KYIV (FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers) - Ukraine head coach Yevgen Murzin announced on Wednesday a 25-strong preliminary roster which is poised to have both the lowest average age and the highest average height among teams at the upcoming FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers.

Approximately a quarter of the Ukrainian preliminary team, six players out of the 25, is made up of 'seven-footers' (2.13m).

Two of those big men, '85-born Oleksiy Pecherov and '86-born Kyrylo Fesenko, are the two eldest players on this squad while fellow seven-footer Alex (Oleksii) Len, headlines a group of 12 players who have not yet reached the age of 25.

The 23-year-old Phoenix Suns center last suited up for Ukraine at the U18 European Championship of 2010. Coach Murzin however commented that Ukrainian basketball federation (FBU) president Mikhail Brodsky has been in contact with the talented big man, and they are confident Len could finally make his long-awaited senior national team debut this summer.

Two other promising young players upon whom Ukraine has deposited big hopes for the future, Joel (Hoel) Bolomboy and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, have also been included on the 25-man squad.

The 22-year-old Bolomboy, who has not yet suited up for the national team, is a 2.06m power forward who completed his NCAA career with Weber State and aims to be selected in the 2016 NBA draft.

Mykhailiuk meanwhile had turned heads in September 2014, as he made his senior debut at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain barely two months after his 17th birthday.

The University of Kansas point guard did not declare for the NBA draft this year and will play instead one more season in the NCAA, a development which should boost his chances of suiting up for the national team this summer.

Ukraine are also hopeful that arguably the strongest piece of their backcourt line-up, Sergii Gladyr, will return to the national team after missing out at FIBA EuroBasket 2015.

Murzin said that he expects the sharp-shooting Gladyr, who is currently immersed in the French Pro A league play-off race with AS Monaco, to play in the Qualifiers as long as he stays healthy until the end of the French campaign.

Gladyr would then pair-up in the backcourt with US-born point guard Jerome Randle, who became a naturalised Ukrainian citizen last year. Randle made his debut with Ukraine at FIBA EuroBasket 2015 and averaged 13.2 points and 4.4 assists per contest.

While 17 of the 25 players on the preliminary squad ply their trade outside Ukraine, coach Murzin followed both domestic leagues closely this year and decided to call-up three players from Khimik Yuzhne, the newly crowned champions who reached the quarter-finals of the FIBA Europe Cup.

"I was particularly impressed by [Volodymyr] Koniev and [Viacheslav] Petrov of Khimik, as well as [Oleksandr] Antypov, all three of whom have been included on the squad," Murzin said.

"We also singled out some other players, we will keep an eye on them and we have pencilled them in for the future team calls."

Murzin has recently been appointed head coach of Budivelnik Kiev, a club he had coached previously in 2008.

"I don't believe that my parallel commitment to Budivelnik Kiev will pose a problem, right now there are plenty of other national team coaches who combine that role with working at a club," he said.

"I see it as welcome challenge and will join my new club after the end of the Qualifiers."

Ukraine were drawn in Group E of the FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers, together with Slovenia, Bulgaria and newcomers Kosovo.

FIBA