Asian Hoops - It's Showtime

In TOKUSHIMA, Japan, the basketball action is heating up. And when Japan upsets Jordan to vault Kazakhstan into contention for a berth in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, you know it's a good thing, don't you?

And Kazakhstan's opponent in the semis? Iran.

The seeding system called for a 3-day quarterfinal round, rather than the more traditional 'one and done' quarter-finals of the Olympics or World Championship.
And what shakes me a bit, is that the system for qualification (or presentation, as it is known) is different in the varying FIBA zones.

But, as I can gather, - I stress gather, because it's been known to change during the course of a tournament - the one rep from the Asian zone will come from the winners of a 4-team semi-final:

Lebanon vs. Korea
Kazakhstan vs. Iran

The following teams were relegated to a classification tourney to decide 5-8th place:

Qatar vs. Jordan
Japan vs. Chinese Taipei

China fell to play for 9th place, but they had already gained a place in the Olympics as host team. So, really, at least two teams from Asia will play in Beijing in 2008.

Stay tuned for more or click above and watch the games on the internet.