Finns name experienced squad ahead of World Cup Qualifiers
HELSINKI (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - Finland will be looking for veterans Petteri Koponen, Sasu Salin and Shawn Huff to spearhead the Susijengi's efforts next month when the FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers tip off.
Coach Henrik Dettmann has named all three in a 19-man squad ahead of the Finns' First Round Group F game at Bulgaria in Botevgrad on November 24. Finland will return home to face the Czech Republic three days later in Helsinki.
Nine of the players on the list featured at FIBA EuroBasket 2017.
Here it is, the 19-man #Susijengi squad ahead of World Cup qualifiers against BUL 🇧🇬 (24.11.) and CZE 🇨🇿 (27.11.) #FIBAWC pic.twitter.com/IGS9MSK6LP
— Basket.fi (@basketfinland) October 19, 2017
Koponen and Salin were the second and third-leading scorers in the team at FIBA EuroBasket 2017, with 13.3 and 11.7 points per game, respectively.
Huff has been playing for the national team since 2004, when they were in the old EuroBasket Division B.
There is also a double-dose of Murphys. Nanterre 92 big man Erik Murphy, who played at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and at the two FIBA EuroBaskets that have followed, is again on the list as well as his younger brother, Alex, who is in his rookie season with Kataja Basket in Finland's Korisliiga. Erik was the last cut on the FIBA EuroBasket 2017 roster, failing to pass a medical check on the eve of the competition tipping off.
Erik Murphy (left) and younger brother Alex are in Finland's preliminary squad
Finland will know that Bulgaria is not a team to be taken lightly, even though it had to make it through to the FIBA Basketball World Cup European Pre-Qualifiers. The Bulgarians beat both Portugal and Belarus twice to seal a place in the Qualifiers.
Czech Republic finished seventh at FIBA EuroBasket 2015 but did not advance from the Group Phase in this summer's competition.
Twenty-year-old Lauri Markkanen, who made a splash with Finland's senior team at FIBA EuroBasket 2017, has just begun his rookie season in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls and is unable to play in the November and February World Cup Qualifiers.
However, he may be available for the games at the end of the First Round, when the Susijengi play at the Czech Republic on June 29 and host Iceland on July 2.
FIBA
