This national team journey has , unfortunately come to an end for Fran Guerra and Juan N¨˜ez, who were the last players cut from the Spanish national team by head coach Sergio Scaiolo. Guerra, a 29-year-old center who played for Lenovo Tenerife of the Spanisch ACB league, averaged 2.5 points and 2.5 rebounds in 9 minutes per game in the two World Cup Qualifying matchups. N¨˜ez, an 18-yea-old 6’3″ point guard who has drawn some attention from NBA scouts with his playmaking and ability to run a team, averaged 1.0…
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FIBA news: Italian team cuts Amedeo Della Valle
The Italian national team journey for Amedeo Della Valle has ended, as the 29-year-old, 6’4” (193 cm) guard was cut from the squad. Della Valle’s cutting trimmed the roster down to 13, with one-more to come to conform the roster to FIBA regulations. Italian national team coach Gianmarco Pozzecco said this of the latest roster trimming: It’s another difficult choice and that makes me suffer. I thank Amedeo, who is not inferior to anyone as demonstrated by the exceptional season he had this year. In the national team, however, it…
Read MoreEuroBasket 2022 News: Andrew Albicy returns to French national team
Monday morning the French Federation of Basketball announced that point guard Andrew Albicy has been medically cleared to rejoin the senior national team. Albicy had been on the shelf for the past three weeks due to a thigh injury. His return to the team now swells the roster to 13 , meaning there will have to be at least one player trimmed to comply with FIBA rules, which allows for 12 players. There is also hope that center Moustapha Fall can rejoin the team; he was initially cut because of…
Read MoreFIBA News: Poland gets second exhibition win
Poland closed out its pre-competition exhibitions with a 87-76 win over Georgia. Michal Michalak led Poland, knocking down 6 from downtown en route to a team-high 22 points. Poland will compete in Group D of the 2022 Eurobasket in Prague, along with host nation the Czech Republic, Serbia, Israel, Finland and the Netherlands, all with the goal of securing a berth in the the elimination round in Berlin. Poland will jump into Group E play for Eurbasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers with a home matchup against Croatia and a road game versus…
Read MoreLithuania finishes friendly play undefeated with blowout of the Netherlands
Lithuania finished off the friendly match portion of their World Cup Qualifier and Eurobasket prep in emphatic fashion with a 94-68 thrashing of the Netherlands. Ignas Brazdeikis led the charge with 16 points, team captain Jonas Valančiūnas recorded 14 points, eight rebounds, 2 assists, and a block in 17 minutes of action. Domantas Sabonis of the Sacramento Kings scored 10 points, 5 boards, and four assists in 18 minutes of work. For the Netherlands Olaf Schaftenaar led all their scorers with 17 points; this loss took them to 0-5 on this…
Read MoreEurobasket News: France cuts William Howard
Friday the French Federation of Basketball announced that William Howard was cut from the senior national team. The 28-year-olf forward was cut after the last friendly game against Belgium, which France won, 90-71. This trim the French team down to 12 players, which is the roster size allowed by FIBA rules. Though they are at the required size, the squad is not cemented as the team is waiting to see if Moustapha Fall and Andrew Albicy can recover from their injuries in time to play in the upcoming international competitions.…
Read MoreEuroBasket News: France beats up Belgium,90-71
France defeated a Belgium team that managed to hang around for one half of competitive basketball, Belgium only trailed by nine, 44-35 at halftime, before ultimately being dispatched, 90-71. Belgium’s frigid shooting, just 34.4% from the floor, and inability to stop the French offensive attack proved to be their undoing. For the victorious “Bleus”. Thomas Heurtel led the way with 13 points and 6 assists; Rudy Robert scored 12 points Fournier chipped in 10 points and 5 rebounds of his own. Retin Obasohan paced Belgium with 14 points and Jonathan…
Read MoreFIBA News: Sloukas leads Greece past Georgia, 80-67
Without Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was vested for the second of back-to-back exhibition games, the Greek national team was still able to defeat Georgia, 80-67. Kostas Sloukas’ 21 points, on 9/13 from the floor, lead the way for Greece. The Greek team needed all 21 of those points, as they only shot 8/34 from downtown and were even beaten on the boards by Georgia, 41-36. Sloukas, who has not been practicing with the team for a week ( just 5 days) , got some help from Kostas Antetokounmpo and Tyler Dorsey,…
Read MoreFIBA News: Finland defect Ukraine in OT,Lauri Markkanen drops 42
Lauri Markkanen got busy, dropping 42 big ones, in powering Finland to a 97-94 overtime win over Ukraine in a pre-Eurobasket exhibition game. In a performance that cavaliers fans hope to see ( and One Bulls fans never got) in the Association, Markkanen was a grown man in his 38 minutes of action, also grabbing nine rebounds and 3 steals to go along with the prodigious scoring output. Alexander Madsen chipped in 15 points, and Sasu Salin contributed 11. Svi Mykhailiuk led Ukraine with 20 points in a losing effect;…
Read MoreEuroBasket 2022: Luka says ”We are going to Germany to win gold”
On the eve of an anticipated Serbia/Slovenia exhibition game in Lubljana, Luka Doncic made it quite known that his goal was for his nation, Slovenia, the 2017 EuroBasket champions, to defend their crown at EuroBasket 2022. In speaking to local media, the Dallas Mavericks star had this to say: “Who’s talking about what kind of pressure? We are going to Germany to win gold. In every competition where we compete, the goal must always be the first place. We will do everything for it, but we will see if we…
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