These days, a few countries announced their first selections for the National teams for their upcoming competitions. We took a closer look at Spain, Serbia and France today.
First of all, the big news is of course the roster announced by new Spanish NT head coach Aito Garcia Renses. Ricky Rubio will replace Carlos Cabezas in the back court; additionally, the good season turned in by Victor Sada has been crowned with his selection for the preparation phase of the Olympic Games. Victor Claver and Juanjo Triguero are the other names less familiar on the squad. Of course, this first selection is not definitive, as we will certainly see some names dropping out before the trip to China. Here is the full selection:
Guards: Jose Manuel Calderon, Raul Lopez, Ricky Rubio, Victor Sada, Juan Carlos Navarro, Rudy Fernandez, Berni Rodriguez.
Forwards: Carlos Jimenez, Alex Mumbru, Jorge Garbajosa, Felipe Reyes, Victor Claver.
Centers: Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Juanjo Triguero.
The Serbian NT playing the qualification round for Eurobasket 2009 this September was announced this morning by new head coach Dusan Ivkovic. And the surprises were many, with popular names like Igor Rakocevic, Marko Jaric, PejaStojakovic and Sasha Pavlovic not named in the press conference. Ivkovic explained this step with the following.
The idea is to qualify for the Euro, then to create a team that will – and I take full liability for this – make it to the 2012 Olympic Games and play a central role at the Games. Our task is to create the winning mentality of the team and create a national team cult made up of individuals who will gladly play for their country and the people.
This isn’t a rejuvenation of the team, as I’ve called up the likes of Kecman and Krstovic, who earned their place with their performances last season. It’s possible some will have doubts over the selections I’ve made, but I can promise you now it will be a fine team.
Here is the full list announced by Ivkovic:
Guards: Miloš Vujanić, Bojan Popović, Stefan Marković, Miloš Teodosić, Milenko Tepić, Uroš Tripković, Dušan Kecman, Bojan Krstović.
Forwards: Branko Cvetković, Vuk Radivojević, Novica Veličković, Zoran Erceg, Tadija Dragićević, Luka Bogdanović.
Centers: Ivan Radenović, Nenad Krstić, Darko Miličić, Kosta Perović, Boban Marjanović.
The toughest task was probably new French NT head coach Michel Gomez’ after the refusal of most French NBA players and the non-consideration of some of the national league’s good players. So here is the list for the qualifying phase that has no fewer than 13 new names:
Guards: Yannick Bokolo, Laurent Cazalon, Nando de Colo, Mamoutou Diarra, Yakhouba Diawara, Thomas Dubioez, Cedric Ferchaud, William Gradit, Joseph Gomis, Aymeric Jeanneau, Marc-Antoine Pellin, Yohann Sangaré, Steed Tchicamboud.
Forwards: Nicolas Batum, Stephen Brun, Boris Diaw, Sacha Giffa, Tariq Kirksay, Ludovic Vaty, Dounia Issa.
Centers: Alexis Ajinca, Pape Badiane, Ian Mahinmi, Claude Marquis, Joakim Noah, Johan Petro, Ronny Turiaf.
