MBB: Ibarra, Mexico open up 2023 FIBA World Cup

8/21/2023 5:24:00 PM

Three group stage games on tap in Olympic qualifying tournament

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Josh Ibarra and Mexico will open up play in the FIBA Basketball World Cup beginning this weekend as part of the qualification to the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

The tournament will take place in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia from August 25 to September 10. The 32 participating teams will play in 92 games played over 16 days.

A 6'11 center from Angleton, Ibarra played for the Huskies from 2014-18 averaging 10.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocked shots for his career while shooting 60.4% from the field, which is third-best in school history. He averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds per game in his final season with the Huskies before embarking on his professional career.

Josh has spent the majority of his time professionally in Mexico, having started his career with Fuerza Regia of Monterrey. He is currently playing with Plateros de Fresnillo.

Mexico made it through to the FIBA World Cup through a qualifying tournament, in which they won three of four contests. After splitting the first pair of games and needing two victories, Ibarra helped Mexico advance by averaging 11 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. In his most recent outing, Ibarra scored 18 points in an 81-75 win over Argentina on July 28.

FIBA World Cup 2023 serves as qualification for the 2024 Summer Olympics, where the top two teams from each of the Americas and Europe, and the top team from each of Africa, Asia and Oceania, will qualify alongside the tournament's host France.

Three phases – the group stage, the second round, and the final phase, comprise FIBA World Cup. In the group stage, the 32 qualified teams will be sorted into eight groups of four (A–H), where every team in a group will play each other once. The top two teams from each group will then advance to the second round.

The bottom two teams will then play two classification games to determine the 17th to 32nd rankings. In the second round, there will be four groups (I–L) of four made up of the teams that advanced from the first round, again playing each other once. The top two teams from groups I to L will qualify for the final phase.

The teams that lost in the quarterfinals will then play classification games to determine the 5th to 8th rankings.

Spain is the defending champions, having beaten Argentina in the 2019 final.

Ibarra and Mexico will play all three of its group stage games in Manilla, Philippines at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Mexico opens play Friday against Montenegro and two-time NBA All-Star Nikola Vucevic of the Chicago Bulls. The second game comes two days later on Sunday versus Lithuania, which features New Orleans Pelicans post Jonas Valančiūnas.

The final game of the group phase on August 29 will see Ibarra take on Egypt and fellow Southland Conference standout Ehab Amin, who played at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi from 2014-17.

GAME ONE:
Mexico vs. Montenegro - August 25, 3:45 pm (2:45 am CT)
GAME TWO:
Mexico vs. Lithuania - August 27, 7:30 pm (6:30 am CT)
GAME THREE:
Mexico vs. Egypt - August 29, 3:45 pm (2:45 CT)

FIBA World Cup 2023 HOME

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Three group stage games on tap in Olympic qualifying tournament

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