Last chance to impress for 14 remaining Latvian candidates
RIGA (2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments) - Latvia head coach Ainars Bagatskis has trimmed his preliminary squad to 14 players by releasing point guard Kaspars Vecvagars and power forward Rolands Freimanis prior to the Baltic nation's last two warm-up games in the run-up to the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Belgrade.
| Latvia 14-player squad for 2016 FIBA OQT in Belgrade |
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| Dairis Bertans | Janis Berzins | Kaspars Berzins | Janis Blums |
| Ingus Jakovics | Martins Meiers | Mareks Mejeris | Anzejs Pasecniks |
| Zanis Peiners | Ojars Silins | Aigars Škele | Rolands Šmits |
| Janis Strelnieks | Janis Tima | ||
"I want to say a big thanks to both players for their professional attitude and their great desire to represent the country," said Bagatskis in reference to Freimanis and Vecvagars, who had helped Latvia reach the quarter-finals of last year's FIBA EuroBasket 2015 and were hoping to follow up with the OQT this summer.
"Unfortunately we need to reduce the list of candidates after assessing the current condition of each player and how they fit the style of play of the team. I hope that both Rolands and Kaspars will prove us wrong during the upcoming season and will earn back a spot on the national team next summer, at FIBA EuroBasket 2017."
The remaining 14 players will get the chance to convince Bagatskis they should be on final 12-man roster that will travel to Belgrade during the Monday night friendly at Arena Riga against New Zealand. Following the announcement of the last two cuts during the course of Tuesday, Latvia will play host to Iran later that night. New Zealand are preparing for the OQT in Manila while Iran will compete in the Torino OQT.
Nāc un atbalsti savējos ceļā uz Olimpisko kval. turnīru! 19:00 spēle ar Tunisiju arī @sportacentrs_com TV tiešraidē. pic.twitter.com/oV3jlIywOJ
— Basket.lv (@basketbols) 22 June 2016
Influential point guard Janis Strelnieks might not feature in Monday's game but that does not mean he will not on the 12-man roster. Strelnieks had been nursing an ankle injury from the German Beko BBL finals, where he helped Brose Baskets Bamberg win the title, and only managed to complete his first full training session with the rest of his Latvia team-mates on Sunday.
While Bagatskis and his staff are not entirely sure they should risk playing Strelnieks against New Zealand, now that the playmaker has recovered full fitness he should probably be considered certain to play at the OQT and resume his role as Latvia's floor general.
Following the game against Iran, the Latvians will travel to Belgrade, where they will face Japan in the OQT Group B opener on Monday. Latvia will then take on Czech Republic and, should they advance from the group, they will face one of Serbia, Angola or Puerto Rico in one of the Semi-Finals. The Semi-Finals winners will meet in the Final which decides the winner of the tournament, who gets the coveted ticket to Rio.
FIBA
