HAGATNA - Guam Basketball Confederation are setting their sights on claiming one of eight promotional spots when the 2017 Division B FIBA World Cup qualifying gets underway in November 2017.

Guam, as Champions of the 2015 Pacific Games, have qualified alongside runners-up Fiji, to represent the Oceania zone against teams from Asia when FIBA's new World Cup qualifying system gets underway in late 2017.  

In preparation for this, FIBA Executive Director-Oceania, Mr David Crocker, has been in Guam hosting workshops with officials from the GBC. “This is all about Guam,” Crocker said. “This is about making sure they have a strategy to make sure they do a good job in 2017 and 2021. … It needs to be a long-term vision.”

Mr Crocker met with Guam National Men's head coach, EJ Calvo, GBC President and FIBA Oceania board member, Tony Thompson, and GBC Development Officer, Jon Lujan, to develop a high performance plan for the upcoming competitions.  

Under FIBA's new competition system, Guam are guaranteed at least 6 games against teams from Asia and Oceania in tournament play. The top 8 division B teams will qualify into Division A for the Asia Cup 2021 cycle starting in 2019.  Should Guam secure one of these 8 spots, it will see the Federation host home and away matches against other Division A teams- meaning potential match ups against region powerhouses Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Japan or China. 

“Previously the path wasn’t even open for Guam to play themselves there and qualify, now the pathway is open.” 

Key areas covered in the discussion included brainstorming on how to raise money, grow the national program from the youth up and to find a home gym- a key factor if the GBC is to host home matches from 2019.

FIBA