Draw for the FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament has been announced, and Slovenia had no luck. They have been drawn to the Greece tournament that looks like this:
##Group A:
- Slovenia
- Croatia
- New Zealand
##Group B:
- Greece
- Dominicana
- Egypt
Winners of both groups will advance to the finals where they will face each other. Only the winner of the tournament gets a ticket to the Paris Olympics.
It’s never really possible to predict anything until the July comes around the corner and we get an idea what the rosters will look like, but on paper this was really tough draw for Slovenia. They are expected to advance from their group but it’s far from given because if Croatia shows up with their full team they will be very difficult team to beat. And yet, even if they do they will still have to beat Greece in Athens. If Slovenian team look like they did in the past two tournaments they would struggle mightily against full Croatia team and even Giannis-less Greece, and if Giannis plays (as he is expected) it’s basically gg…
When again did Slovenia struggle vs Croatia? They won all of their last 5 games vs them. Plus their team is nothing special. Its bogdanovic, zubac and hezonja. The rest is quite bad in comparison to like 10 years ago. Okay, Greece would be a challenge, but definitely not something that is unbeatable. Okay the last two games Slovenia lost vs Greece. But those were just friendlies, where the team is just learning to know each other better. Giannis would definitely be a challenge… but he can’t win it all by himself. Plus he was never that good in euro rules basketball.