Great Britain announce future-proof 24-strong preliminary squad

LONDON (FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers) – Great Britain head coach Joe Prunty announced on Friday a youthful 24-man preliminary team for this summer's FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers. National team captain Daniel Clark and fellow veteran Kieron Achara headline a list which is mainly compiled of players of up to 26 years of age.

Great Britain preliminary squad for FIBA EuroBasket Qualifiers
Kieron Achara	Matthew Bryan Amaning	Fahro Alihodzic	Ogo Adegboye
Eric Boateng	Chris Caird	Daniel Clark	Alistair Fraser
Robert Gilchrist	Ben Gordon	Joe Hart	Ashley Hamilton
Kyle Johnson	Andrew Lawrence	Gareth Murray	Ben Mockford
Will Neighbour	Teddy Okereafor	Gabe Olaseni	Justin Robinson
Will Saunders	Justin Sears	Alex Young	Zak Wells

 

The big man duo are of course not the only players with international experience on this summer's team as coach Prunty has also called on Eric Boateng, Kyle Johnson, Ogo Adegboye, Justin Robinson and Matthew Bryan Amaning.

While all these players have at least one major tournament with Great Britain under their belt, a 33-year-old veteran looks poised to make his long-awaited debut with the national team in this qualifying campaign, as Ben Gordon has been included on the preliminary squad.

The former Charlotte Bobcats, Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls point guard has never suited up for Great Britain, although he was on the initial list for both FIBA EuroBasket 2011 and for the London Games the following year.

Eight players who made their senior national team debut only last summer form part of the team, in Alex Young, Joe Hart, Teddy Okereafor, Will Saunders, Robert Gilchrist, Fahro Alihodzic, Zak Wells and Chris Caird. Meanwhile Gabe Olaseni and Joe Hart are hoping to pull on the Great Britain jersey for the first time in their career.

"It has been extremely challenging already to name the squad," Prunty said. "Camp invitations for this campaign are the most competitive they have been. As with every year, naming the squad has its unique challenges but the amount of passion for the programme has grown immensely since 2013. Spots will continue to become more competitive in the future and that is a good thing.

"There are players not named to the final 24 for various reasons. Each player every summer is in a different situation which presents different issues. Myles Hesson, for example, has grown tremendously in the last three years. We have a great relationship with Myles and we know he is still part of the British Basketball family,” the coach concluded.

Great Britain will conduct the first stage of their training camp in Coimbra, Portugal, in early August. The Portuguese city will be the stage of their first warm-up game, on 12 August against Germany, while the following day the Brits will take on Portugal. Prunty's troops will face Slovenia in Ljubljana on 20 August and will then return to Manchester to play host to the Netherlands in back-to-back friendlies on 26 and 27 August.

The FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers tip off on 31 August and Great Britain were drawn in Group G with Hungary, MKD and Luxembourg.

FIBA