The 2013 FIBA Americas tournament is taking the day off on Wednesday, but it’s not just because the most star-laden Eurobasket tournament tipped off. The first portion of round-robin play was completed Tuesday night, meaning two eliminations had to be made.
One was surprising, one wasn’t: Brazil was sent home after losing to Jamaica in a loser-gets-eliminated affair while Paraguay was finally put out of its misery after only being involved when the United States decided to skip the tournament due to already having an automatic berth in the 2014 World Championships.
Brazil’s elimination is quite shocking considering the team finished in fifth place at last year’s Olympics, but this squad was far from the best Brazilian basketball has to offer. Nene, Anderson Varejao, Tiago Splitter and Leandro Barbosa all sat out this summer, leaving Marcelino Huertas as the team’s best player -- and although he’s one of the best point guards in Spain’s top professional league, he wasn’t enough to keep Brazil competitive in this year’s 2014 FIBA World Cup qualifier.
All isn’t lost for Brazil, however, as they’ll likely earn one of the wild card spots for next year’s tournament -- and are automatically qualified for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro anyway due to their host-nation status.
The remaining eight teams fighting through a second round of round-robin action are undefeated Puerto Rico, Canada, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Jamaica, Uruguay and the hosting Venezuela squad. The final four teams will qualify for next year’s World Cup.