Shved among 19 Russians nominated for crucial fifth window
MOSCOW (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - Aleksei Shved was included among the 19 players nominated for Russia's team for the crucial upcoming fifth window of FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers.
The 29-year-old Shved averaged 19.0 points and 6.0 assists for Russia in the September window, during which Sergey Bazarevich's team lost to Czech Republic and beat Bulgaria to move to 4-4 in third place in Group K.
Russia travel to Finland on November 30 and host Czech Republic on December 3.
| Russia's 19-player squad for FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers | |||
| Semen Antonov | Evgenii Baburin | Nikita Balashov | Joel Bolombey |
| Vitaly Fridzon | Petr Gubanov | Stanislav Ilnitskiy | Vladimir Ivlev |
| Sergey Karasev | Dmitry Khvostov | Artem Klimenko | Dmitrii Kulagin |
| Mikhail Kulagin | Nikita Kurbanov | Aleskei Shved | Ivan Ukhov |
| Evgeny Valiev | Andrey Vorontsevich | Andrey Zubkov | |
Knowing the importance of the window - Russia are fighting with 4-4 Finland in the group for third place and the final spot for China 2019 - Bazarevich is also calling on Shved's Khimki Moscow Region teammates Petr Gubanov and Andrey Zubkov as well as the CSKA sextet of Semen Antonov, Joel Bolombey, Mikhail Kulagin, Nikita Kurbanov, Ivan Ukhov and Andrey Vorontsevich.
The Russian Federation of Basketball president Andrei Kirilenko stressed the importance of these two games on the near future of the Russian team.
“I DON'T WANT TO EXAGGERATE BUT THE NEXT WINDOW IS CRUCIAL: THE ABSENCE OF PLAYERS FROM IT CAN 'COST' THE NATIONAL TEAM THREE YEARS OF LIFE.”
"If Russia don't qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 then they automatically will miss out on the Olympics for the second time in the row, in Tokyo 2020. That will imply that our national team will have the chance to play at a major event only in three years from now - at FIBA EuroBasket 2021," Kirilenko said. "I don't want to exaggerate but the next window is crucial. The absence of players from it can 'cost' the national team three years of life."
Bazarevich will meet with his team on November 25 at the Novogorsk training center before flying to Helsinki on November 29 for the Qualifier in Espoo. The Russian team will return home on December 1 and prepare for the Czech Republic game in Khimki Moscow Region.
Russia's final two Qualifiers will be at Bulgaria on February 21 and at home against Finland on February 24.
FIBA
