USA Ready for Third World Cup Qualifying Window
- FIBA World Cup Americas Qualifying Standings
- USA World Cup Qualifying Roster
- World Cup Qualifying Fact Sheet
The USA Men’s World Cup Qualifying Team enters the third qualifying window for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup with a two-game road stand that features matchups with Puerto Rico on Friday, July 1, and Cuba on Monday, July 4.
Among Americas zone qualifiers, the U.S. currently sits tied with Mexico for first in Group D with a 3-1 record and has secured a second-round qualification berth along with Puerto Rico and Mexico.
Puerto Rico comes into its matchup with the USA ranked 19th in the world, according to FIBA. The team holds a 2-2 World Cup Qualifying record and has already lost to the U.S. once through two qualifying windows.
Ranking 10th in points (74.0) and assists (16.0) through two windows, Puerto Rico presents a challenging first matchup for the USA.
To the USA’s advantage, it holds an all-time record of 3-0 against Puerto Rico in World Cup Qualifying.
Cuba stands winless (0-4) in group play. Ranked 65th in the world, Cuba’s calling card is its ability to rebound the ball. Through four games, Cuba sits fourth in the competition in rebounds per game at 40.3.
In three all-time matchups with Cuba in World Cup Qualifying, the U.S. holds a 3-0 advantage.
In the two previous World Cup Qualifying windows – November 2021 and February 2022 – the USA claimed victories over Cuba, 95-90; Puerto Rico, 93-76; and Mexico, 89-67. The one loss on the USA’s qualifying record came via a November window matchup with Mexico that ended 97-88.
Ahead of the final two matchups in the first round of World Cup qualifying, the U.S. is averaging 91.3 points along with 39.8 rebounds and 22.8 assists, ranking in the top five in each of the three statistical categories in the Americas Qualifiers.
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How qualifying works for the 2023 FIBA World Cup
In the first round, 16 teams are divided into four groups with four teams. Each team faces the other three national teams in their group on a home-and-away basis. Over the first three windows, two games per team are played in each window. The windows for the competition are November 2021, February 2022 and June 2022.
The top three teams from each group will advance to the second round for their region qualifiers, cutting the field down to 12 teams. Here, the group’s three advancing teams join three other teams to create two six-team groups.
In the second round, each team will play home-and-away against the three new teams in their group over three windows. The second-round windows are August and November 2022 and February 2023.
At the end of these additional six games per team, the top three teams in each group, plus the best fourth team, will qualify for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
