MIES (Switzerland) - The FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup has given hoops fans plenty of fun over the past decade and more. But the six previous editions have also provided good stuff for stats junkies.
With the 2024 FIBA U17 World Cup just days away, here are 15 facts about the history of this event that you may not have known.
1
Overmatched: Spain allowed just one point in the 40-1 fourth quarter of their group stage win over United Arab Emirates in 2014. Finland for their part managed just two points in a 14-2 third quarter against France in the 2016 Round of 16.
7
Phew! Seven is the closest game USA have had in their history - and it was a big one with Australia losing only 99-92 in the 2014 Final. The next closest game was USA's first game of that 2014 tournament - an 83-73 victory over Greece.
8
Bombs away for Tomas Zanzottera and Xiaochuan Zhai, who both drained 8 three-pointers at the 2010 tournament - Zanzottera for Argentina against China and Zhai for China versus Egypt.
9
Get that weak stuff out of here: Jonghyun Lee of Korea and Moataz Hosny of Egypt hold the mark for the most blocks in a game with nine - Lee against Spain in 2010 and Hosny harassing Lithuania in 2012.
14
Fourteen times over the first six editions were 40 minutes not enough to decide a game. There have been two triple-overtime games (Argentina 76-73 over Egypt in 2016 Classification 13-16, and Dominican Republic 110-108 over Mali in 2018 Classification 9-12), and the biggest game to go to extra time was Australia beating Spain 80-74 in overtime of the 2014 Semi-Finals.
15
Radovan Kouril was dishing out dimes left and right for Czechia against France in 2012 as he set the record for most assists in a single game with 15.
19
Raining threes! Finland were absolutely on fire in their sole appearance in 2016 and knocked down a record 19 three-pointers in their game against Egypt.
29
I’ll take that: USA hold the record for the most steals in a game as they swiped the ball from China 29 times in the 2018 tournament. USA rank second as well with 27 steals against China in 2010.
32
Oumar Ballo was an absolute beast at the 2018 event and he grabbed an insane 32 rebounds against Dominican Republic in a triple-overtime thriller for Mali. That included a record 22 defensive rebounds. Oh and he scored 32 points in the game as well.
36
An assist for you, you and you: The inaugural edition of this competition in 2010 saw the game with the most assists by a team as USA registered 36 assists against Egypt. Three Americans had at least 8 assists in the game.
40.7
That is the average winning margin for USA in their 44 games at the U17 World Cup - see next stat. USA have registered 7 games in which they won by at least 60 points, topping out with an 84-point victory over United Arab Emirates (122-38) in 2014. The Americans' highest average winning margin for a tournament was in 2018 when they won their seven games by an average of 53.7 points - twice going over 70 points difference.
44
USA have never lost a game at the U17 World Cup with a perfect 44-0 record in six previous editions.
45
Croatia hold the mark for the most points in a quarter as they dropped 45 points on Korea in the fourth quarter (45-23) of their group stage game at the 2012 tournament. That was one of four times a team scored at least 40 points in a period - the other three taking place in 2014.
50
Unstoppable is the word for Dzanan Musa, who took out his frustration of losing to Australia in the Round of 16 in 2016 by pouring in 50 points against Chinese Taipei in the Classification 9-16.
138
USA have been a scoring machine in this tournament - dropping 120 points or more seven times. But Spain actually tallied the most points in a single game, blasting 2014 hosts United Arab Emirates 138-27.
FIBA