgrade (Serbia), Manila (Philippines) and Turin (Italy) from 4-10 July.
The 12 teams will be seeded as follows:
Pot 1: USA; Spain
Pot 2: Venezuela; Argentina
Pot 3: Nigeria; China
Pot 4: Australia; Brazil
Pot 5: Lithuania; OQT 1
Pot 6: OQT 2; OQT 3
The draw is open with the exception of the following limitation:
– Pot 4: In order to balance geographical principles and avoid having a group with three (3) teams from the Americas, Brazil will not be drawn into the group that has two (2) other teams from that region.
The teams qualified through the OQTs will be drawn into the Olympic Basketball Tournament’s three (3) vacant positions following the conclusion of the last game in Manila on Sunday 10 July.
Competition System for Olympic Basketball Tournaments (Men and Women)
Both tournaments will open with a Group Phase played in a round robin format (each team faces the other five (5) in its group). The top four (4) classified teams from each group will then move on to the Final Phase which will be played in a standard knock-out system consisting of Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, Bronze Medal Game and Gold Medal Game.