MIES, Switzerland — The long-awaited draw for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers took place under high-luminosity television studio lights inside the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball this week.
The qualifiers draw marks the tip-off for men’s national teams trying to successfully play their way to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. Set to take place in two years in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia, the FIBA Basketball World Cup’s 2023 edition marks the first time multiple countries will host this showpiece event.
Continuing with the success of the FIBA Competition System implemented in 2017 for team qualification to the 2019 World Cup, the process of qualifying for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 will include six windows over 15 months across the four regions of Africa, Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe.
Based on Tuesday’s draw, Team USVI will square off against the Bahamas, Canada and the Dominican Republic in the first round of qualifying for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.
Group A includes Argentina, Venezuela, Panama, and Paraguay; Group B includes Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile; while Group D includes The United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Cuba.
Sixteen teams will compete in the Americas region, vying for seven spots. In the first round, teams are divided into four groups and each team will play against each other in their own group. The top three teams from each group will qualify for the second round of qualifiers.
In the second round, the 12 teams that qualified will be divided into two groups of six (E and F).
Each team will play against the three new teams in its own group. Subsequently, the three best teams from each group, and the fourth-placed team, will qualify for the World Cup.
In FIBA World Rankings, the USVI is ranked No. 52 in the world and No. 11 in the Americas region, the Bahamas is ranked at No.59 and No.12 in the region. Canada is the highest-ranked team in the group at No. 18 and No.5 in the region while The Dominican Republic is ranked at No. 20 internationally and No.7 in the region.
The home-and-away series begins in November and Team USVI opens its competition against the Dominican Republic on Friday November 26 and Monday November 29. In the second window, The USVI will face The Bahamas on February 24, 2022. In the third and final window, the USVI has its second matchup against The Bahamas on July 1, 2022
The FIBA World Cup 2023 will take place August 25 to September 10 in multiple countries for the first time – Indonesia, Japan, and the Philippines.
In the last FIBA World Cup, held in China in 2019, the Americas region was represented by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the United States, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
The USVI qualified for the competition despite a winless record at the Americas Pre-Qualifiers in El Salvador in July after Cuba forfeited its remaining two games.
Two-time World Cup winner Rudy Fernandez took part in the proceedings from the FIBA Headquarters after FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis provided the draw’s opening remarks.
A host of sporting luminaries joined the captain of Spain’s golden basketball generation virtually from a Manila-based broadcast studio. These included FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Board Member Manuel V. Pangilinan and weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, the Philippine’s first Olympic gold medalist.
Spanish Basketball President Jorge Garbajosa provided a moment of levity by delivering the Naismith Trophy to the stage.
Eighty national teams were drawn across four different draws, one for each region – Africa, Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 competition system consists of six windows played over 15 months across the four regions of Africa, Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe. Each qualification window lasts nine days, with the windows running from November 2021 to February 2023.
A total of 80 countries are left vying to be among the 32 teams at the 2023 World Cup.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 will qualify teams directly for Paris 2024 Olympic Games or through four FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.