The Last 16 In FIBA Championships

ISTANBUL (2010 FIBA World Championship) - Preliminary Round play at the FIBA World Championship is over.

If many of those games had buzzer-beaters and unexpected twists and turns, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

The FIBA World Championship has said good-bye to eight teams and what’s left are a sensational and very, very sweet 16.

Team USA, Turkey and Lithuania are undefeated while Serbia, Argentina, Slovenia and Russia each have just one setback.

However, no matter who is playing who, expect the unexpected.

Anything can happen in the Eight-Finals.

On Saturday, Spain and Greece, who met in the title game four years ago, will meet in one glamorous last 16 showdown while Balkans rivals Serbia and Croatia will play in another.

The following day will see Slovenia clash with Australia and hosts Turkey take on France, while on Monday Team USA go up against Angola and Russia face New Zealand.

“As a competitor right now, it gets really interesting,” said New Zealand’s Kirk Penney, the tournament’s second leading scorer at 25.4 points per game, to FIBA.com.

“I’m looking forward to the Spain and Greek match-up and I think it’s the Serbian/Croatian match-up – there are some awesome games in this round and it’s not even the Quarter-Finals yet.”

Penney, who played on the Tall Blacks team eight years ago that made a stunning run to the Semi-Finals, added: “It’s very exciting and I’m very happy that New Zealand is still a part of it and still has a chance.”

The Eight-Finals end on Tuesday with Lithuania squaring off against China in a battle of surprise teams and South American heavyweights Argentina – the number one team in the FIBA World Rankings – playing Brazil.

Adding intrigue to the last game of the round is the fact that Ruben Magnano, who led Argentina to the Final of the 2002 FIBA World Championship and to gold two years later at the 2004 Olympics, is now the coach of Brazil.

"We know each other very well," Argentina’s Paolo Quinteros said on Monday to FIBA.com.

"They also have an Argentinian coach.

“It's going to be a great game to watch and the one that will win will be the one that makes the least mistakes.

“One of us will have to go back home and let's hope it will be them."