The road to the 2024 Olympics for The Bahamas' senior men's national basketball team is still active as the team was drawn into Group A of the FIBA Americas Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament, set for August 12-20 in Argentina. The host city will be confirmed at a later date.

Drawn into Group A with The Bahamas are two familiar teams in Panama and host country Argentina along with Cuba. The Bahamas is seeded at number three in that group.

The tournament is for teams that did not advance to the FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Basketball World Cup 2023. It gives those teams hopes of still reaching the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. The winners of each pool will face each other and that winner will line up at one of next July's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments with the winner of those clinching spots for Paris 2024.

With the tournament being in August which is the offseason for most of the Bahamian premier basketball players who are overseas, it is possible that a number of them, including National Basketball Association (NBA) players Chavano 'Buddy' Hield, Kai Jones and DeAndre Ayton, will suit up for The Bahamas. The Bahamas has never advanced to the Olympics in basketball. They will need all three of those players for a better chance of moving on to the next tournament.

The Bahamas played Panama and Argentina in the 2022-2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Americas Qualifiers. Argentina won both matchups and The Bahamas split their games with Panama. The last time The Bahamas played Cuba was back in July 2021 and it ended with a victory for the Bahamian side.

The Bahamas played Panama in February of this year and it ended with Panama winning 88-66 on their home floor. The Bahamas hosted Panama in November 2022 and won 83-79. In that same month, The Bahamas hosted Argentina and fell apart late in that game to lose, 80-76. The two teams faced each other last summer with Hield and Jones playing. Argentina won that game, 95-77, in Argentina.

The Bahamas is ranked at number 56 in the latest FIBA world rankings that came out in February 2023. They are 12th in FIBA Americas. Argentina is ranked at number four in the world and number two in FIBA Americas. Panama is close to The Bahamas at number 51 in the world and 10th in the region. Rounding out the group at number 70 in the world and 15th in the region is Cuba.

Pool B includes Uruguay, Colombia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Chile.

The schedule will be released at a later date.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian