VILNIUS (2016 FIBA U17 World Championship) - The entire Lithuania team which took second place at last summer's U16 European Championship has been nominated to the 18-man preliminary roster for the 2016 FIBA U17 World Championship.

Captain Arnas Velicka and the rest of the team which lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina in last summer's U16 Euros Final in Kaunas will be hoping to compete in Zaragoza from 23 June-3 July.

Gediminas Petrauskas, the coach of the 2015 U16 side, says none of the players from Kaunas have a guaranteed spot for this summer, where they will take on hosts Spain, Argentina and Mali in Group B in Zaragoza.

We have a lot of candidates. Even those who won silver last year cannot be assured for the team. We will see which players have improved. - Petrauskas

The other six nominees who weren't on the U16 team are Mykolas Bitvinskas, Julius Daugela, Julius Liesis, Paulius Poska, Marius Valinskas and Domantas Vilys.

Poska and Vilys both have already played a lot of basketball with a good share of the U16 team from last year. They were part of the Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius team that competed at the 2016 Adidas Next Generation Tournament (ANGT) at the Euroleague Final Four. 

The Lietuvos Rytas players from the ANGT on the Lithuania roster are Lukas Kisunas, Vitalijus Kozys, Tadas Vaiciunas and Grantas Vasiliauskas, who were on the second-placed team from last summer.

Four more of the nominated players featured for Zalgiris Kaunas at the ANGT. They are Velicka, Elvis Juozaitis, Ignas Sargiunas and Lukas Uleckas.

The youth tournament was the main reason why Petrauskas was not able to start the team's training in earnest for the U17 Worlds. The Lithuanians started the camp in Klaipeda but there was the same number of players as coaches.

"But everything is solved now," said Petrauskas. 

The camp in Klaipeda will run until May 21 with further camps scheduled in Druskininkai, Kaunas and Vilnius before the tournament in Spain. Lithuania have set up warm-up games against Finland, Turkey and Canada in the build-up to the U17 Worlds. 

Petrauskas knows his team will have a tough test in Spain in Group B. 

"The group will definitely be challenging. There is not a wealth of information available about Argentina and Mali," he said.

"We know Spain. And knowing that they will be playing at home, the Spanish will be even stronger. No opponent is easy. We cannot underestimate anybody. We will try to finish as high in the group as possible to have an easier opponent in the Round of 16."

Lithuania 18-player preliminary roster for 2016 FIBA U17 World Championship: Aidas Bakutis, Tomas Balciunas, Mykolas Bitvinskas, Julius Daugela, Elvis Juozaitis, Lukas Kisunas, Vitalijus Kozys, Danielius Lavrinovicius, Julius Liesis, Paulius Poska, Ignas Sargiunas, Lukas Uleckas, Tadas Vaiciunas, Marius Valinskas, Arnas Velicka, Domantas Vilys, Grantas Vasiliauskas, Aidas Zitkus.

FIBA