ANGT Crvena Zvedza players prepare for U19 Worlds camp

BELGRADE (FIBA U19 World Championship) - The next major tournament is right around the corner for the six Crvena Zvedza Telekom Belgrade players who played in the final of the Adidas Next Generation Tournament ANGT) and soon will enter Serbian training camp for the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship.

The sextet of Vojislav Stojanovic, Aleksandar Aranitovic, David Miladinovic, Aleksa Radanov, Nikola Rakicevic and Borisa Simanic will have extra motivation after losing to Real Madrid 73-70 in the ANGT final at the Euroleague Final Four in Madrid. The Crvena Zvezda players were hoping to become the first team to defend their junior title since FMP Belgrade in 2009.

Now Stojanovic, Miladinovic and company will head to the first training camp ahead of the 2015 U19 Worlds, which will take place from 27 June-5 July in Heraklion (Crete), Greece.

Serbian coach Aleksandar Bucan has called 24 players for the camp, which will start on 25 May. Bucan invited 11 of the 12 players who he coached to the title game of the 2014 U18 European Championship with Vuk Karadzic being the lone exception missing.

It's unclear how many of the 1996-born players Bucan will take after he also invited six players from the Serbian team that finished third at the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship - the Crvena Zvezda players Aranitovic, Miladinovic, Rakicevic and Stojanovic as well as Vanja Marinikovic from Partizan and Barcelona guard Stefan Peno, the latter two who played at both tournaments.

Bucan also wants to get a look at 1998-born Milos Glisic, who did not play for Serbia last summer because of a broken leg, as well as the U.S. high school duo of Balsa Dragovic and Dusan Kovacevic.

Serbia preliminary roster for 2015 FIBA U19 Worrld Championship: Jovan Andjelkovic, Aleksandar Aranitovic, Uros Carapic, Ilija Djokovic, Radovan Djokovic, Balsa Dragovic, Milos Glisic, Nikola Kocovic, Nikola Kostic, Dusan Kovacevic, Stefan Lazarevic, David Miladinovic, Vanja Marinikovic, Danilo Ostojic, Nikola Pavlovic, Stefan Peno, Matija Popovic, Aleksa Radanov, Marko Radovanovic, Nikola Rakicevic, Borisa Simanic, Stefan Simic, Vojislav Stojanovic, Vasilje Vucetic.

FIBA