The official basketball governing body in Asia, FIBA-Asia have already released the schedule of games for the Preliminary Round of the 27th FIBA Asia Championship to be played in Manila this coming August 1-11, 2013.
Depending champion China will try to prove their might as they face fellow East Asian rivals South Korea in the preliminary round. The silver medalist Jordan on the other hand will go up against Chinese Taipei on the opening day of the competition.
The host team Gilas Pilipinas will open their campaign against Saudi Arabia while two-time champion Iran will be up against Malaysia on the opening day. FIBA also announced that Malaysia and Thailand made it to the FIBA Asia Championship as SEABA representatives.
Here’s the final groupings:
Group A: Jordan, Chinese Taipei, Philippines, Saudi Arabia,
Group B: Hong Kong, Japan, Qatar, Lebanon.
Group C: China, Iran, Korea, Malaysia.
Group D: India, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Thailand.
Here’s the preliminary schedules of the FIBA Asia Championship: