US not among initial qualifiers for 3-on-3 hoops at Olympics

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. men’s and women’s teams weren’t among the eight qualifiers for the Tokyo Olympics in 3-on-3 basketball announced Friday.

The Americans needed to be one of the top four teams in the FIBA Federation rankings to earn the automatic berths to next year’s Olympics. The U.S. men were fifth and the women 12th.

Russia led the way with both its men’s and women’s teams qualifying. The Russian men’s team will be joined by Serbia, China and host Japan. The Russian women’s team is joined by China, Mongolia and Romania.

The U.S. teams did make the Olympic qualifying tournament that will be held in India next March. The men automatically had a spot in that tournament because they won the 3×3 World Cup. The women needed to be ranked high enough in the federation standings to get in.

The top three teams in that tournament in each gender will qualify for the Olympics. FIBA will also hold one other tournament in April for the final spot in Tokyo. That tournament is open to teams that haven’t competed in basketball during the previous two Olympics.