Looking ahead to the Olympics

The groups and schedule for the Women's Olympic Basketball Tournament at the Rio 2016 Games have been finalised following the conclusion of the 2016 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament (WOQT) yesterday.

The Women's Olympic Basketball Tournament will take place from 6-20 August. It will open with a Group Phase played in a round robin format (each team faces the other five (5) in its group). The top four (4) classified teams from each group will then move on to the Final Phase which will be played in a standard knock-out system consisting of Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, Bronze Medal Game and Gold Medal Game.

Seb (Sebnem Kimyacioglu, '05) is the only Stanford alum playing in the tournament. It will be Seb's first Olympics and Turkey's second. In 2012, Turkey placed second in its group in the preliminary round, losing only to the USA, then lost to Russia by three points in the Quarter-Final. They are determined to win a medal this time.

This time, Turkey and the USA are in different groups, so will not meet until the Final Phase, if at all.

Here is the Olympic Women's Basketball website and the complete calendar, with game times in your local time.

Turkey punches ticket to Rio

Turkey defeated Cuba 71-45 in the quarter-finals. Seb contributed three treys to the victory, as she did in Turkey's previous two games.

Seb and her teammates are very excited about being Olympians!

• Game Report: Yilmaz, Sanders power Turkey to Olympics
  
• Statistics
  
• Photos
  
• Game Highlights
  
• Postgame Press Conference
  

Turkey advances to quarter-finals, New Zealand doesn't

Jillian drives to the basket

Jillian had a great game with 25 points and 14 rebounds, but the Tall Ferns fell two points short of advancing to the quarter-finals of the Olympics Qualifying Tournament. So disappointing!

Cuba struck the first blow and kept the lead until the last 12 seconds of the game when The Tall Ferns tied the score with a 3-pointer from Micaela Cox. But Cuba was fouled on the next possession, made two free throws, and won the game 64-62.

• Game Reports:
  
  • Cuba squeeze past New Zealand to reach Quarter-Finals
    
  • Tall Ferns' Olympic dream over in agonising loss to Cuba in France
    
• Statistics
  
• Photos
  
• Game Highlights
  
• Postgame Press Conference with coach Kereama and Jillian
  

Seb launches one of her three-pointers

Turkey cruised to a 72-46 victory over Cameroon and advanced a big step on the road to Rio. Thanks to two victories, they get to take on Cuba (#16) instead of France (#4) in the quarter-finals on Friday at 6:00 am PT.

• Game Report: Turkey slice Cameroon apart to reach the Quarter-Finals
  
• Statistics
  
• Photos
  
• Game Highlights
  
• Postgame Press Conference
  

Turkey wins first game, New Zealand loses

Seb on defense

Turkey secured its place in the WOQT quarter-finals with a decisive victory over Argentina, 66-38.

Seb played for almost 28 minutes and was a major factor in Turkey's victory.She contributed 11 points on perfect 4-for-4 shooting, including three 3-pointers, and was a strong defender.

In the postgame press conference, coach Ekrem Memnum spoke of Seb's importance to the team, "Sebnem is a very, very important player for us. She was my player in my club team. She started playing basketball after four years off – I just convinced her to start again the first time she was with us. So I really have big confidence in Sebnem. She's a great teammate, every day 100% there, every practice, every day around the team. So she sets the tone for us and we saw the results on the court. I hope she will continue that way. Players like her, they respect her, and it's a plus for us."

Turkey hopes to better its position in the quarter-finals with a victory over Cameroon tomorrow at 11:30 am PT.

• Game report: Turkey too good for Argentina
  
• Statistics
  
• Photos
  
• Game highlights video
  
• Postgame press conference
  

Jillian puts up a shot

The Tall Ferns put up a strong fight against France – they were up by two points at the half – but were overpowered in the second half and lost 70-52.

Jillian was heavily guarded and managed to make only two of her nine attempted field goals.

The Tall Ferns play Cuba tomorrow at 6:00 am PT. Cuba, which is ranked #16 in the world by FIBA played France on Monday and lost 83-67, so it's a must-win game for both teams.

• Game report: Yacoubou powers France into Quarter-Finals
  
• Statistics
  
• Photos
  
• Game highlights video
  
• Postgame press conference
  

Qualifying tournament is underway

The Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament has begun.

The twelve competing teams are in four groups of three teams each. Each team will play the other two teams in its group. Then the eight teams that have one or two wins will play each other. The winners of those four games have qualified for the Olympics. Finally, the losers play each other to determine who gets the fifth and final spot in the Olympics.

Here's the full schedule. Note that the time can be switched between event time and your local time.

Turkey (Seb's team – she made the final cut) and New Zealand (Jillian's team) are off today and play their first game tomorrow (Tuesday).

New Zealand (ranked #22 in the world by FIBA) begins with the toughest draw in the tournament – France, which is ranked #4 and has the home team advantage. Then they play Cuba (#16) on Wednesday. stuff.co.nz previews the action:
It's time to measure up as NZ's Tall Ferns chase a spot at Rio Olympics.

Turkey (ranked #11) has an easier road to Rio. They play Argentina (#15) on Tuesday and Cameroon (#39) on Wednesday. Argentina and Cameroon played each other today. Argentina won 75-64. Turkey shouldn't have much trouble making it to the Quarter-Finals undefeated.

All the WOQT games will be shown live and archived on LiveBasketball.tv – a month's subscription costs $9.99. Postgme press conferences and game highlights will be shown on YouTube — here's the playlist.

Seb and Jillian still in the running

Stanford alumnae hoopsters Sebnem Kimyacioglu ('05) and Jillian Harmon ('09) are prospective 2016 Olympians.

Seb is a member of the Turkish Women's National Team (probably, they still have to cut down from 14 to 12 players). This is Seb's first chance to be an Olympian. The Turkish Women's National Team competed in the 2012 Olympics, but Seb had left basketball to pursue a law degree at Santa Clara University.

Jillian is a member of the Tall Ferns, the New Zealand Women's National Team. This is Jillian's third go at the Olympics. The Tall Ferns (including Clare Bodensteiner, as well as Jillian) competed in the 2008 Olympics, where they ended with a loss to the U.S. in the premlinary round. The Tall Ferns competed for a spot in the 2012 Olympics, but didn't make it past the qualifying tournament.

Seven teams have already qualified for the 2016 Olympics (see Who's In). Turkey and New Zealand are two of the twelve teams that will compete in the Women's Olympics Qualifying Tournament for the remaining five spots in Nantes, France next week (see WOQT Schedule).

The twelve contending teams have spent the past couple of weeks preparing for the WOQT by playing in friendly tournaments. Wins have been thin for the Tall Ferns. Here's a report of their final friendly game from stuff.co.nz: NZ Tall Ferns wind up Olympic qualifying buildup with defeat to Spain.

Turkey has apparently been playing well, although there are no very coherent (to a non-Turk) game reports. Instead, here's an interview with Seb about her return to the Turkish National Team and her dream of playing in the Olympics (access with Chrome for an adequate translation).

Today three FIBA journalists offered their opinions about what's going to take place in Nantes next week: Which five WOQT teams will reach Rio 2016?