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Oostende are the biggest favorites to win the Belgian title this year as well. They are the top team in Belgium, but it's early in the pre-season and hey are not at their max. The main problem is that four players are away on international duty. Coach Gjergja cannot count on Kesteloot, Boukichou, Salumu and Buza, and Gillet is having injury problems so he did not play in the two previous friendlies in England. They lost to Tartu and defeated Bakken who are also weakened in the pre-season.
Gravelines changed almost the whole team in comparison to last season, but they started pre-season earlier than Oostende, and they already played 5 games. They acquired guard Gibson and Serron from Oostende. They acquired some other interesting players like Hesson, Cobbs, Celo, Keita... They have a good team on paper, and they have been improving with each pre-season game. They drew against Brussels, defeated Antwerp and Mons by 30, in France they lost to Le Mans and defeated Nanterre.
The official hosts today are Oostende, but the game will be played in Kotriljk and considering current form, team chemistry and quality of the players available, Gravelines are definitely the underdogs here. Details

Slovakia lost to Montenegro by 32 in the first qualifying round and to Georgia by 31 in the second one. We need to point out that those results are no surprise since Slovakia aren't a good team. Albania were 40 points down to Georgia and Montenegro but that could have finished much worse. For example, they allowed 73 points in the first 20 minutes to Montenegro on Saturday and later won the second half as their opponents held back. I think Slovakia are better than Albania regardless of their shortcomings. Albania were 29 points short of Cyprus by he end of first half, 37 to Estonia, 12 to Qatar, 31 to Israel B. Slovakia played some test games home against teams of bad quality but Denmark, Switzerland and Austria are much better than Albania. Slovakia beat Denmark by 10 in the first half, Switzerland by 13. In the last test game, they trashed Austria by over 20 points in the first half.
I expect the difference in quality to get obvious today, especially since spot 3 in the group is very important because it leads into qualifiers for WC 2019. The team that comes in 4th will not play those qualifiers but instead drop into division B. Slovakia and Albania will decide on spot 3 in h2h games. Slovakia will try and win this by as many points as possible to have it as easier as possible in Albania, Details

Pardubice were the third in the Czech championship last year, and were beaten in the semifinal by Nymburk, but they're still playing FIBA Europe Cup this year. Levell Sanders is still coaching them, and they kept their entire roster and all the key players. Pandula (best scorer last year), Svrdlika, Autrey, Wall, Kotas, Pulpan... The only new face is Burnett who played the NCAA league very well last year, averaging at 24.9 points. They played two pre-season matches so far, both in Slovakia, both without Pandula and Kotas. Even without them, they beat Previdza (95-79, 46-38), and Inter Bratislava (83-77, 46-39). Burnett proved to be a good addition to the team. They're hosting a three-day long tournament now, with three teams playing, and their first opponent are the Austrian Kapfenberg.
Kapfenberg Bulls lost almost all of their key players this summer. Shaw went to Nantes, Ray, Holton, Dowell, all great scorers left the team. The best player who stayed is Kramer, but he's with the national team now. Besides him, Stegnjaič and Woschank stayed. Their reinforcements don't look convincing on paper. The back Coffin came from NAIA league (level under NCAA), Gillis came from the British league, Jamar played on Cyprus last year, Abron had weak numbers in the NCAA league. They didn't play any pre-season matches, and this is their first test game.
The hosts already started theirs, playing decently in Slovakia, the coach and the lineup are the same, and improved actually, and Pandula will be there today. The Austrians had an average season in Bundesliga, were the seventh in the regular part, and got eliminated in the quarterfinal, 0-3. They look worse than last year, they're missing Kramer, and I don't think they'll be able to match the Czech. Details

Albania showed why they are the weakest team in this qualification period, they played bad against Georgia, they were down by 26 before halftime, scored only 19 points in the first 20 minutes. Montenegro are one of the best teams in the qualifications, a team that demolished Slovakia with half the strength, they were in the lead by 22 by halftime, coach Tanjevic did not keep any player on the court longer than 20 minutes. I expect the same scenario today as the one from Wednesday. Montenegrins will have a key game for the top spot in a few days in Tbilisi against Georgia, and it is expected that they will solve the game early. Slovakia do not stand a chance, but they are still better than Albania, Montenegro are two levels above Slovakia, then what does that tell us about them and Albania? Home court is not a relevant factor here, the quality difference is too big. American Broadus proved that he is not much of a reinforcement, he could be out of form, and even if he was in form he doesn't have anyone to play with. In the pre-season, Albania lost by over 40 against Cyprus, Estonia and Israel B. The team under on Albania in the first half is a bit better option than the first half handicap. Albania scored 19 points in the first half on Wednesday, before that in the 6 preparation games this Summer they did not score over 25. Maybe the home team will show more combativeness than they did so far, they are playing at home, but they lack offensive talent to provide a better performance. At a neutral court, Montenegro defeated Hungary by 27 and 23, Switzerland 26 and 33, Slovakia by 28 on Wednesday. All these teams are much more serious that Albania, but the weakest in quality of all Montenegro faced this Summer. Details

- We're feeling super confident, there's a lot of quality, these guys didn't hold it back in any of the 37 days the pre-season lasted. I know there are games when things just don't work out and things get complicated, but I don't think this is one of those games - the Montenegrin coach Tanjević said.
Regardless of losing Šehović, Montenegro have quality to do stuff. They played eight friendly matches and only lost to Belgium after overtime in the Skopje tournament. They've beaten the hosts, the Macedonians there, and BiH, too. They outplayed Hungary twice in Serbia before that, a team that can be compared to their opponent today, Slovakia, mostly with their game style. They outplayed the Hungarians up by 15 and 17 (13 and 16 after the first half). To finish it off, Montenegro beat Slovenia in Ljubljana, who had 8/8 in the pre-season before that. Montenegro won by 8, and were up by 10 after the first half.
Slovakia were crushed by Austria in the pre-season, down by 35, and then beat them in the final friendly match. Slovakia were leading 63-35 after the first half, and then lost the second 26-48, and had to save their win. They played their own tournament well against Ukraine (who were weakened), and beat Switzerland and Denmark, but that's not even worth the mention. They beat Switzerland by 10, and Montenegro beat that same team by 24 and 49 on a neutral court. I don't see how Slovakia can match Montenegro tonight with Vučević in top form, Dubljević, Needham as the point guard, and Tanjević having great players for any position. Details

Georgia have been wakened the entire preparation period and barely played any games complete. That is why they weren't successful in about half the games. They beat Portugal by 19, Belarus by 12 and got defeat to Russia badly. They beat the Dutch and the Ukrainians at a tournament home in Tbilisi and then finally complete lost to the powerful Russia in overtime. They weren't complete in Poland either because they didn't want to take any risks with Shengelia and Dixon and didn't use Pachulia as much as they could, whichs is why the defeats to Sweden and Poland aren't surprising. They are now complete but Shengelia and Dixon probably won't get too much time on the floor since they face Albania. Albania are back after 4 years with a team mostly made of players from the Albanian league and from Kosovo. They have an American point guard Broadus but he didn't play any test games and has never played with his teammates before. Albania lost to Cyprus in a test game by 43 points (-29 at half time) and then by 7 to weakened Estonia (-17 at half time) and then somehow beat Qatar after being 12 points down at half time. In Estonia, they lost to the home team by 53 (37 at half time), to Israel (players 22,5 years on average) by 65 (-31 at half time). The only good thing was the meeting with Ukraine but their opponents didn't use their top players. Since Albania never went over 25 points in the first 20 minutes in any of those games, the team under in the first half is a good option as well but given the big difference in quality, I expect things to get settled here early on. The first half handicap therefore seems like a better option. The Albanians cannot deal with Shengelia, Pacgulia and other Georgians. Details

France and Canada played each other nine times since 2012. Three of those were official competitions. France won 63-59 (31-30) at the World Championship 2014 in the group, but Canada won the playoff match for places fifth to eighth, 55-40, 37-16 after the first half. They faced each other at the London Olympics, too, and France won 64-60 (28-25). They played two matches this summer. Canada won in June in France 66-52 (29-28). France had 1/13 three-pointers then, Yacoubou was missing, but the point guard Dumerc was there. She hit 16 points, but is now injured and not playing in Rio. The second match was at a US tournament not long before the Olympic Games. Canada were better again, 71-63 (33-31). In matches between 2012 and 2015, France won three times, but it never went over 107. In 2012 OG qualifiers, France won 56-47. In Rio, France hit 32 points against Japan in the first half, 35 against Brazil, 29 against Australia, 34 against Belarus and 22 against Turkey. Those three can't be compared to Canada defensively. Canada failed in the first half against defensively oriented Serbia, allowing 40, but looked much better defensively in other duels. They hit 36 against USA, 26 China, 24 Senegal and 33 against Spain. This match is really important, the French struggle against Canada regularly and France team under in the first half sounds like the best option, as well as match total under, and first half under. Details

They played each other six times in the last three years, and only one match ended over 122 points in the regular time, the last one before Rio. Spain won 66-56 (28-27) at the last WC in Istanbul two years ago, it was 61-48 at the Eurobasket in 2013 (32-17 for Spain after the first half). Spain played a few difficult games this summer - they've beaten Australia 58-55 (29-23), 77-54 against Canada (30-28) and 64-49 (45-27). Games from the Olympics that can be viewed as relevant here are the ones against Serbia )65-59, 31-31) and Canada (73-60, 33-29). Turkey are a typical under team in women basketball, it's hard to find a tougher team than them. They played a few test games before Rio (France - Turkey 63-56 (38-17), France - Turkey 62-54 (30-25), Serbia - Turkey 60-53 (30-25), Serbia - Turkey 61-51).
The only match that doesn't follow the pattern is the last one against Spain when the Turks won 71-66 (37-35). They lost the first round at the Olympics against France 39-55 (19-22), then against Australia 56-61 (29-26). Then they played the fast Japanese whom they managed to limit to 62 (first half 38-23). The Belarus are also one of the offensively oriented teams (33-33 first half), and then Brazil 20-36 after the first half, and two overtimes later on.
So, both Turkey and Spain play lower numbers against serious teams, which is even more obvious after the first halves. When they play each other, it's even more obvious, with the exception of the last duel which is the biggest counter argument, but the stakes are bigger today, Olympic quarterfinal, and in the part of the draw where there's no Americans. Details

Slovenia definitely have a better team on paper but I still think that the odds at their win are to low today. Austria are hosting this tournament and clearly care about it a lot. Their top players are there and the team is the same as the one which came inches away from getting into Eurobasket. They beat Poland home and lost away in overtime in the key game. The key players on this team do not play in the Austrian league. Their ambition is high ahead of a another qualifying cycle so they decided to put a foreign coach in charge. Austria beat Slovakia 92-57 a week ago (4x12 minutes). They were without Schreiner and Murati. Slovenia came to Vienna with 15 players, coach Kikiskov said he would give everyone a chance. Slovenia beat Portugal and Belgium easily in Celje but Belgium played with a lot of young players without much experience at this level- Draigc will probably not play as much as he can in Vienna. Given the circumstances, it is logical to expect Slovenia to win but given this stage of preparation period and a tough game that is expected, as well as Austria's good team. I don't think the home team will record a double-digit defeat here. Details

The difference in quality between the teams in this game is very obvious. Senegal might be the African champions but the Afrobasket last year proved that they are not the best African team. It's just that a lot of things fell into place for them there. They lost to Angola and Nigeria and later got lucky to avoid the same team in the final. They played just three test games against Japan before the Olympics. Coach Gays says that is their main problem. They lost by 65 to the US and by 37 to China in Rio so far. Their defense was virtually non-existent in both matches. Canada are defense-oriented and I expect them to be able to take advantage of all the defensive end problems Senegal have. Canada beat China five times this summer and China trashed Senegal here. Canada also beat Serbia on Monday even though they were 18 points down. But they displayed mental strength and are still in the race for spot two, which will probably be settled in the last round against Spain. Canada beat teams like Australia, France and Serbia this summer. China stood no chance against them and neither will Senegal. The handicap options are quite good but I think that first half under at Senegal is a better option. Granted they hit 38 points in the first half against China but defense and style of China and Canada cannot really be compared. Senegal got limited to 21 points against the Americans and hit 16, 26 and 33 in the three matches against the Japan. The Japanese defense is not at the Canadian level. Canada limited China to under this margin in the first round and allowed them between 28 and 33 points in the 4 tests games. Chinese offense is one level above the Senegalese. Details

The Australian selector recently said that his goal in Rio is to win gold. With the Americans on the tour it seems like utopia. However, surely Opaals's team have everything they need to make it at least to the finals, quality-wise. They could even threaten the USA. Recently in New York they were at the advantage compared to the Americans for the bigger part of the match. They beat the solid Canada and France on that tournament. By half time they were leading +15 against Canada and +17 against France. A good part of the summer Australia weren't complete without their WNBA players, but since they've come together, everything was set straight. A few days ago before the start of the Games they beat Serbia 72-50. Yesterday they opened up the tournament by beating home Brazil. There was a lot of nervousness at the start, they lost the first half, but in the second everything was set right, they won that part with +22, a total of around 20 points of difference. Turkey showed a lot of weaknesses against France, they were weakened due to the absence of their captain and main playmaker Dumerc. Turkey are offensively very limited, in the second and fourth quarter they recorded a total of seven points. Two years ago at a World Championship in Turkey, Australia won with 74-44 in a game for the bronze medal (half-time +19 for Australia). The rosters are almost identical today, but it's important to point out that Australia are stronger for their best player, center Cambage, who yesterday dominated the strong Brazilian centers, not even the Americans could hold her back. Turkey recently lost twice to Serbia, thrice to France this summer, and complete Australia beat those teams with no problems. The aggressive game and great transition is what will cause most problems for Turkey. The big difference here is in the offensive quality and the width of the roster, and because of that I expect Australia to win. Turkey are too static and can't rely on their back shot. Details

France are playing their last friendly game before the trip to the Philippines for the Olympics Qualifications tournament. So far they played four friendly games, they only defeated Latvia by 17. Latvia were weakened, but so was France. Then they played two very attractive games against Serbia, lost both of them, one in Paris which they didn't take well. Both games were decided in the final attacks, in Belgrade they lost in overtime. They will want to give home fans a good game ahead of the trip to the Philippines. They chose Japan because they are similar to Philippines, and they showed at the Asian Championship last year that they are somewhat weaker than Philippines, they were 4th at that tournament. They are the weakest ranked team that can still qualify for the Olympics, but considering what they showed so far, it is unlikely. They played five friendlies, all in China at the Atlas tournament. There they only defeated China's B team by one point (down by 11 at halftime), then they lost to New Zealand, Belarus twice and Idaho's university team (lost the last quarter 13-30). They had a lot of problems in offense, they don't have a real center, and it is strange that selector Hasegawa did not decide to take in Senegalese Faye who is the best center in the Japanese league. Important shooting guards Tanaka and Kanamaru are out because of injuries. It can be expected that the French will start with their strongest team, the Japanese are physically nowhere near them, and the Asian team base pretty much everything on backcourt shots, but French defense is at a higher level. I am convinced that the home team will have a serious approach and that they will solve the game in the first half. Details

The impression France left after two matches on this tournament is that they can do a lot better. It was clear they will pass into the quarter-finals. Cuba and New Zealand are not the teams who can stand up to France. They were already at +21 against Cuba after the first half, they routinely won. It was clear that they already secured the first place, so they were a bit easy-going in the match against New Zealand. Selector Garnier decided to lower the playing time to the main players, they were even losing during half-time, and in the end they still won with around 20 points of difference. I don't believe they will be easy-going today. This is a match which will secure them the Olympics. Winning brings them to Rio, this is why the French decided to organize the qualification tournament in Nantes. I expect France to be at 100% since the start, with no calculations, similar as it was against Cuba who are, realistically speaking, better than Argentina. The South American team are the weakest of all who have earned the quarter-finals. They convincingly beat Cameroon, but that's not a reflection of their quality. In the second round they were beaten by Turkey, by half-time they were at -16. They struggled against strong defenses and athletically more powerful players (difficult defeats in preparations to Spain and Australia). France is no weaker than Turkey or Spain, they're even more dominant athletically. We have a clear motive here - France could secure the Olympics today - and the difference in quality is obvious. Details

The beginning of the tournament in Nantes showed that Cameroon are the weakest team of these qualifiers, and replacing their entire roster since the last year's Afrobasket didn't help. They faced the unconvincing Argentina on Monday, and were losing by 20 in the first half already (23-43). They reduced it a bit later on, but they still couldn't match the Argentinian small lineup well. They'll face Turkey today, who were beating Argentina by 16 in the first 20 minutes, and beaten them by 40. The Turks are famous for their defense, and have left Argentina with only 38 points. Cameroon, with only two players who can do something offensively, will really struggle. The Turks are taller and stronger, the Cameroonians stayed under 40 in the preparation matches. The Cameroonians' team under is a good pick, but considering they're at a level of having about 40 points, I still think the handicaps, both for the first half and the total game, are a better pick because the difference in quality is too great here. Details