2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournament

[Pero Antic]

if that is true we have a big problem because our preparation plan is to acclimate in Toronto, Atlanta and Puerto Rico before flying to Venezuela and now we have to change it which is impossible......so what do i have now to cheer for Hugo Chavez to survive atleast until july??? Fiba is the most unprofesional sport-federation in the world.

[adamosmaki]

i know but you and your fellow greeks said the same lines before the eurobasket you remember that??? We are hardly on the level??? We played Russia Twice and we lost both games in the very last seconds Lithuania was beaten at home getting support by 14k and the refs we still beat them with just 4 1/2 men on the court while the lituanians rotated their squad as hell. You guys lost by a margin of 14 but it could have been easly more because we let you play in the last minutes of that game knowing its done. I know you will be much stronger now with your Olimpiakos youngsters and of course spanoulis if he returns but still you will be surprised, we know much more about you than you guys know about us. And honestly PR and DR are not gonna stop us qualfying. But lets wait until july there are lot of preperation games we will see.

PS: By the way you should help your team and borow them some money so they can effort the flight to Venezuela cheers

Despite Greece economic problems believe it or not the quality of life and average salary is much higher than you guys
Also just because you had success in one tournament does not mean all of a sudden you are in the level of Greece/Russia/Lithuania. That is as much ignorant as me saying Greece football team is on the level of Italy because we got the 2004 Euro. Also dont forget 9 key players were missing from the 2011 greece. Actually aside Mcaleb and maybe Antic who in the hell is on the level of Spanoulis/Printezis/Fotsis/Papanikolaou/Sofo( if he will come back)Bourousis ( despite having a mediocre year)?
Heck who is on the level of the other 3 youngsters Kalathes/Sloukas and Mantzaris all of them had decent euroleague season with lots of minutes playing each game
BTW i'm not Greek just so you know

[Pero Antic]

Despite Greece economic problems believe it or not the quality of life and average salary is much higher than you guys
Also just because you had success in one tournament does not mean all of a sudden you are in the level of Greece/Russia/Lithuania. That is as much ignorant as me saying Greece football team is on the level of Italy because we got the 2004 Euro. Also dont forget 9 key players were missing from the 2011 greece. Actually aside Mcaleb and maybe Antic who in the hell is on the level of Spanoulis/Printezis/Fotsis/Papanikolaou/Sofo( if he will come back)Bourousis ( despite having a mediocre year)?
Heck who is on the level of the other 3 youngsters Kalathes/Sloukas and Mantzaris all of them had decent euroleague season with lots of minutes playing each game
BTW i'm not Greek just so you know

Yeah the quality of life is higher by now but my friend that will change soon most people in greece are about to leave because they dont can get jobs. Your country is on the edge of total bancrupy the EU is giving you money to survive to be able to form a government which can get you out of this economical hole. It will take you 15years if not more to rehab from this situation (quote merkel) in that time Macedonia will be richer and a better place to live than your country (we are one of the countries who have the smallest depth in europe). If it was not for all this Fyrom-alexander the great bulshit we would have been in Nato and the EU already but its okay so we dont have to pay you money like the other EU- members.



You are not greek? haha okay i believe you now.

btw: Antic and Mccaleb(best Euroleague scorrer 2012) are the only one you know but that is not our problem as i sad you guys are the most agorant people here.

the half of the players you named below were not able to beat those guys.

Samardziski, Ilievski, Gecevski, Cekovski, the Stojanovski Brothers, and some other players who "arent" on the "same" level.

Its stupid to talk about who is better or not ofcourse on paper you are but on the court we dont know yet so....

[kalashnikov]

Just to be precise, I'll be very glad when FYROM is at the same level in quality of life as the rest of the EU, is perhaps a member of the EU, and has a commonly agreed name. It's gonna be a better neighborhood to live in. It's just stupid not hope the same as well for Greece, because the country is not going anywhere. If we are in a bad shape, you are affected as well.

To talk about basketball though, you have to agree as well that Mccaleb & Antic are the only class-A players of this team.

Ilievski - left a top-level team to play for a mid-range team somewhere in Russia? Ilievski admittedly is a good player. But, his career is in a decline
Gecevski - Did not make it in finding a good team playing in the EL, now playing in Bulgaria
Samardziski - not impressing in lithuania or european competitions
the rest playing in FYROM teams...

Also, Antic, one of the class-A players of FYROM, couldn't really impress in Olympiakos this season. At least, not even close to his performance during the Eurobasket 11.

Eurobasket was one competition. This year though, it's a whole different story ;-)

[macleopard13]

My predictions (highlighted is the winner and (+ number) is the point difference):

GROUP A
1. Greece
2. Puerto Rico
3. Jordan

Greece vs. Jordan (+20)
Jordan vs. Puerto Rico (+13)
Puerto Rico vs. Greece (+8)


GROUP B
1. Lithuania
2. Nigeria
3. Venezuela

Nigeria vs. Venezuela (+5)
Venezuela vs. Lithuania (+14)
Lithuania vs. Nigeria (+18)


GROUP C
1. Russia
2. Dominican Republic
3. Korea

Russia vs. Korea (+25)
Korea vs. Dominican Republic (+7)
Dominican Republic vs. Russia (+18)


GROUP D
1. Macedonia
2. Angola
3. New Zealand

Angola vs. Macedonia (+8)
Macedonia vs. New Zealand (+13)
New Zealand vs. Angola (+4)


QUARTERFINALS
Greece vs. Nigeria (+14)
Russia vs. Angola (+18)

Lithuania vs. Puerto Rico (+5)
Macedonia vs. Dominican Republic (+12)


SEMIFINALS
Greece vs. Russia (+5)

Lithuania vs. Macedonia (+8)


THIRD PLACE
Greece vs. Macedonia (+4)


---------------
QUALIFIERS:
1. RUSSIA
2. LITHUANIA
3. GREECE
---------------

[Gytaz]

getting support by 14k and the refs

Would you please stop saying that? I know you really want to believe it, but that wasn't the case and constantly writing this won't make it true.

[Victorious]

Greece still will have a lot of abstentees. The fact that many Olympiakos youngsters will be part of the roster is a big minus to me. They are talented, but besides Papanikolaou they are not ready to play for the Olympics. Eurobasket 2013 would be a better tournament for them to start their carreer with the senior NT. Nevertheless, Spanoulis alone should be enough to lift the level of the team.

Russia will be very strong and probably good enough for a medal. Lithuania will be one tier below them.
As for FYROM, last year they had great chemistry and no pressure. However, when they start having expectations, like Pero Antic on this forum, things change dramatically. It's not just harder for them to win, but it also becomes easier for their opponents to beat them.

[Shawshank]

i know but you and your fellow greeks said the same lines before the eurobasket you remember that??? We are hardly on the level??? We played Russia Twice and we lost both games in the very last seconds Lithuania was beaten at home getting support by 14k and the refs we still beat them with just 4 1/2 men on the court while the lituanians rotated their squad as hell. You guys lost by a margin of 14 but it could have been easly more because we let you play in the last minutes of that game knowing its done. I know you will be much stronger now with your Olimpiakos youngsters and of course spanoulis if he returns but still you will be surprised, we know much more about you than you guys know about us. And honestly PR and DR are not gonna stop us qualfying. But lets wait until july there are lot of preperation games we will see.

Man if you know how many lithuanians fans wants to play macedonai again lets say in bronze medal match in QF...Our players will be very motivated to play against your national team.If you have won game with american leader,doesnt mean your team is/was better.We were leading all the game and give away that game and this is ofcourse is our problems,but still it wasnt that macadonia was or played better,in the last minute everything went wrong for us (leading 65-61) and everyting went superb for your team *(and winning 67-65).In sport everything happens,but macedonia would not have chances winning serries against neither lithuania,neither russia,neither greece...In one game,yes you will have chances ofcourse,but this summer macedonia gonna feel diference when nobodys expects anything from your team like last year,and when your nation expexting you to win...Its way harder to do,when opponents of high level will take you seriuos...Nobody took macadonia seriuos last year,because nobody believe that american maclabab and 4-5 average euroleague players can do anything big.But this year atleats european teams like greece and lithuania gonna take you seriuos and want to give a payback (and with improves roster like spanulis or Kleiza),so i wouldnt be so optimsitic because of one good championship...I dont see macedonia qualifying for olimics sorry mate...

[CAREY33]

Men and Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments

Can someone let me know where I can find the schedules for the Men and Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments? I cant seem to find them on the FIBA site. Thanks.

[macleopard13]

I agree with Shawshank. You won once, but you aren't gonna win again. You got nothing on USA, Spain, Greece, France, Russia, Brazil or Lithuania. You were playing your butt off last year, but this year, all those teams I mentioned will play their butts off, and if you do qualify for the Olympics (which is unlikely), you will go third or fourth in the group stage and be crushed by either France or USA (or even Lithuania again). You've got lots of teams against you this year cause nobody hurts Lithuania and gets away with it. Best of luck to ya .

EDIT:
Actually, Shawshank, Lithuania will probably face Macedonia in the semifinals of the Qualifying tournament. Russia and Greece will face each other in the other semifinal. Finally, Macedonia will play in the third place bracket and there's a good chance they'll lose that to Greece.

Can someone let me know where I can find the schedules for the Men and Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments? I cant seem to find them on the FIBA site. Thanks.

Check Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_FI...nament_for_Men.

[PRSURF]

My predictions (highlighted is the winner and (+ number) is the point difference):

GROUP A
1. Greece
2. Puerto Rico
3. Jordan

Greece vs. Jordan (+15)
Jordan vs. Puerto Rico (+10)
Puerto Rico vs. Greece (+5)


GROUP B
1. Lithuania
2. Nigeria
3. Venezuela

Nigeria vs. Venezuela (+5)
Venezuela vs. Lithuania (+8)
Lithuania vs. Nigeria (+15)


GROUP C
1. Russia
2. Dominican Republic
3. Korea

Russia vs. Korea (+20)
Korea vs. Dominican Republic (+10)
Dominican Republic vs. Russia (+3)


GROUP D
1. Macedonia
2. Angola
3. New Zealand

Angola vs. Macedonia (+5)
Macedonia vs. New Zealand (+15)
New Zealand vs. Angola (+4)


QUARTERFINALS
Greece vs. Venezuela (+10)
Russia vs. Angola (+15)

Lithuania vs. Puerto Rico (+5)
Macedonia vs. Dominican Republic (+8)


SEMIFINALS
Greece vs. Russia (+6)

Puerto Rico vs. R. Dominicana (+7)


THIRD PLACE
Greece vs. Rep Dominicana (+10)

::::QUALIFERS::::
Russia
Puerto Rico
Greece

[Olympiacos]

I don't know if FYROM will qualify or not, but they are being underrated here. McCalebb apparently fits to the role of being allowed to just play for himself.

Ilievsky and the Stojanovsky's give them excellent ball handlers to go with McCalebb. Then they have a very big physical presence with Antic, Cekovsky, Gechevsky, and Samardzisky. And they have a lot of guys that are knock down 3 point shooters.

The main thing is that they play well together, play hard, and are well-coached. Macedonia is a better team than most people here think.

[macleopard13]

I played Greece vs. Puerto Rico, as requested. The score turned out to be 72:76 in favor of the Greeks.

But, I will note that Puerto Rico went on a massive run in the first quarter! They're up 17:5 at one point and finished the first quarter 20:10. But then Greece whittled down the lead little by little and then won at the end.

If Puerto Rico had kept the lead, they'd have won the game easily.

Puerto Rico was led by Jose Barea (19 points, 6 assists), Carlos Arroyo (16 points), Alex Galindo (12 points) and Daniel Santiago (9 points, 6 rebounds)

Greece was led by Ioannis Bourousis (17 points, 6 rebounds), Kostas Papanikolaou (13 points, 6 rebouns), Nick Calathes (12 points, 5 assists), Nikolaos Zisis (12 points) and Antonis Fotsis (10 points)

One more note: this was Puerto Rico's and Greece's 2011 team. Greece is planning to add Spanoulis, so that'll give them a boost. If Puerto Rico brings in some good new players, then it probably could beat Greece.

[macleopard13]

Cekovsky and Samardzisky.

Physical, are you kidding me? Cekovski sucked throughout the tournament (except for an occasional three-pointer). Samardziski is a liability on defense. Rakovic and Javtokas ground him to dust in LKL (except for one game, but that was due to his skyhooks). They're mediocre big men. Antic is the only decent big men on the roster (though Antic has been showing poor game lately).

But besides them, there's only McCalebb. Stojanovski is decent too. Ilievski's age is also setting in - he's not doing that good anymore. He was kicked off Anadolu Efes for his underperformance and was forced to sign with a weaker team. And I won't mention the rest of the roster, 'cause they're all a bunch of mediocre players playing in second and third-tier European competitions.

[Pero Antic]

Physical, are you kidding me? Cekovski sucked throughout the tournament (except for an occasional three-pointer). Samardziski is a liability on defense. Rakovic and Javtokas ground him to dust in LKL (except for one game, but that was due to his skyhooks). They're mediocre big men. Antic is the only decent big men on the roster (though Antic has been showing poor game lately).

But besides them, there's only McCalebb. Stojanovski is decent too. Ilievski's age is also setting in - he's not doing that good anymore. He was kicked off Anadolu Efes for his underperformance and was forced to sign with a weaker team. And I won't mention the rest of the roster, 'cause they're all a bunch of mediocre players playing in second and third-tier European competitions.

first bold: why they continued his dontract if hes that bad?

second bold: Antic won the Euroleague recently playing hardcore games with a 11points in 18min in every game

third bold: yep they are all mediocre but still 4th in europe you guys are better on paper we get it but what matters i the court .

Mediocre maybe but enough to beat Lithuania at home......and for the guy above we are not gonna fucking lose to Dom rep. in the quaters

cheers mate!!!