FIBA World Cup 2019: Previewing Group D

Who will advance?

This is an easy question.

There should not be any big surprises in this group. Serbia is comfortably ahead of the rest of the pack in terms of experience and talent. They have the history, recent success and profile to get them to the next round of the cup.

Handling Group D should be the easiest part of the tournament for the team.

I will give the Philippines some credit. They are 31st in FIBA’s ranking and have not played any of the other three teams in the group recently. If chaos decides to strike then they will have a shot at placing second in the group.

The first game of the tournament will be the most important for them as they face Italy.

Italy seems to be the clear number two in Group D. They are not necessarily a team to look out for when it comes to later in the knockout round, but they have the skills to take them over the hump. I cannot think of any legit reason that Angola will be able to beat them either.

Serbia will be a fun team to watch. We already know a lot about their starting lineup. They are going to move the ball around a lot through Jokic and Jovic getting some nice assists.

Serbia will play physical and get a lot of rebounds, something that the other teams in the group can not hang with.

If I was gambling on Group D, I would bet the house on Serbia winning all of their games and Italy losing only to Serbia. If there is any upset I see it coming from the Philippines side.

Not only do I expect Serbia to comfortably win Group D, but I think they will also make it into the top three of the entire FIBA World Cup.