Officially seven of the eight teams left in EuroBasket quarter finals — we’ve now advanced to the tournament style rounds of the European championships — will get an invite to the World Championships next summer.
Technically Europe is set to send six teams, but with Spain already in as host, that number jumps to seven because Spain doesn’t count against the total. Which means six of the other seven teams that reached the EuroBasket quarters will get automatic invites — they will play each other in a traditional tournament, but with a losers bracket and only the team that loses the 7/8 playoff game in that bracket (Saturday) doesn’t get an automatic invite.
That should create a little drama, however with FIBA keeping four wild card invitations in its back pocket, there’s a chance all eight of these teams are bound for Madrid next summer (don’t be shocked if Russia, also part of this tournament but already eliminated, gets a wild card invite, too).
Anyway, here are the eight teams left and their next matchups, plus the broadcast times on NBA TV for the first two (NBA TV also will broadcast the semifinal games on Friday).
Spain vs. Serbia (Wednesday, 11:30 a.m. ET, on NBA TV): Spain is the powerhouse of this tournament, although they always seem to have some lapses in a big tournament and they did that last round. Still, they have Ricky Rubio, Marc Gasol, Rudy Fernandez and on and on with names and players you know. Spain is the best team in the tournament when they care to be. Serbia has a good offense led by Nenad Krstic and they have already upset France this tournament so they are capable of a big game.
Slovenia vs. France (Wednesday, 3 p.m. ET, on NBA TV): France has the best offense in the tournament thanks to Tony Parker playing like he did in the NBA Finals. The French are one of the two teams that seem like they could challenge Spain for the title. Slovenia is the host of EuroBasket and have advanced this far thanks to Goran Dragic.
Croatia vs. Ukraine (Thursday, 11:45 a.m.): Croatia won their second round group and is the favorite here because they play solid defense. Croatia is led by Bojan Bogdanovic and his 17.5 points a game.
Lithuania vs. Italy (Thursday, 3 p.m.): This should be the best matchup of the quarterfinals. It’s strength on strength with Marco Belinelli and the Italian offense putting up plenty of points and Lithuania shutting teams down with their defense and being led by the Raptors Jonas Valanciunas (who has played well, as he did in Summer League). Both of these teams are better than likely anyone other than Spain or France, but they face off in this round and it will be over for one of them (the loser should easily win the next game and qualify for the World Championships).