The Bahamas senior men’s national basketball team is on a path to the 2023 FIBA (International Basketball Federation) World Cup, and the route became a bit clearer yesterday when they were drawn into Group C for the FIBA Americas World Cup Qualifiers First Round. The draw took place yesterday afternoon at the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball in Mies, Switzerland.
Also drawn in Group C were Canada, the Dominican Republic (DR) and the US Virgin Islands. They are the exact four teams that were in Group D for the previous FIBA Americas World Cup Qualifiers. These teams are four of 16 teams to qualify for the first round. To get here, The Bahamas competed in the FIBA Americas World Cup Pre-Qualifiers in early July. The Bahamas finished that competition with an unblemished 3-0 win/loss record in Group A, playing against Cuba, Costa Rica and El Salvador.
For the Americas qualifiers the teams were divided based on geographical principles combined with the FIBA World Rankings for Men, presented by Nike.
The group features two top 20 teams in the world with Canada at number 18 and the Dominican Republic at number 20. In the FIBA Americas rankings, Canada is ranked at number five and the Dominican Republic is ranked at number seven. The US Virgin Islands has been a rival of Team Bahamas for a number of years and is ranked at number 52 in the world and number 11 in FIBA Americas.
The Bahamas has the lowest ranking in the group at number 59 in the world and number 12 in the FIBA Americas rankings. The Bahamas would need key wins to advance to the next round.
All three windows will be home-and-away series with the first window getting underway in November. The Bahamas will open its campaign with a matchup against powerhouse Canada November 26 and 29. The location will be announced at a later date.
In the FIBA Americas Qualifiers in 2018 and 2019, Canada took care of The Bahamas easily both times, 93-69 and 113-67.
The first game in the second window is set for February 24, 2022 and will feature The Bahamas playing the US Virgin Islands. The two teams will play each other again in the third window, set for July 1, 2022. In the last FIBA Americas World Cup Qualifiers, The Bahamas lost both matchups to the US Virgin Islands, 93-85 and 84-74.
In the second game of the second window The Bahamas is set to play the Dominican Republic. That game will take place on February 27, 2022. The two teams will play their second game against each other on July 4, 2022 – the final match day for the first round. The two teams split their series in the last FIBA Americas World Cup Qualifiers. The Dominican Republic won the first game 96-63 before The Bahamas stole the second game 92-83.
At the end of the Americas qualifiers in 2017 and 2018, The Bahamas finished with a 1-5 win/loss record. Chavano “Buddy” Hield, who plays in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Sacramento Kings, suited up for The Bahamas in two of those games. Now, The Bahamas has two more players in the NBA in the Phoenix Suns’ DeAndre Ayton and the Charlotte Hornets’ Kai Jones. There are several professional players in Europe and others engaged in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) play.
The issue for the team will be the November and February windows in which the majority of the players will be in action for their respective clubs and their schools. It will be a challenge, especially playing Canada in the first window.
The top three teams from this group will advance to the second round for the Americas qualifiers. They will join other teams to create two six-team groups.
In the second round, each team will play home-and-away series against the three new teams in their group over three windows. The second round windows are scheduled for August 2022, November 2022, and February 2023. Each team will play two games in each window.
At the end of these additional six games per team, the top three teams in each group, plus the best fourth team, will qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 is set to be held in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia, August 25 to September 10, 2023.
The post The Bahamas draws Canada, the DR and the US Virgin Islands appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/the-bahamas-draws-canada-the-dr-and-the-us-virgin-islands/
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