OQT ... Manila

2016 FIBA OQTs Preview - Philippines tournament may be toughest one yet

Which team from the the #FIBAOQT Philippines will qualify for #Rio2016? Preview: http://bit.ly/FIBAoqtphi 

MANILA (2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments) - On Tuesday, FIBAheld the draw for the 2016 Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTs), which will be held in the Philippines (Manila), Serbia (Belgrade) andItaly (Turin) this July.

Let's take an early look at what awaits the hoop nuts in the Manila leg of the OQTs, which will be played at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, the same site of the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship.

The Philippine national team, known more popularly as Gilas Pilipinas, is Asia’s third-ranked team after placing second in the last two FIBA Asia Championships and qualifying for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup. Joining Gilas in Manila are Canada, France, New Zealand, Senegal andTurkey.

The teams were divided further into two groups. Turkey, Senegal and Canada comprise Group A, while France, New Zealand and hosts Philippines are in Group B.

At first glance, the Manila event promises to be the toughest draw, with potentially upwards of 20 NBA players converging on the Philippine capital. France and Canada alone have enough NBA-caliber players to fill up all the spots of their respective rosters.

Canada and Turkey are undeniable favorites in Group A, though Senegal should not be overlooked, too, especially after advancing past the group stage at Spain 2014. France are the heavy favorites to top Group B with New Zealand and the Philippines probably fighting for the right to advance to the next round. It should be a good preview, though, as both the Kiwis and the Filipinos will soon play each other more often in the FIBA Asia-Pacific subzone that will be implemented in 2017.

The info is from the web site of

www.fiba.com

and the nice photo is from the twitter account of fiba.

https://twitter.com/FIBA

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