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Hosts Philippines exercised their right as hosts and opted to play in lighter Group ‘A’ in the preliminary round competition of the 27th FIBA Asia Championship, the draw for which was concluded at the host city yesterday. |
The other three teams – Jordan, Chinese Taipei and Saudi Arabia – were drawn in the group before Philippines used their privilege of opting their choice of group for the prelim round. The top three teams from Group ‘A’ will qualify for the second round where they will take on the top three teams from Group ‘B’.
Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes, who is currently with the Philippines basketball national team in Lithuania, relayed his decision to Norman Black, who in turned announced his choice before delegates attending the proceedings. “We have to respect coach Chot Reyes’ decision. The way I understand him was that it is good for our team to be bracketed along with Group B teams like Japan, Qatar and Lebanon in the second round en route to the quarter-finals and semis,” said Black.
Japan, Qatar, Lebanon and were first drawn in Group B and with Hong Kong joining them after Philippines’ choice.
Group ‘C’ poses a veritable clash of big guns with China, Iran, Korea – the three who between them have won 19 gold medals in FIBA Asia Championships – all drawn together in the first three rounds of the draw. A qualifier yet to be identified from SEABA joined them.
The top three teams from Group ‘C’ will play against the top three teams of Group ‘D’.
Group ‘D’ saw Kazakshtan, India and a qualifier yet to be identified from SEABA drawn to start with and Bahrain joining them later on.
“With the successful completion of the Draw Ceremony, the stage set for the competition at the 27th FIBA Asia Championship, the biggest event in FIBA Asia. In other words, the countdown has begun to identify the Champion of FIBA Asia,” said FIBA Asia Secretary General Hagop Khajirian who presided over the conduct of the draw ceremony.
“FIBA Asia assures Samahang Basketbol Ng Pilipinas (the National Federation of Philippines), the hosts of the event all and necessary support towards the successful conduct of the competition. And going by the impressive manner things moved in the Draw Ceremony, we are confident that the event too under SBP will be a grand success,” he added. Khajirian further clarified that the names SEABA1 and SEABA2 were only symbolic at this stage.
“Lots will be drawn to identify which team will be called SEABA1 and which SEABA 2 after the qualifiers are spotted at the end of the 10th SEABA Championship to be played in Medan (Indonesia) from June 20-23,” he said.
The 2013 FIBA-Asia championship will be on August 1 to 11 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City as the main venue and the Ninoy Aquino Stadium as secondary venue. The top three teams in the tourney will earn a trip to the FIBA World Championship in Spain next year.
Draw procedure
The draw was conducted under the Pure Draw system using two bowls, where boxes with names of 15 teams were put into one bowl and boxes with names of the group into another. Each time a team was drawn along with the name of the group to determine which group they will play in. Philippines as the hosts had the luxury of drawing the 13th pick after three teams each had been drawn into the four groups.
The remaining teams were filled into the other three groups after Philippines’ choice of group.