SRB - Ivkovic makes three more cuts

BELGRADE (FIBA World Championship) - Serbia coach Dusan Ivkovic has been agonising over it for days, and on Wednesday he made three more cuts to his squad for the FIBA World Championship.

Forward Ivan Radenovic, center Boban Marjanovic and guard Bojan Popovic were the unlucky trio to get the news.

Ivkovic made the announcement a day before the team is due to head to Turkey to play in the Istanbul Cup, a warm-up tourmanent also involving Turkey, New Zealand and Iran.

"Radenovic was really good with his club (Cajasol) and had experience with us from our preparations for the EuroBasket last year, but we decided to take Milan Macvan instead, mainly because of his greater experience," Ivkovic said.

Radenovic, 26, is five years older than Macvan who has played for Serbia - at junior and then senior level - every year since making his debut at the U16 European Championship in 2005.

Marjanovic, 21, was considered a dark horse to make an impact in Turkey, but the 7ft 2in big man could not get past the enormous competition in the Serbia squad.

"We've had a huge dilemma when it came to cutting one of our centers, but captain Nenad Krstic, together with (Kosta) Perovic and (Miroslav) Raduljica had the advantage over Marjanovic," Ivkovic said.

"Boban worked very well, but he can be even better, as there's still lot of room for improvement."

Popovic lost out in the battle at point guard to Milos Teodosic and Stefan Markovic, while Ivkovic has plenty of other options in the guard positions with Milenko Tepic, Aleksandar Rasic, Ivan Paunic and the surprising choice, Dragan Milosavljevic of Radnicki Kragujevac.

"It's all about chemistry in our team," Ivkovic said. "That was reason why Popovic didn't make the cut this time. His contribution to our successes in 2009 was huge, he was brilliant in all our efforts, but every single year a coach has this kind of tough decision to make at a certain point."

Serbia will take on Argentina, Australia, Germany, Angola and Jordan in Group A of the FIBA World Championship.

Serbia squad: Milos Teodosic, Stefan Markovic, Milenko Tepic, Aleksandar Rasic, Dragan Milosavljevic, Ivan Paunic, Marko Keselj, Nemanja Bjelica, Milan Macvan, Dusko Savanovic, Novica Velickovic, Nenad Krstic, Kosta Perovic, Miroslav Raduljica.

FIBA