Countdown to FIBA Asia 2013 & Preliminary Game Schedule

The 2013 FIBA Asia Championship is set to unveil tomorrow, August 1, for a two-week tournament featuring the best basketball teams in Asia. Basketball fans in the country, as well as the world, are excited to witness the said tournament especially since the country will be playing host this year. This will only be the third time in FIBA's 53-year history that the Philippines will host the tournament. In fact, the tournament will be back here after four decades since it last played host.

Image: http://www.solarsportsdesk.ph/

The FIBA Asia Championship 2013 will serve as the qualifying round for the upcoming FIBA World Cup Championship that will be held in Spain next year. The top three teams to emerge from this tournament will earn the right to represent Asia in the said event. To refresh your memory, the draw for the groupings for all competing teams were done last June 6 and the groups look as follows:

Group A: Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Chinese Taipei
Group B: Japan, Qatar, Hong Kong (Lebanon was suspended from competition by FIBA officials due to legal woes)
Group C: China, South Korea, Iran, Malaysia
Group D: Bahrain, India, Thailand, and Kazakhstan

If you are looking to watch the games live, you can take note of the preliminary list of games schedule for the FIBA Asia 2013 tournament here:

August 1, 2013 (Thursday)

Mall of Asia Arena

11:00am - Iran vs Malaysia
1:15pm - Jordan vs Chinese Taipei
3:30pm - Japan vs Qatar
5:45pm - China vs Korea
8:30pm - Saudi Arabia vs Philippines
10:30pm - Kazakhstan vs Thailand

Ninoy Aquino Stadium

6:00pm - India vs Bahrain

August 2, 2013 (Friday)

Mall of Asia Arena

11:00am - China vs Malaysia
1:15pm - Chinese Taipei vs Saudi Arabia
3:30pm - Japan vs Hong Kong
5:45pm - Korea vs Iran
8:30pm - Jordan vs Philippines
10:30pm - Thailand vs India

Ninoy Aquino Stadium

6:00pm - Kazakhstan vs Bahrain

August 3, 2013 (Saturday)

Mall of Asia Arena

11:00am - Malaysia vs Korea
1:15pm - India vs Kazakhstan
3:30pm - Hong Kong vs Qatar
5:45pm - Iran vs China
8:30pm - Philippines vs Chinese Taipei
10:30pm - Saudi Arabia vs Jordan

Ninoy Aquino Stadium

6:00pm - Bahrain vs Thailand

Check us back for more updates on results and schedules for the ongoing FIBA Asia 2013 tournament.

*Disclaimer: Credits to www.rappler.com for schedule list.