Mexico faces a generational change in what could be Gustavo Ayón’s last tournament in the national representative
As of this Tuesday, The Mexican Basketball Team will play in the Olympic playoffs in Croatia, which represents their last chance to qualify for Tokyo 2020. The other eight teams already classified came out of the World Cup in China, which delivered seven places, in addition to Japan, which, as the host, will automatically be in the tournament.
The tournament is one of four simultaneous events with six teams at each venue and where only the winning team from each group qualifies for the Olympics. Of the 24 participating teams, only four will get their ticket and clearly Mexico does not start as a favorite on their key. The six teams are divided into two groups of three and the best two from each group advance to the semi-finals.
The team led by Omar Quintero will play from June 29 to July 4 in Split. Mexico’s debut will be against Germany and the next day it will play against Russia. They must win at least one of the two matches to advance to the semi-finals.
The first rival, Germany, although it is true that it will not be able to count on Dennis Schroder, has a solid team in which the NBA stand out: Moritz wagner and Isaac bonga.
Then will come Russia, ninth in the FIBA world rankings, led by veteran and NBA champion, Timofey Mozgov.
The other group of this headquarters is made up of Croatia, Brazil and Tunisia.
If Mexico advances to the semifinals, it will most likely face Croatia, which, in addition to being the local, starts as the great favorite, a team that recently received Bojan bogdanovic of the Utah Jazz and that players with NBA experience such as Mario Hezonja and Ante Zizic also appear on the roster. The Croats also wait for Tokyo to Ivica zubac Los Angeles Clippers now Dario Saric of the Phoenix Suns.
Mexico arrives with a preparation that included two tournaments in Europe and where it faced rivals of the quality of Greece and Serbia. The tricolor team, one of the few without having NBA’s, faces a generational change in what could be Gustavo Ayón’s last tournament in the national representative, Paco Cruz and Orlando Mendez as scoring pillars and Paul Stoll as the experienced ball handler are the trusted men, however in the team there are players who are starting to defend the Mexican jersey and do not have experience in this kind of competition.
The prognosis is far from encouraging as the odds show Mexico paying 74 to 1 to get the Olympic ticket, one that it has not obtained since Montreal 1976.