Seven U16 European silver medalists among 15 players for Spanish camp

MADRID (Spain) - Spain will head to the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2021 with a core of players who know what it's like to stand on the podium on the international stage as seven silver medalists from the FIBA U16 European Championship 2018 were among the 15 players nominated for the Spanish U19 training camp.

Spain head coach Javi Zamora gave callups to Hector Alderete, Ruben Dominguez, Guillem Ferrando, Jeffrey Isima (formerly Godspower), Adria Domenech, Javi Rodriguez and Pau Tendero, who together reached the U16 continental final in 2018 but lost to Croatia 71-70 in a thriller.

Aldrete was that team's second-leading scorer at 14.0 points per game while Tendero also averaged in double figures at 10.7 points per game. Isima ranked second on the team with 9.6 rebounds a contest and Dominguez chipped in 8.9 points as the only 2003-born player on the team.

 
Dominguez played at the tournament the following summer with his own age group and won the title at the FIBA U16 European Championship 2019. The guard also took home the MVP trophy after leading the team in scoring at 13.4 points per game. Dominguez is one of two 2003-born players that head coach Javi Zamora invited to the U19 training camp along with Hugo Lopez.

Zamora is a veteran Spanish youth national team coach and has been on the podium a fair share himself. He was head coach when Spain took second at the FIBA U16 European Championship 2018 and won the title at the FIBA U18 European Championship.

This will be Zamora's third appearance at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup as he was an assistant in 2015 and 2017, when the team finished eighth and fourth, respectively. He also has good memories of the 2021 U19 World Cup host country Latvia as he claimed two bronze medals there as Spanish assistant coach at the FIBA U16 European Championship 2013 and FIBA U18 European Championship 2014.

Zamora's selection of players is noteworthy also because of the breakdown of the clubs for whom they play.

Aldrete, Dominguez and Lopez all play for Estudiantes while Guillem Ferrando and Millan Jimenez have both played two games this season for Valencia's pro team in the ACB. Unicaja Malaga have two players at the training camp in Pablo Sanchez and Isima with Rodriguez having played with the club until 2020 when he moved to the Get Better Academy in Prague.

The other seven players all come from different clubs, including Alonso Faure, who played last season collegiately in the United States at Loyola University Maryland. Aitor Etxeguren (Zaragoza) and Marc Penarroya (Manresa) both appeared in the Basketball Champions League in the 2019-20 season with the latter being the son of Juan Penarroya, who just coached Hereda San Pablo Burgos to back-to-back Basketball Champions League titles. Meanwhile, Tendero is the only player from Barcelona and there are no players from Real Madrid.

Spain have been drawn into Group C along side with Argentina, France and Korea at the tournament from July 3-11 in Daugavpils and Riga in Latvia.

FIBA