Bosnia and Herzegovina showed off their finalised Eurobasket roster with a convincing 73-62 win over Germany in Ulm last night, the announcement of a final squad allowing the team to bond and improve the team chemistry.
Despite the solidarity that will build towards boarding the plane to Slovenia and having Brooklyn Nets forward Mirza Teletovic and free-scoring Nihad Dedovic leading the way, being housed in arguably the toughest group of the four is going to be a massive challenge.
Serbia, Lithuania, FYR of Macedonia, Montenegro and Latvia will be difficult obstacles for the Bosnians – an obstacle though they will look to jump over.
It will be obvious when the tournament commences that Teletovic will be the man to stop. Out of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 66 attempted shots last night, the NBA forward shot 23 of them. Dedovic added 13 attempts to that also. They combined for 44 points.
The Bosnians though are an improving nation, and will play with nothing to lose when their opening game against Latvia tips off on September 4. They are currently 1-3 in preparation for Eurobasket, but with the full squad are 1-0 so far.
Bosnia and Herzegovina Eurobasket squad: Nemanja Gordic, Muhamed Pasalic, Zack Wright, Nihad Dedovic, Marko Sutalo, Dalibor Persic, Ante Masic, Mirza Teletovic, Edin Bavcic, Elmedin Kikanovic, Nedzad Sinanovic and Andrija Stipanovic.
PRUNTY FOCUSING ON TEAM ONLY, DISMISSES CLARK RUMOURS
Great Britain coach Joe Prunty has overseen a troubled start in preparation for Eurobasket.
The newly appointed assistant coach of the Brooklyn Nets has not enjoyed the most glorious of beginnings with the GB squad. Despite a narrow win in London over Puerto Rico, the Brits have suffered heavy defeats to Finland, Greece and the latest loss coming against Sweden in Lublin, Poland.
Prunty, who will name his squad for Eurobasket on Monday will go into his first international tournament with GB without Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng, something he knew about before he even accepted the role and Portland Trailblazers’ Joel Freeland who chose to stay in Oregon and follow a training program.
To make matters worse, guards Andrew Lawrence and Alex Murcotullio have suffered injuries during the warm-up stages and he is still waiting on news of Dan Clark’s fitness, as the Zaragoza forward recovers from an ankle injury.
It is unlikely that Clark will suit up for Great Britain in Slovenia, according to team sources but the American coach is not concerning himself with Clark and says his focus is on the team he has in Poland.
“It’s a non-issue, there’s nothing to talk about,” Prunty said. “Dan is not with us and my focus right now is the guys we have right now so for me, there is nothing to talk about. The issue is what we’ve gone through against Sweden and how to prepare ourselves for the game against Poland.”
