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USA Basketball will face Puerto Rico, Mexico and Cuba in the first round of the 2023 Basketball World Cup qualifiers.

America, who won their fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in Tokyo but finalized their seventh at the last FIBA Basketball World Cup two years ago, faced qualifying opponents on Tuesday during a draw at FIBA headquarters in Chaos, Switzerland.

It will also be the first major basketball tournament in the United States with Grant Hill as CEO. Hill replaces Jerry Colinglo in the role. Colingeloo has overseen each of the last four Olympics in the United States, helping to collect gold-medal winning teams each time.

The United States has won the World Cup five times, most recently in 2014.

There are 80 teams in the qualifying round. It starts with a double circular bun. In the first round, all teams from different groups will play against the other three teams from their group twice. The first round matches will be played through three different windows: November 20-30, February 21, March 1, June 27 and July 5.

The second round matches start in August 2022 and run until February 2023. The next World Cup will be held in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia from August 25 to September 10, 2023.

Defending World Cup champion Spain, which aims to be one of 12 European qualifiers for the tournament, kicks off the opening round with matches against Ukraine, Georgia and North Macedonia.

As the host country, the Philippines and Japan are already participating in the 32-team World Cup circuit. The other 30 places will be determined by rating. Indonesia does not automatically get a place in the host country.

United States Territory

The region has 16 qualified teams, in the first round are groups of four different teams, 12 of them are in the second round. From there, the stadium will expand to seven World Cup qualifiers. The first, second and third place teams in both groups from the second round will make the World Cup the fourth best team.

In Group A, Argentina, without changing their minds, and for the first time in more than two decades without a major international tournament without Luis Scola, will face Venezuela, Panama and Paraguay in the first round.

The second group includes Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia and Chile. Group C includes Canada, the Dominican Republic, the US Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas. In Group D, the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Cuba.

European territory

The same qualification rules apply in Europe, where groups of four teams meet in the first round. But the stadium is twice as high as in other regions, with 32 teams playing in 12 World Cup stadiums.

As in the other regions, the top three winners in each group will advance from the first round to the second round, reducing the number of teams from 32 to 24 in the case of Europe. These 24 countries will be placed in one of the six teams. Around the groups, and in each group, the top three winners will reach the World Cup.

Serbia, Latvia, Belgium and Slovakia are in Group A. The second group includes Greece, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Belarus. The third group includes Slovenia, which reached the Olympic semi-finals with Croatia, Finland and Sweden. Group D will include Germany, Poland, Israel and Estonia.

Leading the fifth group is France, the silver medalist in the Olympics, who will face Montenegro, Hungary and Portugal. Group F includes Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Group Seven will include Spain, Ukraine, Georgia and North Macedonia, and Group Eight will include Italy, Russia, the Netherlands and Iceland.

Africa region

16 teams compete for five places in the World Cup. They are divided into groups of four for the first round, and the top three winners from these groups will advance to the second round.

Group A includes Nigeria, Mali, Uganda and Cape Verde. Group B includes Tunisia, Cameroon, South Sudan and Rwanda. The third group includes Angola, Ivory Coast, Central Africa and Guinea. In Group D, it includes Senegal, Egypt, Congo and Kenya.

Asia region

Sixteen other teams are still competing for eight World Cup stadiums, with the Philippines and Japan, as hosts, having already secured two of them, but will qualify anyway. Indonesia, the third World Cup host, has not yet qualified for the World Cup and has not received automatic entry.

The top three teams in each group advance from the first round to the second round. Once there, the top three teams will qualify for the World Cup finals, with the Philippines and Japan excluded.

The first group will include New Zealand, South Korea, the Philippines and India. Group B, one of the most competitive first-round groups in the entire qualifier, includes Olympic bronze medalists Australia, China, Japan and Taiwan. Group C includes Jordan, Lebanon, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. The fourth group includes Iran, Kazakhstan, Syria and Bahrain.

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