HAMAMATSU, Japan _ Make no mistake about tough Group C at the world basketball championships: any of the six teams could be among the two to get bounced after the preliminary round.

Two-time former champion Brazil open against Andrew Bogut-led Australia on Saturday to begin play at Hamamatsu Arena, an 8,000-capacity stadium in this city of nearly 600,000 about 250 kilometers (150 miles) from Tokyo _ or 90 minutes on the high-speed Bullet train.

European champion Greece and Qatar, making its first world title appearance and considered the least strong of the teams in the group, play the second match Saturday, while Turkey takes on Baltic power Lithuania, which upset the United States at the 2004 Olympics, in the final game on the opening day of play.

Play continues daily through to next Thursday, except for a group off-day Monday. The top four teams from the group advance to the next round.

The Australia-Brazil match could be the tightest Saturday.

Brazil is eager to make amends after not reaching the final four since 1986. It last won the world title in 1963.

"Lately, the Brazilian men's team have not had good results, but Japan will be a good chance for us," said Brazil coach Aluisio "Lula" Ferreira.

Australia will be lifted by Bogut, the Milwaukee Bucks center and NBA's No. 1 draft pick in 2005. He scored 20 points Sunday in China to lead the Australians to an upset 77-71 win over France. Australia lost to China by two points on Tuesday, when Bogut again scored 20.

"This is a great step for us," Australia coach Brian Goorjian said after the French win. "We haven't played much together and previously I don't think we had the belief that we could win against the top teams in the world, but beating France and showing the intensity that we did among the group, it shows we can get anything done."

Three of the Group C teams were involved in a warmup tournament in China earlier this week.

Vasilis Spanoulis scored 12 points to help Greece defeat Germany 84-47 in the final of the Stankovic Cup in Kunshan, China.

Boris Diaw of the Phoenix Suns scored 15 points to lead France to third place in the Stankovic Cup with an 86-74 victory over Brazil. Suns teammate Leandro Barbosa scored a game-high 29 points for Brazil, but the Brazilians lost Cleveland Cavaliers center Anderson Verejao to a foot injury.

Qatar coach Joey Stiebing, who was fired as coach at the University of New Orleans in 2001 less than two weeks after being named coach of the year in the U.S. college Sun Belt Conference, thinks his Asian side will be the surprise package in Group C.

"I think our strength is our ability to defend," said Stiebing, who took over the Qatar coaching program in 2003 and made defense a priority. "When we can defend, we will be able to compete with most teams."

Qatar has done that recently, surprising Turkey with a close loss in overtime, then losing another heartbreaker against Angola. But the 28th-ranked Qatar lost two matches last weekend to New Zealand, which finished fourth at the last world titles in Indianapolis.

"We played Turkey and we lost in overtime in a game we should have won in regulation," said Stiebing, adding that the Angola match was one "we felt we could have won."

"The players are starting to believe they can compete on a world level," he said.

They'll have to be at their best to beat Greece, which looked strong in a warmup tournament in Athens two weeks ago, beating France in the final.

Turkey beat host South Korea by three points in a warmup tournament last weekend in Seoul.