LC
Years ago
2010 World Championships in Turkey
With Eurobasket coming to a close, all of the automatic qualifiers for the 2010 World Championships have now been decided, leaving just 4 wildcard places to be decided by 13 December this year.
Here is the list of teams competing in Turkey based on current world ranking (prior to conclusion of Eurobasket). Sorted based on current World ranking (actual ranking in brackets).
1. (1) Argentina (Americas)
2. (2) USA (Olympic Champions, Americas)
3. (3) Spain (Europe)
4. (4) Greece (Europe)
5. (5) Serbia (Europe)
6. (9) China (Asia)
7. (10) Puerto Rico (Americas)
8. (11) Australia (Oceania)
9. (12) Angola (Africa)
10. (13) New Zealand (Oceania)
11. (14) Turkey (Host, Europe)
12. (15) Brazil (Americas)
13. (17) France (Europe)
14. (17) Croatia (Europe)
15. (19) Canada (Americas)
16. (20) Slovenia (Europe)
17. (21) Iran (Asia)
18. (38) Jordan (Asia)
19. (42) Ivory Coast (Africa)
20. (44) Tunisia (Africa)
Interesting to note that the other teams ranked in the top 10 who have not qualified for 2010 are:
- Lithuania (6) - very disappointing results at Eurobasket
- Germany (7) - played Eurobasket with Dirk and Kaman
- Italy (8) - did not even qualify for Eurobasket
Teams in consideration for the last 4 wilcard places would likely be:
- Russia (Europe): ranked 16 in world and narrowly missed out on automatic berth at Eurobasket
- Germany (Europe): ranked 7 in world and did well without a number of star players at Eurobasket.
- Poland (Europe): performed far better than their 55th ranking at Eurobasket.
- Macedonia (Europe): Peformed well Eurobasket to finish ahead of Germany
- Dominican Republic (Americas): With a host of NBA talent, they foud it tough to qualify directly in a very strong FIBA Americas tourney.
- Uruguay (Americas): Improved immensely with some very strong results in Americas tourney.
- Cameroon (Africa): Just shaded into 4th place in Africa tourney by Ivory Coast. European and Americas teams stronger.
- Nigeria (Africa): Same level as Cameroon.
- Lebanon (Asia): Jordan just got ver the line against them. Next best Asian team at the present time.
From that list, if I ere to pick the next best 4 teams right now, this is how I see it:
1. Russia (Europe)
2. Dominican Republic (Americas)
3. Macedonia (Europe)
4. Poland (Europe)
I left out Germany as you can only select teams based on results, and Poland did better at Eurobasket than Germany. Italy were not even considered as they did not qualify for Eurobasket.
In any case, the 2010 World Championships should be one of the most competitive on record.
FIBA World Rankings: http://linky.com.au/ni171
PS: As USA did not contest FIBA Americas they could not defend their ranking points hence why they have droped from number 1 on the world ranking list.