Teams:
Serbia (FIBA-Europe 2nd place)
Argentina (FIBA-Americas 3rd place)
Australia (FIBA-Oceania 2nd place)
Jordan (FIBA-Asia 3rd place)
Germany (Wild Card)
Angola (FIBA-Africa Champion)
This has the potential to have some great group games. 1st place will be decided on the last day when Serbia square off against Argentina. Right now, its hard to tell who will win but right now, I say Argentina based on the potential play of Fabricio Oberto at C, Luis Scola and Andres Nocioni at F, Carlos Delfino and Pablo Prigioni at G. That 5 is a tough squad and in 2008, Argentina beat Lithuania in the bronze medal match without Manu Ginoblili. Australia is clearly the 3rd best in the group and will make no suprises in the group satge. Angola and Germany wil battle for 4th and the right to play in the elimination stage. I pick Angola right now due to Germany being Nowitzki-less. Angola has had a reputation ever since 1992 of jacking up 3s when the attempted over 30 against the Dream Team in the opening match. Germany has really declined ever since their 2006 appearance at Saitama. Jordan have had poor preperations and disppointed at the recent 2010 FIBA-Asia Stankovic Cup, finishing a disppointing a disppointing 5th (3-4, losing to Lebanon, Qatar, Philippines, and Japan, the latter 3 not advancing to the WC).
Prediction:
Argentina 5-0
Serbia 4-1
Australia 3-2
Angola 2-3
Germany 1-4
Jordan 0-5
more to come...
I agree with your order of the teams. I'm very high on Argentina, too. Not because they have NBA players, but because they have great experience. That team has been through all the battles. Serbia will be good, as usual. They've got some players I haven't heard of or seen, but they're poised to start firing again. I also really like Australia. I think they've got one of the most complete teams in the world, even though they're missing Bogut.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing your predictions for the other groups!
mvblair
Yeah I think its going to be between Argentina and Serbia.. but I'll pick Argentina based on experience as well..
ReplyDelete