How does FIBA Basketball World Cup work?

[ChrisGreaves]

I am looking at the FIBA Basketball World Cup web site
I see a table with eight groups (A-H) of four nations each, so 32 nations are competing. and Australia is in group E and has lost one game to Germany and must now beat Japan to stay in contention (otherwise they go home to lick their wounds).

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I think that each group is like a mini-tournament, with only four teams playing off against each other to determine a ranking "1st out of 4" (1/4), and 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4.
I think that Japan and Finland have to play off to determine who is 4/4, after which the winner of Japan/Finland has to play Australia to see who is 3/4 and who is 2/4.
If Australia wins that then Australia is 2/4.
But Germany has already won two games outright (in the table 2/0) so they are marked to advance to the next higher round.
But if that's the case, then what has Australia to gain by winning against Finland/Japan except a public standing.

Is Australia already out of contention for World Domination?
Or will two or three teams from group H go on to another round?

Both Germany and Australia have played two games, so at this time Germany appears to have the best possible score out of two games played.
But perhaps each team plays three games in the group, so can Australia end up with a score equal to Germany - if Germany loses an third game and Australia wins a third game against Japan/Finland?

I confess that all I really know about tournament play is that at each level players are weeded out to produce players in another, higher, round, so I suspect that once this round of eight groups is played out, eight teams, one from each group, will start playing on 31st August in the "Second round" which will produce four teams to play in the Quarter finals, Semi finals, and finally The Finals.

I am interested in determining how many games a team might play to win the final and World Domination.

My interest is heightened by following, in a leisurely manner The Matildas rise to almost-won and some peoples views that "they lost". I think that the Matildas played a lot of games against the best teams in the world, and just to be ON such a team is a Success; never a failure.

I suspect too that the syetem of elimination/advancement might be different for different sports organizations, be it Victorian Aussie Rules, Baseball World Cup, Women's soccer, Men's soccer, and so on, but would be happy to focus on FIBA for purposes of this topic.

Thanks for any elucidation.
(signed) "Amateur gardener" of Bonavista

[Rebel]

Have a look here.

BTW, do we have a rescued and functioning HP laptop yet?

[ChrisGreaves]

Have a look here.

"The top two teams from each group will qualify for the 2nd Round."
This suggests that each team in a group (e,g, "E") plays three games, after which they might advance to the second round, and the other two teams go on to another three games in the Classification Round, so that we are moving towards the end, when every team has been ranked 1-32. [cynic]This ensures too that visiting supporters go on contributing to the state's tourist revenue until the bitter end.[/cynic]

The second round, presumably, is four groups of four teams rather than eight groups of four, so another three games each which helps to reduce the crowd from 16 to 8. That is, two groups of four teams each. So three more games.

This then gets reduced to a single group of four teams, so three more games.

The exhausted winning national team will have played nine elimination games to become World Champion. A gruelling effort.

If I've got it right, every other team will have played nine games, including the team placed 32nd best in the world (Bonavista, if I am playing on the team).

It would then seem most depressing to enter this tournament, play nine games, get thrashed at each game, and return home - with the prospect of doing it all over again for the Empire/Commonwealth/Asian/pan-American series next year.

But then I think something is wrong with my thinking. 32 = 2^{^5}, so optimally we need only five rounds of games to rank each nation. I made it nine (or more?) I can't reconcile this with "raised to the power five" unless it is because of some efficiency in allowing teams to play three games in each round.

("Still Puzzled" of Bonavista)

BTW, do we have a rescued and functioning HP laptop yet?

I had planned to send you a PM this afternoon, but I shall save time bu posting here. I felt burned out by Friday so removed my brain from thinking about it (as the French do during the day with a quick ex-office trip to the cafe across the street). Saturday was filled with visitors and drop-offs of pots and lumber which the donors knew I was in a position to re-use. Today (Sunday) has been taken up so far with helping a couple work out how to get a loan for their project and then writing it up as "Loan Financing – Instructor’s Notes" so we can print it out disguised at what it is not - a business agreement between two local parties.

14:54 and I am going to take a break for lunch. Tomorrow is getting the notes printed (locally) and doing some leg-work. Tuesday is Clarenville to collect 62 cartons of books. I hope on Wednesday to set aside the day to do serious computing with a focused mind. I sincerely appreciate y-alls' help.
Cheers, Chris

[Rebel]

Good luck on Wednesday Chris.