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.

Lebanon Out of the FIBA Asia 2013 Tournament

Lebanon, one of the powerhouse teams in the upcoming FIBA Asia 2013 Tournament to be held in Manila, Philippines, was suspended by FIBA officials from the said tournament after failure to comply with the requirements set by the federation. This was confirmed last Saturday, which opens up a huge slot in the said tournament now that one of its powerhouse competitors had been taken out of the competition.


The report was confirmed via the Daily Star Lebanon due to a series of violations that the team failed to address. Among those violations include legal disputes amongst their players and 'political meddling with the matches'. The Youth and Sports Minister in Lebanon was also reached out for comment regarding the matter and he cited that "politics and sectarianism" ruined their chances of competing in this year's FIBA Asia tournament.

Before this controversial suspension, Lebanon was named as part of Group B wherein they are pitted against Japan, Hong Kong, and Qatar. Iraq will replace Lebanon's spot in Group B, as confirmed by FIBA Asia officials.

Three Lebanese players competing in the ongoing Jones Cup tournament were clearly devastated about this development. After all, the FIBA Asia tournament will serve as qualifier for the FIBA World Championship.

Meanwhile, the preparation continues for Smart Gilas Pilipinas for the upcoming FIBA Asia tournament set to take place from August 1 to 11, 2013. Head coach Chot Reyes recently confirmed the 12-man lineup for Smart Gilas Pilipinas competing for the tournament.

12-Man Lineup Competing for FIBA Asia Named For Smart Gilas Pilipinas

Smart Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes has named the 12-man lineup that will represent the country in the upcoming FIBA Asia '13 tournament to be held in the country. As of July 11, coach Chot tweeted via his personal account that he had submitted the list of the team's roster for the FIBA Asia Championship. Here's the tweet from Coach Chot:

Here is the complete list of roster for the Smart Gilas Pilipinas competing in this year's FIBA Asia Championship:

Jayson Castro

Larry Fonacier

Ranidel de Ocampo

Gary David

Gabe Norwood

Jimmy Alapag

LA Tenorio

June Mar Fajardo

Marc Pingris

Japeth Aguilar

Jeff Chan

Marcus Douthit

The team recently went to New Zealand for the final stage of preparation for the tournament. There were 13 players who attended the training, and of the 13 only Beau Belga did not make the final cut. The FIBA Asia tournament will take place on August 1 to 11, 2013. Smart Gilas' first game will be on August 1 against Saudi Arabia in MOA Arena.

What do you think of Smart Gilas Pilipinas' chances coming into the FIBA Asia Championship tournament?

What This NBA Draft Class of 2013 Brings to NBA

The NBA 2013 draft class is one of the weakest draft class since 2000 and it only gets weaker when almost 1/3 of the projected 1st round players decides to return for one more year in college. The most notable player who decides to return is Marcus Smart who is projected as top 3 pick. Followed by James Micheal McAdoo, Willie Cauley-Stein, Gleann Robinson III, Mitch McGary, Dario Saric, Doug McDermott, CJ Fair, Isaiah Austin and Alex Poythress. Imagine the lost of these players in the draft class which means some of the projected 2nd rounder mixed up with the first rounder. So if a team have a late 1st round pick is likely draft a player which is supposedly 2nd rounder quality.

One more indication that this draft class is so weak is that there is no clear who is going on to the top pick. Scouts can't find anyone with a franchise player talent. From the start of the year there are debates between 4 players who were involved in the top pick, Noel, Zeller, Muhammad and McAdoo.
Those 4 are promising players before the season start but at the end of the season, all those 4 have something in doubt. McAdoo decides to return to college for junior year though even if he decides to join this year's draft, he's probably out of the top pick discussions. Muhammad's questionable potiential after he struggles on UCLA. Zeller's strength and defense deficiencies hurts his stock down to several spots.
Noel's raw offensive ability makes plus a big blow when he suffer from torn ACL made him uncertain in the #1 spot. And there goes the wild cards: Alex Len, Ben Mclemore, Victor Oladipo and Trey Burke which don't have the quality to be a Top Pick.

As we look back to 2000 NBA draft, there are a couple of players who are having a solid careers. Kenyon Martin the former #1 pick, 2 former six man of the year Mike Miller and Jamal Crawford, and the most notable 2nd round steal: Micheal Redd. Also Hedu Turkoglu, Kenyon Dooling, Quetin Richardson, Eddie House and Deshawn Stevenson were a solid picks. These players made impact to the teams they played. They were maybe not a franchise player but help provide solid contribution for their team. This years draft class teams could find much needed help in Oladipo, Porter, McLemore and Carter-Williams. It will just depend on what system they will play and how will they be able to maximize their potentials.