So, a sports blogger walks into a bar… No, it’s not really the start of a joke. Or at least if it is, I don’t know the punchline. But I did sit in a bar and nurse a beer for about an hour yesterday in an attempt to find an air-conditioned spot while I killed time before my fantasy draft. I was alone, so I watched some U.S. Open tennis on the television and listened to the three guys next to me in the bar talk. Like lots of people on barstools, they talked mostly about sports. They were being prompted by a sports highlights show on another television and a video of the New Zealand national basketball team doing their traditional pre-game Haka got them talking about the FIBA Basketball World Cup. Here’s the dance, which is worth watching:
Now, I love basketball and I love dance, so I think this is awesome. The guys on the bar stools… not so much. I was surprised at how little interest they had in the basketball tournament. Who could possibly win but the United States, they complained? Even with many of the best U.S. players not playing. Why is there even basketball on at this time of the year? Despite this sampling of opinion from the man on the street[1] I’m going to fight upstream here and point out a couple exciting things that are happening at the Basketball World Cup today.
As explained in our post on how the Basketball World Cup works, the first round is a group stage where the best four of the six teams in each of the three groups advance to the next round. As of today, every team has played three of the five first round games. This means, with two games remaining, we have a much better idea of which teams are good and which games are likely to be exciting and important.
There’s a bunch of them on the schedule today:
7:30 a.m. ET — Philippines vs. Puerto Rico — Why would a game between two winless teams be exciting? It’s the nature of international competition. These teams want to take a win back to their home countries and this is their best chance to do it!
11:30 a.m. ET — Senegal vs. Argentina — Surprising Senegal tries to continue its run. One more win would ensure them a spot in the next round. Plus, how can you not root for a team whose coach says, “Other teams come here to win the tournament. We are here to win.”
4:00 p.m. ET — France vs. Spain — It’s no surprise that the organizers of the tournament decided to put this game in Grenada, far to the south of Spain. In a clash between bordering countries, why would the host country give the French fans an easy trip to the game? National rivalries are a great feature of international tournaments and I expect the atmosphere for this game to be great. Undefeated Spain is the more talented team but France has been surprisingly good, even without its best player, Tony Parker.
- Or at least the men on the barstools↵