2017 World University Games

[carlo]

Women's tournament qf defined:

Chinese Taipei vs Canada
Japan vs Sweden
USA vs Australia
Russia vs Czech Republic

Besides host team, Japan, USA and Russia are unbeaten so far.
USA-AUS is a classic that looks on paper the most uncertain qf. Despite a less than exciting tournament so far Aussie team could be dangerous in knockout round.
Sweden too has good size and some quality players and could challenge a solid Japan team.

[Hepcat]

Some of the Universiade basketball games are mismatches beyond belief. For example:

Lithuania 122 Mozambique 35

And in Women's play:

U.S.A. 121 Uganda 34

[locdogjr]

Some of the Universiade basketball games are mismatches beyond belief. For example:

Lithuania 122 Mozambique 35

And in Women's play:

U.S.A. 121 Uganda 34

This is why they'll break into 3 groups for teh quarter finals.
The African teams seem to really be getting beat up!

SHOUT OUT TO RAY CHEN THOUGH THAT BOY CRAZY!! TAIWAN BEAT KOREA HELLLLLSSS YESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

[JGX]

Groups for the men's tournament seem badly unbalanced. USA got a really weak group, while the AUS/LTU/UKR/RUS/ISR group is brutal.

[locdogjr]

Groups for the men's tournament seem badly unbalanced. USA got a really weak group, while the AUS/LTU/UKR/RUS/ISR group is brutal.

really tough tournament to rank, you never know who is going to send what players.
The Taiwan group is also really weak, doubt that is a coincidence.

[Roofman]

So no seedings, although these can be skewed because some stronger countries (perhaps Germany and Finland) are not that strong at senior level? Also, how do organisers determine how teams like Mozambique and Hong Kong get to enter, given the field is capped at 24 and there are no qualifying rounds?

[carlo]

Two Asia teams in women's tournament sf. Chinese Taipei defeated Canada and brilliant Japan was too much for a disappointing Sweden, while Australia used its size and physicality to upset previously unbeaten USA and Russia controlled Czech Republic. Young US team got the worst possible qf pairing, going against an average but competitive Aussie team that played its best game so far, dominating the boards and scoring some clutch threes in the final quarter.

[Hepcat]

Drat. So Canada finished third in its group after losing to Germany and Finland and failed to advance to the QFs.

[mojo13]

Drat. So Canada finished third in its group after losing to Germany and Finland and failed to advance to the QFs.

Don't worry about it. Most of the German team are professional players. Eleven of the 12 players on the German roster play in the German Bundesliga First Division (I am not show I understand how that happens).

Canada fielded a team of legitimate full time university students - and no where near our best ones. Our top 30 or 40 University players, play in the NCAA. This team was all CIS players.

[Roofman]

If you're enrolled full time at a university, my understanding is you can also be a professional player and eligible for the WUG. As a point of comparison, the Australian squad was a mix of US NCAA and Australian NBL players (Kyle Adnam, Craig Moller, Matt Kenyon) who have also enrolled as full time students. It obviously doesn't take much to manipulate the system.

To Canadian posters on this blog, I think it is a pity that you only have CIS players because you will need role players to supplement the NBA players in major international events and then you have the qualification windows where you won't have any NBA players (and it's virtually never the case with any country that all top players are available). Given that FIBA disbanded the World under 23s over a decade ago, many international teams see the WUG as a way of players bridging the gap between junior and senior international basketball, while exposing said players to offensive and defensive schemes and establishing team culture. So my previous comments about Rowan Barrett being fired were harsh, but made in the context of getting the best available team of student/athletes available for the reasons outlined above.

[usagre]

Historically there have always been shenanigans when it comes to eligibility in this tournament. The late great Drazen Petrovic participated three times in '83, '85, and '87. Valdemaras Chomicius hit the gold medal game winning shot in 1985 and he was 26 years old. Arvydas Sabonis was on that team as well. These players all met the requirements to participate I guess.

[JGX]

The eligibility standards are very lenient. A couple tournaments ago the Australian women fielded a couple players who were listed with Australian schools even though they had been playing in Europe that season. Presumably a lot of the players are enrolled in some University program for the sole purpose of being eligible for this tournament.

Croatia played the 1999 "Military World Games" with a bunch of their top pros. US basketball was in "serious crisis" since their actual soldiers couldn't beat them.

http://www.eurobasket.com/events/milit/milit99.htm

[carlo]

Australia-Japan is the logic final among women, size and athleticism vs speed and fine ball play & shooting. Despite its size advantage Russia was no match for a fearless and exciting Japanese team, that scored 52% of its field goals (and 9 threes). E-Opals made good use of their size in a hard fought win over Chinese Taipei. Abby Wehrung was perfect in shooting (7/7 FG including 3 FG3 and 2/2 FT). Good shooting today of Ieshia Small as well, who led USA over a resilient Canada in a classification game with 25 pts and 11/12 FG.

[carlo]

Maybe it's not super basketball, but today's qf were all tense and incredibly hard fought.
One for all: https://livestream.com/FISU/events/7635222
Ex U19 Carsen Edwards bomber today with 36 pts for USA.

SF: Serbia-USA, Lithuania-Latvia.

[locdogjr]

Today I watched the SF for America and Israel and Lithuania and Argentina.

Crazy good games,
but at the end LTH and ARG there were some insanely weird calls, i wish I had proper english announcers to explain what was happening. Weird calls, random technicals, the end of the game was a complete shit show I wish I could find and explanation of what actually happened!