2019 FIBA World Cup qualifiers - AFRICA

[JGX]

Cameroon and Egypt play for third place in Africa Group E tomorrow, Egypt is one game ahead so I think Cameroon needs to win by four to get the head-to-head tiebreaker. If Egypt wins they qualify for the WC since the third-place team in the other group can't do better than 7-5, Cameroon would have to wait until the other group finishes in February but they would be in good shape.

[JGX]

Cameroon rolled Egypt 80-60 to take third place. Central African Republic and/or Cote d'Ivoire will have to sweep all their games in February and pull ahead of Cameroon in whatever the tiebreaker is (they are both pretty far behind on point differential) in order to qualify.

[Dtown]

Cameroon wins 80-60, eliminating Egypt.

Right now standings for 3rd place is
Cameroon 7-5 19 pts +78
Central African Republic 4-5 13 pts -41
Ivory Coast 4-5 13 pts +13

Cameroon's in a nice spot, both CAR and Ivory Coast have to win out to stay alive and they both have to play Nigeria. Even if they manage it's hard to see either of them surpassing Cameroon's +78. Point difference.

Senegal meanwhile should qualify easy, they just need a win and play both Rwanda and Mali who have both been eliminated.

[Dtown]

Senegal, as expected, makes it look easily and casually qualifies.

[Mindozas]

I saw chances for Ivory Coast to win tonight, especially this round bein' held in Abidjan, but demolishing Nigeria that big is a huge surprise. Big step towards World Cup for Ivory Coast, that big margin will help them a lot in case to overcome Cameroon. I bet they'll win easily vs Rwanda and Mali too. Only obstacle - CAR winning against Nigeria tomorrow

[Dtown]

I saw chances for Ivory Coast to win tonight, especially this round bein' held in Abidjan, but demolishing Nigeria that big is a huge surprise. Big step towards World Cup for Ivory Coast, that big margin will help them a lot in case to overcome Cameroon. I bet they'll win easily vs Rwanda and Mali too. Only obstacle - CAR winning against Nigeria tomorrow

39 points is still a lot, though it's now believable they can do it. It would be tragic though if CAR won out and Ivory Coast had a better Point differential than Cameroon.

[JGX]

It would be tragic though if CAR won out and Ivory Coast had a better Point differential than Cameroon.

LOL, that would be a great illustration of how dumb the "best third place team" qualifier is. Playing the groups at different times, where the teams in the second group know exactly how many points they need, is a nice touch.

[Dtown]

CAR lost to Nigeria and are thus eliminated. Now it's just down to can Cote D'Ivorie wrack up enough points.

edit: Cote D'Ivorie wins 87-60 turning what was supposed to be near impossible and making it look entirely doable. They need to beat Mali by 13 points or more to qualify and eliminate Cameroon.

[Mindozas]

I'm rooting for Cameroon, they has potential to bring much more interesting team. But in reality, it's really hard to expect Ivory Coast fail to beat weak Mali by at least 13pts. It'd be huge upset if that would happen

Also watched today Nigeria vs CAR, it was good to see Romain Sato back in action. He still has great passion for the game after missing almost two years of basketball, but Nigeria was simply too good, even not playin' their best basketball

[Federoy]

LOL, that would be a great illustration of how dumb the "best third place team" qualifier is. Playing the groups at different times, where the teams in the second group know exactly how many points they need, is a nice touch.

Here's something novel: why not have the third place team in each bracket have a play-in game for the fifth and final spot? Imagine that.

[Dtown]

Cote D'ivoire makes it official, really once they blew out Nigeria it would have been more shocking if they didn't seal the deal. Feel bad for Cameroon, but the rules are the rules.

[Federoy]

Cote D'ivoire makes it official, really once they blew out Nigeria it would have been more shocking if they didn't seal the deal. Feel bad for Cameroon, but the rules are the rules.

Cameroon got played big time. Cameroon played way back in December, which allowed Ivory Coast to know well in advance what they needed to do to qualify. To compound the problem, Cameroon had two tougher opponents to fight through at a neutral site where as Ivory Coast played relatively easier opponents in Rwanda and Mali at home. That's weak.