Asia/Oceania qualifiers get no wildcards

MANILA, Philippines - FIBA director of communications Patrick Koller confirmed the other day that all 16 teams in the FIBA Asia Cup to be held at the Nuhad Nawfai Stadium in Zouk Mikael, about 20 kilometers north of Beirut, on Aug. 10-20 will play in the first round of the Asia/Oceania qualifiers starting in November leading to the 2019 World Cup in China.

Koller said the option of seeding the top 14 finishers in the FIBA Asia Cup for the Asia/Oceania qualifiers with FIBA to choose two wildcards will not be used in the initial cycle to determine the seven teams from the region to advance to the World Cup. The option was initially considered until FIBA came up with a system to assure equal representation from the East and West sub-zones.

Koller said the 14+2 option will have been activated only for geographic reasons to guarantee eight teams from the East and eight teams from the West. He also mentioned that the recent draw in Guangzhou was a modified open system as countries were pre-arranged according to FIBA rankings and geographical locations in eight pots before the lottery to fill in the four brackets for the competition.

The eight pots were made up of Australia and New Zealand in the first, Iran and Jordan in the second, China and the Philippines in the third, Lebanon and Qatar in the fourth, South Korea and Japan in the fifth, India and Kazakhstan in the sixth, Chinese-Taipei and Hong Kong in the seventh and Iraq and Syria in the eighth. Countries in the first, third, fifth and seventh pots were drawn for Groups A and B while countries in the other pots were picked for Groups C and D.

Koller pointed out that of the 16 countries in the draw, five were conditionally placed as they are still in the process of qualifying for the FIBA Asia Cup. The five countries are the Philippines, Chinese-Taipei, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. The Philippines will formalize its entry if and when Gilas wins the SEABA Championships in Manila starting today. Chinese-Taipei, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong will join China and Macau in the East Asia qualifiers in Nagano, Japan, on June 3-7 with the top five placers advancing to the FIBA Asia Cup. If any of the five countries on conditional status fail to advance out of their sub-zone tournaments, they will be replaced by teams that qualify.

So far, the teams with booked tickets for the FIBA Asia Cup are host and West Asia champion Lebanon, West Asia No. 2 Iran, West Asia No. 3 Jordan, West Asia No. 4 Iraq, West Asia No. 5 Syria and Gulf champion Qatar. Additionally, Australia and New Zealand from Oceania were included as wildcards. The recent draw indicated that Kazakhstan from Central Asia and India from South Asia had also qualified. Qatar beat Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman for the sole Gulf ticket to the FIBA Asia Cup in a tournament in Sharjah last September. Lebanon took the West Asia crown in Amman last February with Palestine the only team that failed to advance.

In the Asia/Oceania draw, the Philippines was selected to join Japan, Chinese-Taipei and Australia in Group B. China, New Zealand, South Korea and Hong Kong were in Group A. Syria, Lebanon, India and Jordan were in Group C while Qatar, Kazakhstan, Iran and Iraq went to Group D.

The first round of the Asia/Oceania qualifiers will pit countries of each group playing each other in a two-game home-and-away series over three windows on Nov. 20-28, Feb. 19-27 and June 25-July 3. The Philippines’ home-and-away schedule for the first round is as follows – on the road against Japan on Nov. 24, at home against Chinese-Taipei on Nov. 27, on the road against Australia on Feb. 22, at home against Japan on Feb. 25, on the road against Chinese-Taipei on June 29 and at home against Australia on July 2.

The top three teams in each group will move on to the second round of another home-and-away series over three windows on Sept. 17-25, Nov. 12-26 next year and Feb. 18-26 in 2019. The top three placers in Groups A and B will form Group E while the top three placers in Groups C and D will compose Group F in the second round. Teams will carry over points from their first round games. The three home-and-away series in the second round will feature only matchups that didn’t take place in the first round.

Assuming China, New Zealand and South Korea advance from Group A and the Philippines, Australia and Japan make it from Group B, Gilas will play China, New Zealand and South Korea in three two-game, home-and-away series in the second round.

Gilas naturalized player Andray Blatche’s availability for the national team may be in doubt in the early stages of the Asia/Oceania qualifiers as he has a year left in his CBA contract and the China league usually starts in late October.