By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
Russia, Greece and Sweden decided on their final squads and ready for the upcoming Eurobasket. In a press conference in Moscow, Russian federation president Julia Anikeeva announced that the target of the team is to get the ticket for next year’s FIBA World Cup and coach Vasily Karasev presented his final selection. Minessota’s Alexey Shved is the marquee name of the team which includes also Fridzon, Monya, Ponkrasov, Khvostov, Voronov, S. Karasev, Kulagin, Antonov, Valiev, Savrasenko and Sokolov.
In Greece the question of the last days was if coach Trinkieri will include in the team his player in Unics Kazan Ian Vougioukas, or Panionios’ Vasilis Kavadas. He finally decided to take in Slovenia Kavadas together with Spanoulis, Zisis, Sloukas, Bramos, Perperoglou, Kaimakoglou, Papanikolaou, Fotsis, Printezis, Mavrokefalidis and Bourousis.The official announcement is expected on Thursday night.
Also Sweden announced its final roster as coach Bradley Dean was waiting on injured forward Jonathan Skjöldebrand who will be ready for the tournament. The team includes two NBA players, Jonas Jerebko and Jeffery Taylor and also Anton Gaddefors, Viktor Gaddefors, Kenny Grant, Ludvig Hakansson, Joakim Kjellbom, Brice Massamba, Thomas Massamba, Dino Pita and Erik Rush.
Finally, as it was expected Matt Lojeski of Olympiacos will not make his debut with Belgium in the upcoming Eurobasket. A torn in his quadriceps muscle, suffered last weekend in Turkey will keep him out of the tournament and Quentin Serron was called up in order to replace him.