May Draw Argentina, Brazil, Canada
The Federation of International Basketball (FIBA) has put Nigeria in Pot Seven alongside Senegal, New Zealand and Angola ahead of the Men’s World Cup draw coming up today at Shenzhen Bay Arena, China.
The 32 teams that qualified for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup were shared among eight pots of four teams each, based on the latest FIBA World Ranking for Men after the last window of qualifiers played in February.
Host, China are in Pot One alongside the top three teams in the world, U.S., Spain and France, while Pot Two has Serbia, Argentina, Lithuania and Greece with Russia, Australia, Brazil and Italy in Pot Three.
Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Turkey and Venezuela are in Pot Four, Germany, Czech, Poland and Iran are in Pot Five, while FIBA grouped Canada, Montenegro, Philippines and Korea in Pot Six. Japan, Jordan, Tunisia and the last African team to qualify, Cote d’Ivoire make up teams in Pot Eight.
According to the guidelines released by FIBA 24 hours before the event, Pots One, Four, Five and Eight will feed Groups A, C, E and G, while Pots Two, Three, Six and Seven will feed Groups B, D, F and H.
China will be placed in Group A with all their group matches to be played in Beijing, while reigning world champions, U.S. will be allocated to Group E in Shanghai.
Group B games will be played in Wuhan, the city of Guangzhou will host Group C, while Foshan will play host to Group D teams.
Group F teams will play in Nanjing, Group G in Shenzhe, while Dongguan is the preferred city for Group H teams.
The World Cup holds between August 31 and September 15.
The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) will be represented at the draws by Lawal Razaq Dayo (Nigeria’s high ranking embassy staff in China) and D’Tigers Team Manager, Musa Adamu.