The 18th World Basketball Championships (also known as FIBA World Cup) will take place on the courts of China from 31 August through to 15 September. The tournament has gone through quite a few changes since its previous edition that was held in Spain five years ago (2014). The United States are both the current holder of the trophy and also the team with the most wins (five). They once again pose as clear favourites to walk away as the winners. Yet no one should underestimate the powerhouses of Serbia, Spain or France, but also our two teams – Greece and Australia. They have had their fair share of chances of lifting the cup.

To make it easy, Neos Kosmos has provided a guide of things to know:

THE VENUES

The FIBA World Cup will be held across eight stadiums in eight cities all around China. These are: the Wuhan Sports Arena of Wuhan, the Foshan International Sports and Cultural Centre of Foshan, the Youth Olympic Sports Park Gymnasium of Nanjing, the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre of Shenzhen, the Dongguan Basketball Centre of Dongguan, the Guangzhou Gymnasium of Guangzhou, the Shanghai Oriental Sports Centre of Shanghai and finally the Wukesong Arena of Beijing.

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THE GROUPS

The 32 participating teams have been divided into eight groups of four teams each (think FIFA World Cup or UEFA Champions League), with the winners and losers of these groups being placed into yet another group stage at the end of the first round. What you need to know is that Greece will be taking part in Group F, alongside new Zealand, Brazil and Montenegro, while the ‘boomers’ have been placed in the final group, H, with Lithuania, Canada and Senegal. Greece’s group will be crossed with group E (USA, Turkey, Czech Republic, Japan), while Australia’s with group G (Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Jordan).

THE SQUADS

Even though the national team coaches have up until 30 August to submit their final selection of team players, some of them have already made their decision ahead of schedule. Of course, there are still others (such as Greece’s Thanassis Skourtopoulos) that are still holding out in hopes of adding a player to their squad. At this point though, we’re in a position to know the players that both Greece and Australia will be playing with in China.

GREECE (Thanassis Skourtopoulos): Kostas Sloukas (or Vaggelis Mantzaris), Giannoulis Larentzakis, Antonis Koniaris, Nick Kalathes, Ioannis Papapetrou, Kostas Papanikolaou, Giorgos Printezis, Panagiotis Vasilopoulos, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Thanassis Antetokounmpo, Ioannis Bouroussis, Giorgos Papagiannis

AUSTRALIA (Andrej Lemanis): Patty Mills, Maty Dellavedova, Aron Baynes, Mitch Creek, David Barlow, Cameron Gliddon, Chris Goulding, Joe Ingles, Nick Kay, Jock Landale, Nathan Sobey, Andrew Bogut

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THE SCHEDULE

With the World Cup being held in China, it provides a great opportunity to fans of the sport to watch a high quality competition, with the participation of many top level representatives, at reasonable times. As far as Greece and Australia are concerned, down below you can see the days and times of their first three group stage matches.

Sunday 1 September

5.30 pm Australia-Canada
10.00 pm Greece-Montenegro

Tuesday 3 September

5.30 pm Australia-Senegal
10.00 pm Brazil-Greece

Thursday 5 September

9.30 pm Lithuania-Australia
10.00 pm Greece-New Zealand

THE OPPONENTS

For the end, it’s a good idea to take a look at the opposition the two teams will be facing in the first round of the competition. Greece have a more balanced group, as both Anderson Varejao’s Brazil and Nikola Vukcevic’s Montenegro are equally dangerous opponents, while the tall blacks can only be considered a threat if they are not given the necessary attention. On the other hand, Australia have their work cut out for them against a Canada squad that is comprised of many NBA players and will most likely duke it out with Domantas Sabonis’ (son of the great Arvyntas) Lithuania. Senegal are not on the same level as the rest of these teams and a loss against them should be considered a huge disappointment.