MIES (Switzerland) - Brazil, Greece, Spain and Puerto Rico tasted the thrill of victory at the four FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments on Sunday.
In the process, they claimed the last four tickets to the men's basketball tournament at the Summer Games. Home advantage was important, too, except in Latvia, where Brazil beat the Baltic team in the Final. Otherwise, Greece prevailed at the OQT in Piraeus, Spain at the OQT in Valencia and the Puerto Rico at the OQT in San Juan.
Which players carried the load, at least statistically, as countries claimed the last Olympic spots on offer?
Leaders in Scoring
This comes as no surprise, scoring machine Doncic with the highest scoring average - 27.7 points per game - of any player at the OQTs. Buckets poured in 36 points in a win over New Zealand that helped lift Slovenia into the Semi-Finals in Piraeus. The Greece OQT was the land of the big scorers because it had three other players in the top five, including point guards Shea Ili of New Zealand and Ahmed Metwaly (Doola) of Egypt, and intimidating Croatia center Ivica Zubac. Philippines stalwart Justin Brownlee was tied with Ili and Doola at 23 points per game.
Leaders in Rebounding
The beast of the OQT boards was Nicola Vucevic, who averaged 13.5 rebounds per game for Montenegro in their two games. Deandre Ayton of the Bahamas and Ivica Zubac of Croatia were joint second at 11.3 rebounds per game. In Croatia's defeat to New Zealand, Zubac had 16 rebounds to go with his 29 points! There was also the one-two rebounding punch from Angola. Jilson Bango (10.5 rebounds per game) and Bruno Fernando (10.0 rebounds per game) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
Leaders in Assists
When it came to helpers, no one had more than Nick Calathes of Greece with his 42 assists and 10.5 assists per game ranked No. 1. Whether it was slick no-look passes or lobs, Calathes set up his teammates with plenty of dimes. Paul Stoll of Mexico wasn't far behind at No. 2 with an average of 10.3 assists per game, making them the only two players to average double-digit dimes, while Luka Doncic of Slovenia was third, Spain's Lorenzo Brown was fourth. Tied for fifth were Jeremiah Hill of Cameroon and Justin Brownlee of the Philippines.
Leader in steals
Players with quick hands, strong bodies and sound defensive technique that jump passing lanes and pick the pockets of opponents endear themselves to coaches.
Meet Côte d'Ivoire's Lionel Kouadio, who had four steals against both Lithuania and Mexico at the OQT in San Juan. No other player at the OQTs had as many steals as the 1.92M shooting guard who is just 22 years old and has a bright future with Les Éléphants. Bruno Fernando did everything well for Angola. He ranked No. 2 with 2.5 steals per game. The Dominican Republic's Chris Duarte, Puerto Rico's Jose "Grand Theft" Alvarado (both 2.3 steals per game) were joint third while several others - Egypt's Ahmed Metwaly and Youssef Refaat, Italy's Marco Spissu, Bahrain's Ali Hasan, Bahamas' Valdez Edgecombe Jr, Poland's Mateusz Ponitka and Angola's Childe Dundao, all averaged 2.0 swipes per content
Leader in blocked shots
Goga Bitadze tried his best to get Georgia beyond the Group Phase, especially on the defensive end where he averaged an OQT-best 3.0 rejections per game. Likewise, Anas Mahmoud finished in second - just as he did at World Cup 2023 - with 2.0 per game. That was tied right up with the TISSOT MVP of OQT Latvia, Brazil's Bruno Caboclo who also led everyone with 8 blocks in total.
TISSOT MVP of OQT Spain, Santi Aldama, was right behind with 1.8 blocks per game at fourth and Cameroon's Brice Eyaga Bidias rounded out the top five with 1.7 blocks per contest.
Leader in EFF
The best players came out to play here in the OQTs, as fans should easily recognize the names that make up the leaders of the competitions in EFF.
Ivica Zubac set the modern era OQT record for EFF with 43.0 in Croatia's win over New Zealand, recording 29 points and 16 rebounds on 12-15 shooting from the field. It's no surprise that he tops this overall list here.
The Bahamas' Deandre Ayton, the Philippines' Justin Brownlee, Slovenia's Luka Doncic, and New Zealand's Shea Ili put on a show in their respective venues as well, even if they came short, as the top five in EFF - all averaging over 25.0 per game.
FIBA