VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - The FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers to be played in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe on Thursday and Friday have already begun to capture the imagination.

In the United States, there's a real excitement surrounding the team that's going to open its campaign against Puerto Rico and then three days later host Mexico in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Jeff Van Gundy steered the USA to this summer's FIBA AmeriCup crown and is now setting out to get the team to the World Cup.

Down Under, Australian fans are eager to see the relentless defensive pressure that made the Boomers so doggone good at the FIBA Asia Cup this summer when they marched to the title.

First, Andrej Lemanis' team will play in a sold-out Heping Gymnasium in Taipei on Friday with more 5,000 fans attending. Australia will then return home to take on Japan in Adelaide on Monday.

Elsewhere, Nigeria's title-winning coach at AfroBasket 2015, Will Voigt, will be at the helm of the African continent's most successful team, Angola. That's going to elicit a strange feeling for Nigerian fans if Voigt ends up coaching the Angolans against D'Tigers one day!

In Europe, Spain coach Sergio Scariolo will have 12 'new' players to coach when the No. 2 team in the FIBA World Rankings Presented by NIKE plays at Montenegro on Friday. None in the squad played at EuroBasket 2017.

Among the Spaniards that will play is Fran Vazquez, the Iberostar Tenerife center who had a terrific EuroBasket 12 years ago in Belgrade and was not long after taken by the Orlando Magic in the NBA draft lottery. Vazquez remained in Europe, though. He also played for Spain, and Scariolo, at the 2010 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Turkey.

Some players couldn't make it yet will be with their national teams in spirit. One such player is Edgar Sosa, who will be watching from afar when his team hosts the Virgin Islands on Friday.

The grand prize for all the sides would be to end up qualifying for the 32-team World Cup in China in 2019 yet all the federations are going to be winners no matter what happens.

Fans are now going to get a chance to see their national teams at least three times in the First Round.

Imagine what the emotions are going to be like for Slovenia's players, and fans, during the national anthem on Friday in Ljubljana before the FIBA EuroBasket winners take on Belarus?

Eight members of that triumphant EuroBasket squad will be present including one of the most inspirational players I've ever seen, Klemen Prepelic. Look at these highlights and remember how clutch his play was in the EuroBasket Final against Serbia.

What a shame the EuroLeague scheduled games during the international windows and how selfish and utterly shortsighted it is for Real Madrid to deny the fans a chance to see Luka Doncic in the Slovenia shirt.

It would have been an opportunity for Real to promote their club and allow them to thank Slovenia for giving European basketball one its greatest-ever players.

At least Doncic will have a chance to wear the national team shirt again twice in the third window, on June 28 against Spain and on July 1 against Montenegro.

There's no need to dwell on the negatives, though, because there are too many positives.

Luis Scola, my favorite international player of all time, has flown home from Chinese CBA side Shanxi Zhongyu to suit up for Argentina when they host Paraguay in La Rioja on November 23.

Imagine what the reception will be like from the fans when Scola is introduced. Equally exciting for me will be the presence of up-and-coming stars everywhere like Maximo Fjellerup in the Argentina side. I remember how this talent played with flair at the 2014 U17 World Championship in Dubai.

Promising Fjellerup will be with Argentina

Patricio Garino is hurt and unavailable while another Real Madrid player, part of the heart and soul of Argentina, Facundo Campazzo, hasn't been released by his club.

All week, newspapers, television stations and websites will have stories about national teams and their players. People care about their national teams and want to know the latest. Who's playing? How are we going to do against Team X? Fans will watch the games in person, or on TV. How did Italy, for example, do last night against Romania in Turin? Who played well? Which are the new stars that have emerged? Where do our November results put us in the hunt for China, 2019? What about our chances of reaching the 2020 Tokyo Games?

When a country's team plays, everyone is interested, no matter who is playing. Let the fun begin.

Jeff Taylor
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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