86 DAYS TILL TIP-OFF U/19 WORLD'S
Its 13 weeks until the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship for Men takes to the court inAuckland from 2-12 July.Sixteen nations will descend on Auckland, bringing the worlds rising basketball talent with them. Some of the best basketball nations including the United States, Argentina, Croatia,
Greece, Spain and Australia are heading to New Zealand for the tournament. Close to 400 athletes and officials will be attending, along with 100 player scouts looking to sign up the future stars of the sport. NBA stars such as Vince Carter (United States), Luis Scola (Argentina), Pau Gasol (Spain), Andrei Kirilenko (Russia) and Australian Andrew Bogut have all played in previous FIBA U19 World Championships.
It is the first time New Zealand has hosted a FIBA World Championship event and will also be the first time the southern hemisphere has hosted the FIBA U19 World Championship for Men. The tournament will feature 62 matches played at the North Shore Events Centre, Takapuna and the ASB Stadium, Kohimarama. An excellent Draw Ceremony took place at Sky City early in March, when the tournament pools were drawn. The New Zealand Junior Tall Blacks have drawn Argentina, Croatia and Kazakhstan in their pool. Their first game will be against Argentina on Thursday 2 July at the North Shore Events Centre. Sky Sport are the broadcaster for the tournament and will be screening three games a day from Round 1, and all quarterfinals, semis and finals.
Various projects have been put in place to deliver a successful inaugural major World Basketball event in Auckland, New Zealand and inspire thenext generation of youth into the game. These will be outlined in upcoming issues of FIBA U19 World Championships Basketball Bulletin.
Local supporters of the event are Auckland City Council, North Shore City Council, New Zealand Major Events, SPARC and Tourism Auckland. SKYCITY Hotels is the official accommodation for teams and officials. Tall Black Pero Cameron and FIBAs Competitions Director Lubomir Kotleba at the Draw Ceremony
TOURNAMENT POOLS
POOL A POOL B
Greece USA
Lithuania France
Puerto Rico Iran
Angola Egypt
POOL C POOL D
Australia Argentina
Spain Croatia
Canada New Zealand
Syria Kazakhstan
Schedule
July 2- 4 Preliminary Round
NSEC and ASB Stadium
July 5 Rest Day
July 6 - 8 Qualifying / Classification Round
NSEC and ASB Stadium
July 9 Rest Day
July 10 Quarter Finals / Classification
NSEC
July 11 Semi Finals / Classification
NSEC
July 12 Final / Classification
NSEC
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