REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - The old medieval proverb goes: "All roads lead to Rome." And as it turns out, many teams are taking different roads to China as countries have come up with different ways to qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in terms of roster construction.

Six teams have seen their path through the Qualifiers already lead to China 2019 ticket - Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Nigeria and Tunisia. And studying the player usage of just that sextet shows some of the different approaches teams are taking to the qualification campaign.

There hasn't been much change to the Czech Republic's teams during the European Qualifiers - just how head coach Ronen Ginzburg wants it.

Czech Republic have seen 15 players get onto the court during European Qualifiers games, the fewest by any team still in the European Qualifiers. But the fewest players to hit the hardwood among the 64 teams remaining is 13 from Chad in the African Qualifiers.

Looking a bit closer at the Czechs, who qualified for their first World Cup with a 7-1 record in Group K, it should not be a surprise that head coach Ronen Ginzburg has relied on a major core. In total, eight Czech players have appeared in all eight of the qualification games - all averaging at least 14 minutes a game.  That approach was by design, according to Ginzburg.

"From the beginning I decided to not invite too many players and focus on 10-11 players and that's about it. In the second window I made it even tighter," Ginzburg told fiba.basketball after the second window.

The Czech coach's idea was about being able to build on a core set of ideas from window to window, something he felt was easier with a consistent group of players on hand.

"In the first window from the beginning we could not cover a lot of stuff. We had two or three basic sets on offense and one or two things on deense and that is it. You can't practice more. What we took from the experience from the first window was to be even more focused on the little things."

That gave Ginzburg a foundation so that he could easily work his two superstars Tomas Satoransky and Jan Vesely into the system for the first two Second Round games in September - both victories to give the Czechs their spot in the World Cup next summer.

The eight players playing in all eight games ranked Czech Republic second among European teams. Netherlands coach Toon van Helfteren had nine players play in all eight games - and used just 16 players in total in the four windows. Poland fielded six players in all eight games - while using 20 players total over the course of the Qualifiers.

Germany coach Henrik Rodl meanwhile has used 19 players in the Qualifiers but has relied a solid core of five players who have appeared in all eight games - all eight being victories to get back to the World Cup after missing Spain 2014.

Greece and Lithuania, for their part, both showed that you don’t necessarily need a consistent group of players to get the job done. Twenty-six players have played for Greece with only Panagiotis Vasilopoulos playing in all eight games and helping Greece already book their World Cup ticket with an 8-0 record.

Lithuania coach Dainius Adomaitis also has fielded 26 players with three of them playing in all eight games. The Lithuanians are also 8-0 and have gathered their spot in China 2019.

Two other teams of note in Europe are Croatia and Israel, neither of them having a single player appear in all eight Qualifiers thus far. And Croatia rank fourth overall and first in Europe for the most players used with 28 - only Ivan Ramljak playing in seven of the Qualifiers. Israel ranks middle of the pack with 22 players used - with Jake Cohen and Tamir Blatt having played in seven games.

The only two other teams already qualified for China 2019 are 9-0 African sides Tunisia and Nigeria.

Tunisia have qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 2010 and head coach Mario Palma has used just 16 players - five of them playing in all nine games.

Nigeria meanwhile had four players appear in all nine games. But head coach Alex Nwora showed the depth of his player pool in using a total of 23 players - the most for any African nation with Angola, Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon being second with 19 players each.

Reggie Hearns has made the most appearances  for the United States in the Americas Qualifiers with five games.

Speaking of depth, the country with the most players used has been the United States with 37 - none of whom have played in all of the games and only Reggie Hearns playing as many as five Qualifiers. The Americans clearly have an embarrassment of riches and have not had to dip into their NBA player pool to move to 7-1 in their qualifying group and knocking on the door of booking a China 2019 spot.

Brady Heslip has been the rock in the ever-changing Canada team during the Americas Qualifiers.

Canada are in the same boat as they have used 32 players - though Brady Heslip has played in all eight games with Melvin Ejim as the only other player to get in six Qualifiers. Canada have even used three different head coaches over the first four windows - Roy Rana, Gordon Herbert and Jay Triano.

One other Americas country of note is Brazil, who have used 24 players - the next most on the continent of teams remaining (Bahamas fielded 25 players in the First Round) - but five Brazilians have played in all seven of the games (no stats granted for Brazil’s win over Virgin Islands).

The most recent version of Team China in the Asian Qualifiers during the September window.

Asia's leader in players fielded is - no surprise - China with 34. The World Cup hosts have been testing two different squads during the campaign with 13 players having played in four games. The Chinese coaching staff will slowly but surely start putting together a core that it wants to use in the final two windows and then use as the main group for the World Cup next summer.

As far as Asian teams on two polar opposites - those would be Philippines and Kazakhstan. The Filipinos have fielded 28 players in the windows - only one of them, Gabe Norwood, appearing in all eight games. Kazakhstan meanwhile has only used 15 players - eight of those playing in all eight games.

The next window in late November and early December will surely see a number of more teams book their World Cup 2019 tickets and showing that “All roads lead to Rome” … er, to China.

David Hein

FIBA

FIBA's columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

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