FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019: Canada draws 'group of death' with Australia, Lithuania, Senegal

The FIBA Basketball World Cup Draw took place on Saturday morning and Canada drew a spot in Group H for the upcoming tournament.

The Canadians will be joined by Australia, Lithuania and Senegal in Group H making it one of the toughest groups on paper. The group will be played in Dongguan.

Lithuania will enter the World Cup with a world rank of 6th overall, Australia will enter with a rank of 11th after just falling outside the top 10 in the latest FIBA World Ranking list.

Senegal will enter with a world rank of 37 overall, but hold a regional rank of 2 in Africa. 

In Canada's case, a world rank of 23 made them susceptible to a tougher group with likely two other world powers — which they ended up drawing in Australia and Lithuania.

Now that the group is set, Team Canada can now start the preparation for the Basketball World Cup knowing their first three opponents.

On August 31 they play Australia in the opening game of Group H. Lithuania will be their next opponents on September 2nd and they'll round out their first three games with Senegal on September 4th.

Each team plays against the other three teams in their group once. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the 2nd Round and will be placed into a new group with the two top teams from a separate group.

Every team in the 2nd round plays two games against the two team in their group they did not play against in the first round and the top two teams from there will secure a spot in the Quarter-Finals.

Canada will cross over with the top two teams from Group G (Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Jordan) if they are able to advance to the 2nd round.

Eight teams of the 32 will make the Quarter-Finals and will play single elimination games until a champion is crowned.

For the first time, the FIBA Basketball World Cup will qualify seven teams directly for the following year's Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Canada must finish either first or second in the Americas zone to earn a direct berth.

For the first time ever the top seven teams from the FIBA Basketball World Cup will earn direct qualification to the Olympics. For Canada to qualify directly to the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 via the FIBA Basketball World Cup they must finish as one of the top two teams from the Americas zone. The U.S.A, Argentina, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic are the other six teams that have qualified for the World Cup from the Americas zone.

The FIBA Basketball World Cup will take place from August 31 to September 15th, 2019 in eight different cities in China.

Complete Draw in the order teams were drawn:

Group H (in Dongguan)

1. Lithuania
2. Australia
3. Canada
4. Senegal

Group A (in Beijing)

1. China
2. Venezuela
3. Poland
4. Ivory Coast

Group B (in Wuhan)

1. Argentina
2. Russia
3. South Korea
4. Nigeria

Group C (in Guangzhou)

1. Spain
2. Puerto Rico
3. Iran
4. Tunisia

Group D (in Foshan)

1. Serbia
2. Italy
3. Philippines
4. Angola

Group E (Shanghai)

1. U.S.A
2. Turkey
3. Czech Republic
4. Japan

Group F (in Nanjing)

1. Greece
2. Brazil
3. Montenegro
4. New Zealand

Group G (Shenzhen)

1. France
2. Dominican Republic
3. Germany
4. Jordan