The Australian men's national basketball team, known as the Boomers, will face European powerhouse Lithuania after being drawn in Group D in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup Official Draw in Spain's Barcelona on Tuesday morning.
Besides Lithuania, the 2013 Eurobasket semi-finalists, the Boomers will face Angola, South Korea, Slovenian and Mexico in the preliminary rounds.
The Boomers' Group D will be based in the capital of the Canary Islands, Gran Canaria, with preliminary round play to start on August 30.
In Spain for the draw, Australian head coach Andrej Lemanis said Group D would present a unique challenge for his team.
"It's an interesting mix of teams there, and like I've said before, it's the draw for the World Cup, so everyone you face is going to be good," Lemanis said.
"We've simply got to come out and play well against the teams we are drawn against and give ourselves a chance of advancing."
It was a favorable draw for the Boomers as they would avoid competing against the world's top three teams, the United States, Spain and Argentina.
With the draw decided, Lemanis will confirm the team's pre-World Cup schedule in the coming days.
"The beauty of being here over the past couple of days is everyone has been engaging in pre-draw talks as far as arranging games and tournaments in the lead-up to the World Cup," Lemanis said.
"We've got a number of invitations sitting on the table as a result of being here for the draw, so hopefully we can confirm those over the coming days and get our pre-tournament schedule locked away."
No comments:
Post a Comment