craziness of olympics 2012: Olympics 2012 basketball

The women’s tournament will tip-off at the Basketball Arena on Saturday 28 July, with Great Britain v Australia among the games on the first day. The men’s tournament begins the following day, when defending Olympic champions USA take on France.
Competition format
Teams have been drawn into two groups for the preliminary rounds and will play each other in their respective groups, before the top four teams from each group move on to the quarter-final stage.London 2012 Organising Commitee Director of Sport Debbie Jevans said: 'The Olympic Basketball tournament is sure to be one of the big hits of the summer with some of the biggest basketball stars in the world coming to London to compete for gold.With the competition schedule now confirmed, teams and fans alike can start to get ready for the exciting encounters, world-class players and top teams we’ll see in action this summer.'
Final places up for grabs
Nine teams have already qualified for the men’s competition, with the remaining three places to be decided at an qualifying tournament in Venezuela in July. The final five places for the women's competition will be decided at a qualification tournament in Turkey, which gets underway on 25 June.