Half of the field for the men’s basketball tournament at the 2012 London Olympics is set, as Brazil and Argentina earned berths Saturday by becoming finalists in the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Here’s what the field looks like as of Sept. 10, 2011, in addition to FIBA world rankings and how the teams qualified:
2012 London Olympics: Six Of 12 Teams Set As Brazil, Argentina Join Field
- Great Britain (No. 56, host nation)
- United States (No. 1, reigning World Champion)
- Tunisia (No. 37, African champion)
- Australia (No. 9, Oceanic champion)
- Argentina (No. 3, FIBA Americas finalist)
- Brazil (No. 16, FIBA Americas finalist)
Next week, the two finalists from EuroBasket 2011 will join the field; later this month, the champion of the FIBA Asia Championship will be added. That leaves three spots open. The wild-card berths will be determined through a last-chance qualifying tournament to be held in Europe in July 2012, weeks before the Olympic tournament begins on July 28. Here’s how that field is shaping up:
- Angola (No. 13, African runner-up)
- Nigeria (No. 21, African third-place)
- New Zealand (No. 18, Oceanic runner-up)
- Puerto Rico (American semifinalist)
- Dominican Republic (American semifinalist)
- Venezuela (American fifth-place)
Four additional teams will be added from EuroBasket (the No. 3 through No. 6 finishers) and the second- and third-place teams from the Asia Championship will be given berths, as well. The 12 teams will be split into four pots of three, with a round-robin group stage eliminated one team from each set. The remaining eight nations will jump into a knockout round, where the top three teams advance to the Olympics.
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