U19 World Championships qualifiers hit full swing, with top stars

REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - The 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women will tip off August 17. But qualifying for the 2013 U19 World Championships for Men or Women is in full swing with 10 men's spots and four women's spots up for grabs by the end of the U17 Worlds women tournament.

The men's tournament in Prague already has five of their 16 teams including the hosts Czech Republic and four teams from FIBA Americas as Julius Randle and Shaq Goodwin guided the United States to the gold medal at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship for the sixth time.

Also through to the Prague event from 27 June to 7 July 2013 are FIBA Americas silver medalists Brazil - led by Arthur Fernandes Da Silva, Lucas Dias Silva and Leonardo Demetrio - as well as bronze winners Canada, who had one of the top players at the tournament in 17-year-old Andrew Wiggins as well as Trey Lyles, who turns 18 in November. The Argentineans will likely be powered by 17-year-old Gabriel Deck, who went from the U18 Americas tournament to make the All-Tournament Team at the U17 Worlds.

The next two and a half weeks will determine 10 of the remaining 11 men's U19 teams for next summer.

The FIBA Europe U18 Championship tips off on August 9 in Lithuania and Latvia with Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Croatia, France and Italy as the top six teams fighting for five U19 Worlds spots.

This tournament, which ends on August 19, has some huge stars, including superstar Dario Saric and Dominik Mavra from Croatia as well as Nikola Radicevic and Nikola Jankovic of Serbia; U17 Worlds star Ilimane Diop, Josep Perez, Guillermo Hernangomez and Albert Homs from Spain; an intriguing group of 1995-born Turks in Kenan Sipahi, Cedi Osman, Metecan Birsen and Kerem Kanter - Enes Kanter's younger brother; the dynamic Italian duo of Matteo Imbro and Amedeo Tessitori; French big man Mouhammadou Jaiteh; Denmark center Rasmus Larsen; and a strong group of Germans in Ismet Akpinar, Paul Zipser, Gavin Schilling and David Taylor.

The FIBA Africa U18 Championship - which runs from 16-25 August - will provide two teams to the U19 Worlds. Egypt will likely include a couple of their players from the U17 Worlds, where they went winless but impressed at times, especially Ehab Amin, Moataz Hosny and Anas Osama. But Angola and Tunisia would have to be contenders as well.

There are three spots from FIBA Asia up for grabs and that tournament will run simultaneously with the U17 Worlds Women from 17-26 August with two of the top favorites for the U18 title being China and Korea.

The Chinese will be led by Wang Zhelin, who nearly made China's Olympic team, as well as U17 Worlds star Zhou Qi. The Koreans have two main leaders as Lee Jong Hyun played for Korea at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament team and Heo Hoon was the third leading scorer at the U17 Worlds.

The final spot will be decided between Australia and New Zealand in late September.

The 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women has six teams qualified already including hosts Lithuania and the quintet from the FIBA Europe U18 Championship.

Olivia Epoupa was the MVP of the tournament for gold medalists France - first time U18 women champs - while Russia will be led by Alexandra Marchenkova and Albina Razheva. Serbia's main star is Aleksandra Stanacev while the 2009 and 2011 Worlds silver medalists Spain are guided by Elena De Alfredo as well as 17-year-olds Maria Arrojo and Leticia Romero. The Netherlands will make their U19 Worlds debut as the Dutch women's youth development continues to excel, led at the U18s by Kourtney Treffers as well as 17-year-olds Isabella Slim and Lisanne de Jonge and 16-year-olds Laura Cornelius and Emese Hof.

The only immediate up-coming U19 Worlds Women qualifying tournament is the FIBA Americas U18 Championship from August 15-19, which will provide four more spots.

The overwhelming favorite is the United States with the leader being 2011 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year Breanna Stewart. Canada meanwhile has Isidora Purkovic, Taijah Campbell and Paige Crozon.

The remaining six women's spots will be determined in September and October.

New Zealand and Australia will battle it out for FIBA Oceania's berth from 20-22 September while FIBA Africa U18 Championship will take place from 22-29 September with two berths up for grabs. And the final qualifier will be the three places from the FIBA Asia U18 Championship, which runs from 29 September to 6 October.

FIBA