MADRID (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - Spain coach Sergio Scariolo has included Pablo Aguilar, Javier Beiran, Rodrigo San Miguel and Dario Brizuela on his 16-man list of players for the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers against Belarus and Montenegro.

Aguilar and Beiran were prevented from playing because of injuries in November, when Spain prevailed 79-66 over Montenegro in Podgorica before returning home and beating Slovenia in Burgos, 92-84.

San Miguel, the veteran point guard of last season's Basketball Champions League winners Iberostar Tenerife, and Beiran both played well on Thursday night to help Iberostar beat Valencia Basket in the Quarter-Finals of the Copa del Rey.

Brizuela is a former Spanish youth team star now on the books of Movistar Estudiantes.

"The list is a result of continuity, coherence with a group of players in which we believe in and a work that started almost a year ago and a very successful window in which the image was fantastic in terms of play, commitment and cohesion," Scariolo said.

"That is why we are maintaining the same line, total confidence to face this second challenge with solvency. I believe the team sense and the common experience of the first window can make us even stronger."

Players in the November window, Sergi Garcia and Oriol Pauli, are out due to injuries but in, Scariolo said, are "players like Beiran and Aguilar, who from the first moment were part of the project but due to injuries could not be in the November window."

Aguilar played for Spain at FIBA EuroBasket 2015 when they won the title in France.

Scariolo also expressed enthusiasm for the inclusion of San Miguel, saying of the Iberostar Tenerife playmaker: "Rodrigo San Miguel is one of the players that has always been close to the national team but due to the number of great quality players, many top ones in his place, he hasn't been able to make his debut."

Iberostar Tenerife's San Miguel deservedly gets the nod with Spain 

Spain play in Minsk on Friday, February 23, before returning home and hosting Montenegro in Zaragoza on Monday, February 26.

FIBA