Eurobasket is a mere two days away, so to keep up with everything that is happening, TalkBasket’s John Hobbs, who himself flies out to Slovenia in around 24 hours time will provide you with various bits of news as we near Wednesday’s tip-off.
Teodosic loses fitness battle, Lucic also misses out
Serbia’s Milos Teodosic has admitted defeat in his battle to be fit in time for the side’s opener against Lithuania in Jesenice.
Head coach Dusan Ivkovic waited until the very last minute to announce his squad, with the hope that Teodosic might be able to recover from his calf injury, sustained in late-May while playing for club side CSKA Moscow.
Teodosic has not featured in any of Serbia’s warm-up games but kept positive that he would be fit for Eurobasket.
Ivkovic will also be without Vladimir Lucic for the team’s trip to Slovenia as the forward has not recovered from a back injury that he sustained during the first weeks of the team’s training camp.
Serbia will also face neighbours Montenegro, Latvia, FYR of Macedonia and Bosnia & Herzegovina in Group B.
Serbia team for Eurobasket: Stefan Markovic, Nemanja Nedovic, Vasilije Micic, Danilo Andjusic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nemanja Krstic, Nikola Kalinic, Nemanja Bjelica, Djordje Gagic, Vladimir Stimac, Nenad Krstic and Rasko Katic.
Israel name squad for Eurobasket
Alexsander Tyus has shaken off a groin injury and is included in the final Israeli squad that will play Great Britain on Wednesday in Ljubljana.
Like the Serbians, Israel coach Arik Shivek waited until the last minute to name his squad and unlike Ivokic, Shivek got what he wanted.
Guard Yuval Naimy and Alexey Chubrevich were the final two omissions from the national team.
“Alex [Chubrevich], made significant progress this summer and I have no doubt that he will be a significant part of the team in the future,” Shivek said.
“The fact that this summer he gained some first impressions of the team and was there from the first day of training camp until today [Saturday], is something that will help him a lot later on.”
Israel team for Eurobasket: Omri Casspi, Lior Eliyahu, Yaniv Green, Yotam Halperin, Nitzan Hanochi, Elishay Kadir, Ido Kozikaro, Raviv Limonad, Afik Nissim, Yogev Ohayon, Guy Pnini and Alexander Tyus.
Greece and Turkey name final teams (ed: sorry for lateness)
Greece and Turkey named their final squads a few days ago and, as expected, are sending strong rosters to Koper where they will be in Group D alongside Italy, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
Greece team for Eurobasket: Vassilis Spanoulis, Kostas Sloukas, Kostas Papanikolaou, Georgios Printezis, Stratos Perperoglou, Antonis Fotis, Nikos Zisis, Kostas Kaimakoglou, Michael Bramos, Loukas Mavrokefalidis, Vassilis Kavvadas and Yannis Bourousis.
Turkey team for Eurobasket: Doğuş Balbay, Sinan Güler, Kerem Gönlüm, Semih Erden, Serhat Çetin, Oğuz Savaş, Ömer Onan, Emir Preldzic, Ender Arslan, Ömer Faruk Aşık, Hedo Turkoglu and Ersan İlyasova.
Croatia lose Marko Tomas, en route to naming final 12
Croatia have named their final squad that will travel to Celje, and just like in 2009 plus the final three games of the groups rounds in 2011, Marko Tomas is injured.
Tomas injured a muscle while training on Thursday and has been told by team doctors to rest for the next three weeks.
“All five times I have torn a muscle in my career it happened to me while dribbling the ball, not on defence,” the disappointed 28-year-old told Vecernji List daily.
There are also doubts over the fitness of Roko Leni Ukic. The guard is included in the squad but is struggling with an achilles injury.
Croatia will face hosts Slovenia, champions Spain, Poland, Georgia and the Czech Republic in Group C.
Croatia team for Eurobasket: Roko Ukic, Ante Delas, Dontaye Draper, Bojan Bogdanovic, Krunoslav Simon, Damjan Rudez, Dario Saric, Luka Zoric, Luksa Andric, Mario Delas, Damir Markota and Ante Tomic.
