2019 FIBA World Cup Group B preview: Russia, Argentina, Korea, Nigeria
The FIBA World Cup starts August 31st and runs until September 15th. In preparation, TI breaks down each of the eight groups with Group B up next.
Saturday, August 31 the FIBA World Cup begins with China as the host country to the 32 participating teams. Group B features Russia, Argentina, Korea and Nigeria. While there is a former NBA player on the Argentinian squad the player most will note is missing is Manu Ginobili.
Each squad plays the other nations in their group once with the top two teams advancing to the second round where they play two new teams and then the final eight squads play the elimination round.
Russia Roster:
- Semen Antonov – Small Forward
- Evgeny Baburin – Shooting Guard
- Vitaliy Fridzon – Shooting Guard
- Vladimir Ivlev – Forward
- Sergey Karasev – Small Forward
- Mikhail Kulagin – Shooting Guard
- Nikita Kurbanov – Forward
- Grigory Motovilov – Shooting Guard
- Andrey Sopin – Point Guard
- Evgeny Valiev – Forward
- Andrey Vorontsevich – Forward
- Andrey Zubkov – Small Forward
Argentina Roster:
- Nicolas Brussino – Guard
- Agustin Caffaro – Power Forward
- Facundo Campazzo – Point Guard
- Gabriel Deck – Forward
- Marcos Delia – Center
- Maximo Fjellerup – Guard
- Tayavek Gallizzi – Power Forward
- Patricio Garino – Small Forward
- Nicolas Laprovittola – Point Guard
- Lucio Redivo – Guard
- Luis Scola – Power Forward
- Luca Vildoza – Point Guard
Korea Roster:
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Junyong Choi – Forward
Hoon Heo – Shooting Guard
Hyogeun Jeong – Forward
Sangjae Kang – Center
Jongkyu Kim – Center
Sun-Hyung Kim – Shooting Guard
Dae Sung Lee – Guard
Jung-Hyun Lee – Forward
Seounghyun Lee – Center
Chan-Hee Park – Guard
Guna Ra – Forward
Hee-jong Yang – Shooting Guard
Nigeria Roster:
- Al-Farouq Aminu – Forward
- Ike Diogu – Power Forward
- Micheal Eric – Forward/Center
- Ike Iroegbu – Guard
- Chimezie Metu – Power Forward
- Jordan Nwora – Forward
- Josh Okogie – Shooting Guard
- Stan Okoye – Guard/Forward
- Ekpe Udoh – Power Forward
- Ben Uzoh – Shooting Guard
- Nnamdi Vincent – Guard
- Talib Zanna – Power Forward
Group B schedule for round one:
August 31st:
Russia versus Nigeria – 16:30 GMT +8
Argentina versus Korea – 20:30 GMT +8
September 2nd:
Nigeria versus Argentina – 16:30 GMT +8
Korea versus Russia – 20:30 GMT +8
September 4th:
Korea versus Nigeria- 16:30 GMT +8
Russia versus Argentina – 20:30 GMT +8
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Nigeria is the only participating nation in this group who has NBA players on its roster including several former NBA players. The nations enter the tournament with Russia ranked 20th, Argentina ranked 8th, Korea ranked 27th and Nigeria ranked 7th. Based on these forecasts Argentina and Nigeria should advance.