Scariolo lists Spain for the World Cup… with a last-minute question | Sports

It’s a list of 12… plus one. The national basketball coach, Sergio Scariolo, has announced the players who will attend the World Cup that will be held from next Friday 25 to Sunday 10 September in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines, and in which the Spanish team defends the current crown champion. The final call-up depends on a doubt, that of the point guard from Málaga Alberto Díaz, injured in the match last Thursday against Canada. Díaz suffers a hyperextension in his left knee and this Sunday he will pass a new test to see if he can attend the championship. Otherwise, his place will be occupied by Jaime Fernández.

The rest of the squad is made up of point guard Juan Núñez, shooting guards Darío Brizuela and Sergio Llull, forwards Rudy Fernández, Álex Abrines, Víctor Claver and Joel Parra, power forwards Juancho Hernangómez and Santi Aldama, and centers Willy Hernangómez and Usman Garuba. Alberto Abalde, Sebas Saiz and Jaime Pradilla are the safe discards. The team will attend the tournament with seven of the players who won the gold medal last summer in Berlin.

Alberto Díaz joined that team at the last minute due to Llull’s injury, and after having been one of Scariolo’s previous discards during the preparation tour. The red-haired point guard ended up being decisive due to his defensive delivery. Now, his participation is back on the wire.

The point guard position has been Sergio Scariolo’s big headache in this World Cup preparation. Lorenzo Brown’s loss due to injury was joined by Ricky Rubio’s goodbye due to a mental health problem. Spain was left without the two conductors and the coach called up Juan Núñez, 19, from the Ratiopharm Ulm of the German League, as an emergency solution. Núñez was precisely this Saturday the top scorer for Spain in the last preparation game before the World Cup, an 86-77 victory against the Dominican Republic in Granada. Garuba added eight rebounds and seven assists. The team thus closed its set-up after also beating Venezuela and Slovenia, and losing to the United States and Canada, precisely the two teams that FIBA ​​ranks as the two biggest favorites for the World Cup. The inside game, with Garuba, Aldama and the Hernangómez brothers, is presented as one of the great strengths of Scariolo’s group, which has dispensed with Saiz and Pradilla, Eurobasket champions, in those positions.

Spain will fly to Jakarta (Indonesia) on Tuesday, where they will play the first phase of the World Cup, drawn in group G. Their debut will be on Saturday the 26th at 3:30 p.m. (Spanish peninsular time) against the Ivory Coast. The same schedule will be repeated on Monday the 28th against Brazil and on Wednesday the 30th against Iran to complete a group stage in which the first two teams advance to the next round. The first and second in group G will play that second phase against the first and second in group H (France, Canada, Latvia and Lebanon), also in Jakarta. In that other group of four, Spain will not play against the team against which it was already measured in the first phase (for example, Brazil), but only against the two from the other group (for example, France and Canada), and they drag the victories and defeats of the initial confrontations. The first two of this second group are those who advance to the quarterfinals, already in Manila (Philippines).

In the crosses between the eight best in the world, Spain would have on its way a selection of the eight from groups E and H, who play in Okinawa (groups A, B, C and D do so in Manila). On the horizon of the selection, if it continues ahead, Slovenia, Germany, Australia, Finland already appear… The United States would walk through the other part of the World Cup table at least until the semifinals.

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2023-08-19 22:59:25
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