By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Serbia coach Svetislav Pesic believes that 10 out of the 12 national teams of the Olympic Games teams are candidates to win a medal.
“In my opinion, 10 teams will fight for a medal,” Pesic said, per Mozzart. “You saw how Brazil overcame Latvia, which was the most pleasant surprise in the World Cup. The only positive thing is that you [Serbia] avoid the Americans in the quarterfinals, but you have them in the Group.”
Pesic was referring to Brazil stunning host Latvia in the Final of the Qualifying Tournament of Riga to become one of the 12 national teams that will compete in the Olympics.
Greece, Puerto Rico and Spain got the other three tickets via the Qualifiers to join host France, reigning world champion Germany, USA, Canada, Serbia, Australia, South Sudan, Japan and Brazil.
These teams are divided into three Groups of four. The top two teams from each Group get a spot in the quarterfinals alongside the best-ranked third-placed countries.
Our Group is good, because they all play the same way,” said Pesic. Serbia will face USA, South Sudan and Puerto Rico. “Anyone who has seen South Sudan, you know how tough they are and that they can beat anyone. We have talent, quality, there is no dilemma. We need to be in much better shape physically if we want to play good basketball against our group rivals. What you are saying is that we have a chance against the Americans and something can happen in one game, unlike a series when it is played for three wins, that is correct. The same goes for Puerto Rico against us. The group is quite complicated for us. But I believe in our work. It will be a very complicated tournament. If we are second in our group, which is realistic from this perspective, then we will not play with the third, but with either the first or the second from the other two groups in the quarterfinals. It will be very interesting, who will we be with if we are second. And we have yet to get there. We can potentially get Canada as a rival, which would be quite complicated. The draw is quite complicated for all teams”.