GOLD COAST – The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) will see eight (8) of the Commonwealth’s best men’s and women’s teams go head to head for the Commonwealth Gold.

This is only the second time in history that Basketball has been included in the games schedule, last time was in 2006 when Melbourne, Australia was the host.

This year’s event will include three (3) different countries making their games basketball debut with Canada featuring in the men’s and women’s competition for the first time. Jamaica will join the women’s line up for the first time and Cameroon will join the men.

GC2018 ambassador, Australian Olympian and NBA star Patty Mills helped reveal the groups for the preliminary rounds of competition at a recent press event.

Men's Group A: Australia, Nigeria, New Zealand, Canada

Men's Group B: England, Cameroon, India, Scotland

Women's Group A: Australia, Canada, England, Mozambique

Women's Group B: New Zealand, Jamaica, India, Malaysia

At the conclusion of the Pool stage, the top two teams from Pool A will proceed to the semi-finals.

With a diverse range of competing nations from Oceania, Asia, Europe, the Americas and Africa, the 16 competing nations will be split into two pools of four, who will compete against each other during the preliminary rounds.

The Basketball competition will be held between 5-10 April 2018, with Cairns to play host to the men’s Pool A matches between top-seeded nations Australia, Nigeria, New Zealand and Canada, as well as the women’s Pool B matches.

Townsville will host the top four seeded women’s nations in Pool A, headlined by Australia, Canada, England and Mozambique, and the men’s Pool B fixtures.

Following the group phase, the top two teams from Pool A will progress straight to the semi-finals. The bottom two teams from Pool A will play the top two teams from Pool B to decide the final two teams that will make up the semi-finals.

The winners of the semi-finals will play off for the Gold medal where the losers will play off for Bronze.

The semi-final and medal matches will be held on the Gold Coast (13-15 April 2018).

Mill’s will not be a member of the Boomers team competing in the GC2018 but expressed his excitement for the games.

“It’s really exciting for the people of North Queensland, especially the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, to have the opportunity to witness international basketball in their own backyard.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t be part of the action during the Games due to my NBA commitments but I know the Australian men’s and women’s teams are going to be bursting with pride to represent their country on home soil.”

The complete match schedules for the Basketball preliminaries will be announced in the coming weeks.

FIBA