Belgium in Group D of EuroBasket Women 2017

On Friday, FIBA conducted its draw for EuroBasket Women 2017 in the Czech Republic.

Emma Meesseman and Belgium are probably pretty happy right now with their draw in Group D, which is below:

First, let’s ignore the fact that Belgium is unranked. They already won their qualifier group to get to this point. Therefore this is a rather favorable group for them, especially if they can manage to defeat Russia in at least one game in the group stage while not suffering a setback against the Latvians or Montenegrins.

Now let’s go through the other groups.

Group A: Looks set on paper, but watch out for Hungary

Based on the history of these teams, it looks like Spain and the Czech hosts should have the upper hand making it to the quarterfinals. However, keep an eye on Hungary. They have Chicago Sky guards Allie Quigley and Courtney Vandersloot running their squad. The Hungarians are the lowest ranked team in the group, but it wouldn’t be out of this world to see them make a quarterfinals appearance if Spain and the Czech Republic aren’t in form.

Group B: Turkey has the upper hand while Belarus could be shaky

The Turks won’t have Mystics forward LaToya Sanders anymore. But they still have one of the world’s top squads and should advance to the quarterfinals here. Belarus was in Belgium’s group and fell to second in the group after losing to the Cats in qualifiers last month. They also lost at least Lindsey Harding due to retirement so they’re not necessarily a sure bet to make the make the quarterfinals here.

Group C: Sorry Slovenia and Greece

The French and Serbians have been dominating the European stage as of late, and have the talent to back it up. Slovenia had a “Belgian Cats-esque” story to make it this far, but they don’t have a Top 10 (or Top 15 at worst) player donning their roster....

EuroBasket Women will be held from June 16 to 27, 2017. We’ll focus mostly on Belgium because Emma Meesseman is playing for them. But we’ll focus on other countries if the roster includes nationals from other countries.