MIES (Switzerland) - It is now time to meet the six teams in this FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2024 Spain with the dream of becoming Olympic champions this summer.
Here is the number 20 team in the FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike, the two-time Olympics participants Finland. The Europeans are looking to end a 60-year drought since their last Olympics showing in 1964.
How they qualified
Finland qualified for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 for the country's second appearance in FIBA's flagship event after they took 22nd in their debut in 2014.
They were drawn into Group E in Okinawa, Japan and opened their campaign with a 98-72 loss against Australia. Finland could not overcome the home crowd and dropped their second game to hosts Japan 98-88. Finland failed to pick up even one win in the First Round as they lost by 26 points to eventual champions Germany.
Finland moved into the 17-32 Classification Round and finally secured their first win in the tournament by beating Cape Verde 100-77. The Europeans made it two straight with a 15-point victory over Venezuela.
Finland eventually finished in 21st place at the World Cup. That qualified them for the OQTs as one of the best 16 remaining teams that did not advance directly to the Summer Olympics and were not the highest-ranked team from each Africa, Americas and Asia and Oceania.
Record at the Olympics
Appearances: 2 -1952 (15th); 1964 (11th) Medals: 0
Recent OQT history*
* Since 2008
Finland did not make their debut in Division A of FIBA EuroBasket until 2009 and have not participated in an Olympic Qualifying Tournament thus far. It will be the Wolfpack's debut in Spain.
Last Olympics appearance
Finland appeared in Olympic basketball for the first time in 1952 as hosts and lost all three games to finish 15th overall.
The next appearance - and last one since then - came in 1964 in Tokyo. Finland were in Group B and started on a high note with an 80-72 win over Korea. They lost by 26 points to USA and then by 18 to Uruguay before another loss, 61-54 versus Brazil. Finland grabbed a second win by fending off Australia 61-59 and followed that with a 63-59 triumph over Peru. The Europeans finished off the group stage with 29-point loss against Yugoslavia.
With a 3-4 record, Finland moved into the 9-12 Classification Round. They lost to hosts Japan 54-45 but rebounded to knock off Mexico 73-72 to finish 11th place.
The OQT Group Phase
Finland will head to Valencia this summer for the OQT Spain and tip off their Group B against the Bahamas, who won the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament 2023 - Argentina. The second game will be against Poland, whom they beat 89-59 in the group stage of the FIBA EuroBasket 2022.
The two top teams from both Groups A and B advance to the Semi-Finals and Finland would have to face one of Spain, Angola, and Lebanon with another victory in the Final needed to book a spot in the Paris Olympics.
Finland OQT games
vs Bahamas (July 2) vs Poland (July 4)
Players to watch
The federation published on June 17 a preliminary roster for the OQT team.
Mikael Jantunen has improved massively in the last couple years playing big tournaments alongside superstar Lauri Markkanen. Now is the time for the 23-year-old Jantunen to take the next step in his leadership. The power forward does a lot of the same things but not at the same level.
Still, he has learned greatly at the club level playing for emerging French powerhouse Paris Basketball. Jantunen does not really show a lot of emotion on the court so he will be more of a leader by example.
He will be helped in that category by the 32-year-old Sasu Salin. He remains one of the deadliest sharpshooters on the continent and will punish any team who dares to leave him any space to shoot.
Another major factor for Finland will be Elias Valtonen, an athletic forward who can help a team a lot on both ends of the court. The 25-year-old has been playing a number of years in Spain so he knows how to play against high level opposition. Valtonen will probably need to be more aggressive offensively especially to help make up for missing production.
Falling in that same category is point guard Edon Maxhuni, who has thrived as the country’s main playmaker for a couple of years now at age 25.
Head coach Lassi Tuovi has a couple of youngsters he could look to as well with Miro Little and Olivier Nkamhoua. The former will turn 20 shortly before the OQT and comes off a season in college basketball in the United States where he did not produce that much. The 24-year-old Nkamhoua meanwhile starred for the University of Michigan last season and could come to the national team with extra motivation.
Qualified Team Focus series
We've checked out all teams ready to step out as part of our Qualified Team Focus series. You can take a look at Angola, Bahamas, Finland, Lebanon, Poland, and Spain.
FIBA