Turkey name 24 players in preliminary squad for World Cup Qualifiers
ISTANBUL (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - Turkey will be hoping to build on the excitement its national team generated this summer as one of the host nations for FIBA EuroBasket 2017 when it plays in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers.
With the 24-man squad named by Ufuk Sarica ahead of the Qualifiers on November 24 against Latvia in Bursa and at Ukraine in Kiev two days later, there should be plenty of enthusiasm.
| The 24-man Turkey squad ahead of World Cup Qualifiers against Latvia and Ukraine | ||||
| Dogus Balbay | Birkan Batuk | Tolga Gecim | Erkan Veyseloglu | Sertac Sanlı |
| Kenan Sipahi | Samet Geyik | Furkan Aldemir | Okben Ulubay | Dogus Ozdemiroglu |
| Sinan Guler | Ali Muhammed | Melih Mahmutoglu | Barıs Hersek | Egehan Arna |
| Mehmet Yagmur | Huseyin Goksenin Koksal | Ege Arar | Semih Erden | Berk Ibrahim Ugurlu |
| Metin Turen | Akif Egemen Guven | J.Metecan Birsen | Yigit Arslan | |
Turkey's other Group B opponents will be Sweden with the first of their two games to be played on February 23 in Scandinavia.
Among those named are two players that had breakout EuroBaskets in Melih Mahmutoglu and Kenan Sipahi.One of the players that has shone at youth level to have been named among the 23 is Egemen Guven, the 21-year-old center of Basketball Champions League side Pinar Karsiyaka.
Sarica's team played up-tempo basketball this summer, winning a lot of fans with its efforts in Group D. The team managed to beat Great Britain and Belgium and nearly overcame Russia and Serbia.
In the Round of 16, Turkey lost to Spain, which has a FIBA World Ranking of No. 2.
FIBA
