POL - Bauermann cuts four

WARSAW (EuroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Dirk Bauermann has experienced the thrill of coaching at the FIBA World Championship before.

He led Germany at the 2006 and '10 events in Japan and Turkey, respectively.

Now he is attempting to reach the 24-team FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain as the coach of Poland.

Bauermann has the difficult task of reducing his squad to the 12 players that will travel to Slovenia for the EuroBasket, a qualifying event for next year's tournament.

He has cut four players from his 21-man group, letting go Alexander Czyz, Jakub Dloniak, Piotr Pamula and Jakub Wojciechowski.

"Selecting the first players is always difficult," Bauermann said.

Among the 17 players still in the squad are the twin towers of Maciej Lampe and Marcin Gortat.

The rest are Michael Chylinski, Tomasz Gielo, Adam Hrycaniuk, Michal Ignerski, Przemyslaw Karnowski, Thomas Kelati, Lukasz Koszarek, Damian Kulig, Michal Michalak, Mateusz Ponitka, Szymon Szewczyk, Krzysztof Szubarga, Adam Waczynski, Lukasz Wisniewski and Przemyslaw Zamojski.

Poland hosted the EuroBasket in 2009 and advanced from the opening round but then came up short of the Quarter-Finals and missed out on the World Championship.

At the EuroBasket in Slovenia, the Poles will go up against Georgia, Croatia, Spain, the Czech Republic and the tournament hosts.

The top six sides at the EuroBasket will qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

If Spain are in the first six, then the top seven teams will earn a place in next year’s event.

FIBA