MIES (Switzerland) - It's now time to meet the six teams in this FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2024 Puerto Rico with the dream of becoming Olympic champions this summer.
The number 13 team in the FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike, is Italy. The Azzurri have appeared in 13 Olympics, taking the silver medal in 1980 and 2004.
How they qualified
Italy clinched their place in the OQT field with a solid performance at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. Gianmarco Pozzecco's team started the event with a 14-point win over Angola and after slipping up, 87-82, to the Dominican Republic, bounced back to stay in the hunt for an Olympic berth.
Their biggest triumph came in the Second Round against Serbia. The Azzurri rallied from 16 points down with 14 minutes left to win 78-76. While Simone Fontecchio led the way with 30 points, Serbia once again brought the best out of Marco Spissu. The 1.84m point guard drilled five of eight shots, including three of four from deep, en route to 14 points. Spissu, who famously made six three-balls and poured in 22 points against Serbia in the Quarter-Finals of EuroBasket 2022, ended the World Cup as the highest rated Italy player in efficiency at 15.0 per game. The Italians claimed a 16-point win over Puerto Rico and took first place in Group I to claim their first top eight appearance at a World Cup since 1998.
Lady luck seemed to frown on the Italians, though, because Lithuaniua's upset of the USA meant that instead of going up against the team from the Baltics, Italy faced the Americans in the Quarter-Finals. Italy were no match for the extra motivated American team, crashing to a 100-63 defeat. The Italians ended up losing their final two games.
Italy's eighth place finish qualified them for the OQTs as one of the best 16 remaining teams that did not advance directly to the Summer Olympics.
Record at the Olympics
Medals: 2 - 🥈(1980, 2004)
Appearances: 13 -1936 (7th); 1948 (17th); 1952 (17th); 1960 (4th); 1964 (5th); 1968 (8th); 1972 (4th); 1976 (5th); 1980 (2nd); 1984 (5th); 2000 (5th); 2004 (2nd); 2020 (5th)
Medals: 2 - 🥈(1980, 2004)
Recent OQT history*
* Since 2008
Italy lost to Croatia in the Final of the 2016 OQT in Turin, one of the most exciting OQT clashes of all time, yet five years later went to Belgrade and beat Serbia in the Final to reach the Tokyo Games.
In Turin, everything seemed to be in place for a great Italy triumph and progression to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The team was stocked with talent and was led by legendary coach Ettore Messina, one of the greatest to ever walk the sidelines in Europe.
Italy began with a 27-point blowout of Tunisia and then downed Croatia 67-60 to take first place in the group stage. Italy thumped Mexico by 25 points in the Semi-Finals but in the Final against Croatia, opposing coach Aco Petrovic came up with master plan that relied heavily on Dario Saric, Bojan Bogdanovic and Krunoslav Simon. Bogdanovic had 26 points, Simon 21 points and Saric 18 points and 13 rebounds as Croatia stunned Italy, 84-78, after overtime.
Italy, coached by Meo Sacchetti, made it to the OQT in Serbia in 2021 after their 10th-place finish at the 2019 World Cup in China. In Belgrade, Senegal were supposed to compete but did not arrive so Italy only faced Puerto Rico in the group stage, with the Azzurri prevailing, 90-83.
The Italians blew out Dominican Republic 79-59 in the Semi-Finals to move into the Final against Serbia.
Nico Mannion, Achille Polonara and Fontecchio combined for 67 points as Italy defeated the hosts 102-95 to reach the Tokyo Olympics.
Last appearance at the Olympics
Italy finally returned to the Olympics, in 2021. It was their qualification since 2004, when they claiming silver in Athens. Their campaign in Japan three years ago started with a 92-82 win over Germany. Italy then fell to Australia, 86-83, but rebounded with an 80-71 victory over Nigeria to take second place in the group.
Next up in the Quarter-Finals was France. Though Italy fought back from 14 points down to tie the game at 73-73 with less than three minutes to play, the French ended the game on an 11-2 run for an 84-75 triumph.
The OQT Group Phase
The OQT in San Juan is going to be extremely competitive, with Italy, Lithuania and hosts Puerto Rico probably the frontrunners. Italy will start as heavy favorites in their first Group B game against Bahrain, who reached the OQT after winning the Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament 2023 Syria. The Italians will move onto a showdown with Puerto Rico in the second game of the group. The Boricuas will be roared on by their crowd and should be hungry to avenge their 73-57 defeat to the Azzurri at the FIBA World Cup, and the setback to Italy at the 2021 OQT in Belgrade.
The top two teams in Group B will go into the Semi-Finals, as will the top two from Group A that consists of Côte d'Ivoire, Lithuania and Mexico.
Italy OQT games
vs Bahrain (July 2) vs Puerto Rico (July 4)
Players to watch
Italy have an offense that is carried by multiple players so the absence of Fonteccho should not be a death knell for their chances. Nicolo Melli remains the venerable leader of the team, still going strong at 33. Forwards Achille Polonara and Giampolo Ricci both turn 33 later in the year and are great assets to the team. If Polonara be at or near his best, like his level at at the OQT in Belgrade a few years ago, it will be a significant factor. Ricci has gotten better with age and will be a crucial man. There is also the wild card that is Danilo Gallinari, who is in the squad at 35.
The strength of Italy may be its backcourt, with Spissu (mentioned higher in the story), Nico Mannion, Stefano Tonut and Alessandro Pajola. Similar to Ricci, Tonut doesn't get anything close to the credit he deserves in the Italy team because he has been one of its most reliable and productive players since the 2016 OQT. If Pajola is at his ball-hawking best on defense and Mannion is fearless with his drives to the basket, Italy will have a real chance of winning in San Juan.
FIBA