2012 London Games - Team USA, Argentina & France in the same group

[timaios]

http://espn.go.com/olympics/basketball/story/_/id/7872360/2012-london-games-team-usa-men-draw-argentina-france-first-round


Group A
USA
Argentina
France
Tunisia
first qualifier
second qualifier

Group B
Spain
Australia
Brazil
China
Britain
third qualifier


2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament (2 july to 8 july)

http://london2012.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/12/olym/p/asid/6229/eid/6232/lid//rid//sid/6229/schedule.html

Angola
Dominican Republic
FYROM
Greece
Jordan
Korea
Lithuania
New Zealand
Nigeria
Puerto Rico
Russia
Venezuela

[romain.star]

Which means that if qualified, France and USA can't meet before the Final right?

[timaios]

Which means that if qualified, France and USA can't meet before the Final right?

I think they can meet in semi-finals.

[Mel_13]

Which means that if qualified, France and USA can't meet before the Final right?

They can meet as early as the semi-finals. Depends on where they place in the first round.

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/12/olym/event-guide/p/competition_format.html

[elemento]

I like Brazil's chances. Only Spain is clearly better than Brazil in our group.

Let's see if we're going full force or if Nene and cia won't play once again for the national team.Hopefully Nene, Varejao, Barbosa, Splitter and Huertas will be able to play.

[romain.star]

I like Brazil's chances. Only Spain is clearly better than Brazil in our group.

Let's see if we're going full force or if Nene and cia won't play once again for the national team.Hopefully Nene, Varejao, Barbosa, Splitter and Huertas will be able to play.

Quality bunch of players indeed... Spain is much much much bette though.
If they play the way they did last summer in Lithuania, no one (not named Team USA) has a shot

[TimmehC]

:lol Greece

Spain got a hell of an easy group, though(unless Nene and Varejao show up)

[ElNono]

Now we just need Greece to qualify first or second and Argentina and France are guaranteed to move on to the quarterfinals. :tu

[Venti Quattro]

Gro:lolp A = f:lolcked

[temujin]

What a joke.

five of the top 6 teams end up in the group in which the organizing team is not.

[smaka]

add Russia to group A and there it is, killer group...

[Venti Quattro]

add Russia to group A and there it is, killer group...

The US is going to coast through that group. Their real challengers are in Group B.

[urunobili]

Wow that Group will be a grind.

Better for them as they will be used to a higher level of competition!

[Bruno]

Russia, Greece and Lithuania should be the teams qualified. It will be a nice high level tournament. :tu

[Manu'sMagicalLeftHand]

Last year I atteneded the Americas Championship, I wouldn't count Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic out yet.

Specially PR, they have a good coach who is finally stopping the players from chucking up and get them to play team ball. Their weakest point is the bench, but their starting five is good: Barea-Arroyo-Ricky Sanchez-Balkman-Santiago.

The Dominican Republic depend entirely on Horford's health. If he's done, so are their chances. Charlie Villanueva and Franciso Garcia aren't capable of leading them. Jack Michael Martinez is a nice player. a Ben Wallace lite forward/center.

I don't see Venezuela with many chances of making it into the Olympics. Basically they would need Greivis Vasquez playing out of his mind and the rest of the squad playing above their potentials. However, the qualyfing tournament is hosted in their country, so that could give them a boost.

[Josepatches_]

Spain and USA only will meet in the Finals if they end being 1st on theirs groups like it should be.

Another silver medal for us.Not bad .