Ramunas Butautas, the head coach of Lithuania national team announced 20-men list of the candidates to play in Eurobasket 2009 in Poland. Nine players come from Lithuanian clubs and the rest are playing abroad. Zalgiris has five players on the list which is the largest number of all teams.
It is now official that Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Darius Songaila and Ramunas Siskauskas will not pley for the national team. Songaila and Siskauskas declared their retirement last summer. Even though The Big Z has not yet officially announced his retirement yet, it is obvious that his last chance to wear Lithuanian jersey was wasted before Beijing Olympics.
The list of the candidates is as follows:
Sarunas Jasikevicius (Panathinaikos, Greece)
Mantas Kalnietis (Zalgiris, Lithuania)
Giedrius Gustas (Kavala, Greece)
Zygimantas Janavicius (Zalgiris)
Sarunas Vasiliauskas (Zalgiris)
Rimantas Kaukenas (Montepaschi, Italy)
Arvydas Macijauskas (Olympiacos, Greece)
Tomas Delininkaitis (Budivelnik Kyiv, Ukraine)
Mindaugas Lukauskis (Lietuvos rytas, Lithuania)
Simas Jasaitis (DKV Joventut, Spain)
Jonas Maciulis (Zalgiris)
Arturas Jomantas (Lietuvos rytas)
Linas Kleiza (Nuggets, United States)
Paulius Jankunas (Zalgiris)
Mindaugas Katelynas (Armani Jeans, Italy)
Donatas Motiejunas (Aisciai, Lithuania)
Darjusas Lavrinovicius (Dynamo Moscow. Russia)
Ksistofas Lavrinovicius (Montepaschi)
Marijonas Petravicius (Lietuvos rytas)
Robertas Javtokas (Dynamo Moscow)
It would be a national team debut for Janavicius, Vasiliauskas, Jomantas and Motiejunas if they were selected for the final squad.
Arvydas Macijauskas is set to make a return after 3 years as his last game for Lithuania was in World Championship 2006 in Japan.
However this list could be changed if needed, according to Ramunas Butautas.
Lithuania will face Turkey, Bulgaria and the hosts Poland in Eurobasket 2009 Group D.
The schedule of the friendly games was also published.
August 12th, Kaunas, Lithuania: Lithuania vs. Latvia
August 14th, Riga, Latvia: Latvia vs. Lithuania
August 18th, Madrid, Spain: Spain vs. Lithuania
August 19th, Madrid: Lithuania vs. Great Britain
August 20th, Madrid: Lithuania vs. Slovenia
August 24th, Athens, Greece: Lithuania vs. Russia
August 25th, Athens: Lithuania vs. Serbia
August 26th, Athens: Greece vs. Lithuania
August 31st, Vilnius, Lithuania: Lithuania vs. Russia
September 2nd, Vilnius: Lithuania vs. Spain
