FIBA Decides Venues For 2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournaments

There was a FIBA Central Board meeting held in Madrid, Spain last weekend and one of the subjects on the agenda was who would host the 2012 Men's and Women's FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.  

The OQT's are the last chance venues for national basketball squads who wish to play in London in a few months to win those last available spots in the Olympic b-ball tournament which is scheduled to run during the Games from July 28-August 12..

FIBA awarded the hosting venues for the men's OQT to Venezuela who beat out finalist Lithuania for the honor.   On the women's side Turkey beat out the Czech Republic to host the OQT.. 

The Men's Olympic Qualifying tournament will happen July 2-8 in Caracas and the teams vying for those last three spots in addition to the host Venezuelans are  Angola, Dominican Republic, Macedonia, Greece, Jordan, Korea, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Puerto Rico and Russia. 

The women's tournament will be held June 25-July 1 in the Turkish capital of Ankara to determine who gets the final five spots available on the women's side. 

In addition to the homestanding Turks who are trying to play their way into their first ever Olympic games on the women's side, they  will also be joined by Argentina, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Japan, Korea, Mali, Mozambique, New Zealand and Puerto Rico. 

Mozambique and Puerto Rico replaced Cuba and Senegal, who qualified for it in zone Olympic qualifying tournament play but withdrew from the Women's OQT.

At any rate, it will be a tough assignment to play though this tournament just to get your Olympic spot, then if you're fortunate enough to get those tickets to London, get ready to play in the Olympic tournament.

But they are going to give it their best shot in late June and early July.

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Baylor vs UConn-This Time The Script Is Flipped

The last time they played each other both were ranked as the number one and number two women's college b-ball teams in the nation.  

Both had their superstar players in UConn's Maya Moore and Baylor's Brittney Griner and as the Baylor Lady Bears painfully remember the then Number 2 ballers had a chance to be the team that ended UConn mammoth win streak in Storrs, CT. 

They had an eight point 56-48 lead with seven minutes to go before a late Huskie rally fueled in large part by Griner missing some crucial free throws down the stretch as part of a horrific 8 for 13 night at the line led to a narrow 65-64 loss and Baylor becoming victim number 80 of The Streak.  

It was eventually ended by Stanford and the Ogumwike sisters ten games later on December 30, 2010..

Brittney and her Lady Bears teammates are getting their wish for another shot at redemption versus a UConn team that doesn't rebuild, they reload. 

Maya Moore has taken her talents to Minneapolis and led the Lynx to a WNBA title but don't cry for the Huskies.   They may have found her replacement in freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis who is leading the Huskies in scoring at 15.9 ppg and have Stefanie Dolson patrolling the lane  to anchor their defense.   

Griner this season is averaging 22.8 points, 10.7 rebounds and 4.9 blocks in just 30 minutes a game this season for the Lady Bears (10-0) and shooting 73 percent from the foul line in the runup to this titanic b-ball shootout.

So far no dunks as of yet.

Before Maya Moore departed for the WNBA she played on three NCAA championship squads while my Houston homegirl hopes to lead Baylor to their first since 2005   

Now the script is flipped and it's 10-0 Baylor with the number one ranking and the winning streak trying to defend it and a sold out Ferrell Center against 9-0 number two UConn in a prime time Sunday night matchup on ESPN.

Both teams have knocked off top ranked opponents.   Baylor has already taken down then number two Skylar Diggins led Notre Dame in Waco and Tennessee in Knoxville while UConn demolished defending national champ Texas A&M by 30 points in Madison Square Garden.. 

Should be a fun game to watch tomorrow

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