European champions bolster U20 Greek bid to earn promotion
ATHENS (FIBA U20 European Championship Division B) – Rising stars Vasilis Charalampopoulos and Georgios Papagiannis headline the impressive-looking preliminary team for July's FIBA U20 European Championship Division B which Greece head coach Ilias Papatheodorou announced on Thursday.
| U20 Greece preliminary team | |||
| Kostas Antetokounmpo | Sotiris Billis | Vasileios Charalampopoulos | Nikolaos Diplaros |
| Dimitrios Flionis | Antonis Koniaris | Thomas Kottas | Michail Lountzis |
| Nikos Maragkidis | Iakovos Milentigievits Alifieris | Vasileios Mouratos | Athanasios Ntouzidis |
| Georgios Papagiannis | Dionysis Skoulidas | Dimitris Stamatis | Vasileios Toliopoulos |
| Georgios Tsalmpouris | |||
The 17-man list includes a further seven members of the Greek national team which stepped at the top of the podium at the FIBA U18 European Championship last summer, in addition to Charalampopoulos who was named MVP and Papagiannis who also made the All-Star Five of that tournament. The remaining European champions are 1997-born Dionysis Skoulidas, who averaged 9.9 points and 4.7 rebounds at the U18 event last summer, Iakovos Milentigievits Alifieris, Vasileios Mouratos, Nikolaos Diplaros, Athanasios Ntouzidis and Dimitrios Flionis and 1998-born guard Michail Lountzis.
Οι επιλογές για την Εθνική Νέων Ανδρών https://t.co/yLNr5VYAZQ pic.twitter.com/Z4LMDyRXCM
— Hellenic Basketball (@HellenicBF) June 9, 2016
This summer's preliminary U20 Greek team also includes guard Antonis Koniaris, who missed out on both the European competition and the FIBA U19 World Championship last year, due to injury. The two newcomers to the national team mix are the youngest of the Antetokounmpo sage, Kostas, who currently stands at 2.06m and fellow 1997-born forward Nikos Maragkidis.
The U20 Greek side will commence preparations in Athens on Monday 13 June. Greece, who were relegated to Division B last summer for the first time in history, play host to the Division B event which tips off 15 July in Chalkida. The hosts were drawn in Group C together with Albania, Ireland, Great Britain, Kosovo and Netherlands.
FIBA
