LJUBLJANA (FIBA EuroBasket 2017) – Having long tantalized European basketball fans with extraordinary individual talent, the medal-hungry Slovenia have once again assembled an intriguing group of players for the summer ahead.

Headlined by Miami Heat star Goran Dragic and teen phenom Luka Doncic, the national team's 29-player preliminary squad for the FIBA EuroBasket 2017 raises the bar of expectations even higher than usual.

Slovenia preliminary 29-player squad for FIBA EuroBasket 2017
Jan Barbaric	Mirza Begic	Jaka Blazic	Tomaz Bolcina	Vlatko Candar
Jakob Cebasek	Ziga Dimec	Luka Doncic	Goran Dragic	Tadej Ferme
Gregor Hrovat	Erjon Kastrati	Jaka Klobucar	Jan Kosi	Martin Krampelj
Luka Lapornik	Miha Lapornik	Blaz Mahkovic	Edo Muric	Aleksen Nikolic
Mitja Nikolic	Alen Omic	Klemen Prepelic	Matic Rebec	Luka Rupnik
Zan Mark Sisko	Miha Vasl	Gasper Vidmar	Sasa Zagorac

The Igor Kokoskov-coached Slovenia will not only have arguably the most exciting one-two punch of the entire tournament, but also a versatile and mightily-equipped surrounding cast in other positions, with the injured Zoran Dragic being the only notable absentee.

"After a long season and close monitoring of potential candidates, I have included 29 players on the expanded squad for FIBA EuroBasket 2017, with the main criteria being their performance at club level and progress in recent years," said the 45-year-old specialist from Serbia in charge of the Slovenian national team.

Having qualified to the Final Round of FIBA EuroBasket 2017 via the Qualifiers, the core of the side remains almost identical, with the likes of Klemen Prepelic, Gasper Vidmar, Edo Muric, Jaka Blazic and Alen Omic right after Dragic in the chain of command.

On top of that, the coaching staff will have some new pieces to work with this summer as well, with experienced 31-year-old Cedevita Zagreb big man Mirza Begic and 24-year-old Montakit Fuenlabrada point guard Luka Rupnik returning to the national team.

"We are still following the end-of-season battles in leagues featuring the candidates on our list. The most important thing is for the players to take advantage of the break after the club season and recover both mentally and physically, so they arrive to training camp healthy and motivated to start preparations," stated Kokoskov, looking ahead.

The extended 29-player list will be narrowed down to a smaller group even before the start of the training camp, with coach Kokoskov announcing his selection at the end of June.

Having been drawn to Group A, Goran Dragic and company will travel to play the Group Phase in Finland, where they will go up against the France, Greece, Iceland, Poland and hosts Finland.

FIBA