Home FIBA EuroBasket 2013 Four more nations announce EuroBasket squads

Four more nations announce EuroBasket squads

As Eurobasket draws ever nearer, four more teams have announced their final squads that will travel to Slovenia.

Germany name final squad

26-year-old Nicolai Simon is the final cut from the German roster as they name their squad for Eurobasket.

Coach Frank Menz saw his side lose their final preparation game last night to Sweden in Bamberg but is happy with the squad selection.

Germany are in Ljubljana for the group stages, as they face France, Great Britain, Israel, Ukraine and Belgium in Group A.

Germany team for Eurobasket: Niels Giffey, Per Günther, Philip Zwiener, Heiko Schaffartzik, Karsten Tadda, Lucca Staiger, Tibor Pleiss, Robin Benzing, Bastian Doreth, Andreas Seiferth, Maik Zirbes and Alex King.

Montenegro name formidable roster

Nikola Pekovic might have pulled out, but Montenegro has still named a strong team that will fly out to Slovenia on Monday.

The other notable absentee from the roster is forward Marko Todorovic, who has a hand injury.

Despite those names missing from the final team, Orlando Magic center Nikola Vucevic is included and Tyrese Rice replaces Taylor Rochestie as the team’s naturalised player.

“Rochestie and Rice are both excellent people and at a high level as players,” Montenegro coach Luka Pavicevic explained.

“They have different qualities to their game, especially in the physical aspect and after analysing the situation during two months of preparation, I decided it was best for the team to travel to Slovenia with Rice.

“Taylor would not have been the wrong decision, but we had to choose only one, and the choice was Rice in the end.”

Montenegro have been drawn in possibly the toughest group of the four in Group B with FYR of Macedonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Montenegro team for Eurobasket: Tyrese Rice, Nikola Ivanovic, Suad Sehovic, Bojan Bakic, Aleksa Popovic, Sead Sehovic, Marko Popovic, Vladimir Dasic, Milko Bjelica, Nikola Vucevic, Blagota Sekulic and Bojan Dubljevic.

Great Britain’s final 12 chooses itself

While the signs don’t look great for Great Britain, the final 12 chosen is just as enthusiastic about arriving at the Hala Tivoli for their opener against Israel on Wednesday.

Luol Deng, Joel Freeland and Pops Mensah-Bonsu are notable exclusions from the team and Dan Clark was not able to recover from injury as four players will make competitive debuts, including Scottish pairing Ali Fraser and Glasgow Rocks forward Gareth Murray. Liam Potter and Justin Robinson are the other two players.

Another Scot, Alex Murcotullio was the final cut, largely due to a consistent ankle injury.

“It didn’t help,” GB coach Joe Prunty said. “The bottom line is when you get to the last cut, it’s always going to be a difficult decision. With Alex, he has a tremendous work ethic and he brings a lot and it’s unfortunate for him that he’s not been able to play.”

Great Britain team for Eurobasket: Andrew Sullivan, Ogo Adegboye, Kieron Achara, Eric Boateng, Ali Fraser, Andrew Lawrence, Myles Hesson, Kyle Johnson, Gareth Murray, Liam Potter, Justin Robinson and Devon van Oostrum.

Lithuania go big for Slovenia

Lithaunia will have an abundance of forwards and centers at Eurobasket as their 12 players were named.

The hosts of two years ago will play their final warm-up game tomorrow against Georgia in Kaunas before travelling to Slovenia.

Adas Juskevicius and Vytenis Cizauskas are the final two players to be released from the roster.

“Both of them are young players and I hope that the time they spent this summer in preparations will be very useful to them,” commented Kazlauskas.

“They didn’t make the team this time around but they will get their chance again next year and they will be more experienced and improved.”

Juskevicius will however stay with the national team for their game tomorrow in Kaunas.

Lithaunia team for Eurobasket: Tomas Delininkaitis, Robertas Javtokas, Mantas Kalnietis, Linas Kleiza, Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Darjus Lavrinovic, Ksistof Lavrinovic, Jonas Maciulis, Donatas Motiejunas, Martynas Pocius, Renaldas Seibutis and Jonas Valanciunas.

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