BEIRUT (Lebanon) - Throughout the six windows of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers, we’ve seen some amazing plays, shocking results, and spectacular performances amid all of the drama.

That resulted in 8 teams from the Asian Qualifiers locking up their spots at the World Cup later this year in Manila, Okinawa, and Jakarta.

Deep in the details of what was going on through these six windows are some interesting numbers recorded by the teams and players in action.

Here’s a lot at just some of those numbers that helped shape the Asian Qualifiers from the beginning to the end!

1/3

New Zealand were only one of three teams (with Canada and Australia) to average over 90 points throughout the entire World Cup Qualifiers. The Tall Blacks ended up averaging 92.6 points per contest which was most among all teams in the Asian Qualifiers.

5

Even though Kazakhstan were unable to qualify for the World Cup, they put on display how well they played as a unit through these Qualifiers. The Steppen Wolves had the most amount of players (5) that played in every game of the Asian Qualifiers: Rustam Murzagaliyev, Dimitriy Gavrilov, Oleg Balashov, Roman Marchuk, and Anton Bykov.

13.6

Yuki Kawamura was second among the Asian Qualifiers assists leaders (the leader will be discussed below) with 5.6 dimes dropped per game, but he did so in just 16.6 minutes of action per game. That accounts for a rate of 13.6 assists per 40 minutes, the highest among all qualified players on the list and the only to average double-digits in the category as well.

Turning the ball over only 1.4 times per game for an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.9 is pretty impressive as well for the youngster who made his senior national team debut back in Window 3.

26

No one has grabbed more rebounds in the World Cup Qualifiers than Arsalan Kazemi and no one, including all regions, has grabbed more rebounds in a single game (26) than the Iranian star forward. In the game where Kazemi set the rebound record, he also recorded a triple-double with 10 points and 12 assists to go with those 26 boards. It was only one of two triple-doubles recorded in the World Cup Qualifiers across all regions with the other belonging to Australia’s Nick Kay who recorded 14 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists in the First Round as well.

41

Two players hold the record for most points scored in a single game in the World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers of 41 points. Iran’s Mohammad Jamshidi first set the bar with his splendid performance against Syria in the First Round. No one came close to that total until the very last game day when Justin Brownlee erupted in just his second game playing for the Philippines against Jordan.

57.9

If there’s something that the Australian Boomers have immense pride in, it’s their defense. Across all regions of the World Cup Qualifiers, no team conceded fewer points than Australia who allowed only 57.9 points per game to their opponents. As a matter of fact, they were the only team to allow less than 60 points on average. With their stellar defense, they were also able to boast the highest average margin of victory at 32.4 points per game where no other team averaged higher than 30.

88

Freddy Ibrahim topped all players across all regions in assists made through the World Cup Qualifiers with 88 dimes in total. This was a number so massive that no one came even close to within 27 of Ibrahim’s dime count. Including the World Cup 2019 Qualifiers, the only player that has come close is Finland’s Jamar Wilson who had 64 assists in the 2019 European Qualifiers.

438

Dar Tucker was two points shy of scoring at least 200 points in a World Cup Qualifiers campaign once again, after scoring 240 points in the 2019 run. However, he was able to come out on top as the leading scorer of the Asian Qualifiers in 2023, after losing out to Ra GunA in 2019.

Over these two World Cup Qualifiers though, no other player has scored more points combined across two campaigns than Dar Tucker who has poured in 438 points.

FIBA