Europe’s second chance

Remember that there is this “second chance tournament” for teams who did not qualify the first time for the Olympics? Well the draw will be tonight at approx. 6:30pm European time in Greece. Fiba.com tells us that we will be able to follow the draw LIVE - I don’t know yet if it will be a LIVE stream or you will be able to see the countries going into the groups here.

This are the 12 teams that still have the chance to get a ticket to Beijing this summer:

• Lebanon
• Puerto Rico
• Greece
• Korea
• Brazil
• Germany
• Cameroon
• Canada
• Croatia
• Cape Verde
• New Zealand
• Slovenia

On 9th December 2007, at its meeting in Chicago, the FIBA Central Board decided that the 2008 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men will be played in Athens (Greece), in the 18.000 OAKA Sports Arena, located in Maroussi, from 14th to 20th July 2008. 

During today’s draw, the above-mentioned 12 national teams will be divided into four groups of three teams each. Each team will play all the other teams in its own group. The teams placed 1st and 2nd in each group will advance to the Quarter-Finals. The two winners of the Semi-Finals will qualify for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, while the two losers will battle for one remaining Olympic spot. 

What does that mean?

Three teams will advance - what is your guess? The only European team I can see taking one of these spots for sure right now would be Greece..