A double dose of quality for Belgium

ANTWERP (EuroBasket 2015) - A couple of EuroBasket rookies are sure to make a positive impact for the Belgian Lions this year when the national team makes a third consecutive appearance in the Final Round.

One of them is Matt Lojeski of Olympiacos, a shooting guard who was in line to make his bow at the tournament two years ago but got hurt in the preparations and missed the event.

The other is power forward Pierre-Antoine Gillet, who was recently named as the Belgium domestic league's Player of the Year following a terrific campaign with Telenet Oostende.

As he showed at the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four this past weekend, when scoring a game-high 17 points in Olympiacos's 78-59 defeat to Real Madrid in the title showdown, the 1.98m Lojeski is a tremendous player.

After picking up a knock early in the season and missing several games, Lojeski has returned to top form.

He was hugely disappointed not to win the title, but nevertheless grateful to have made it that far.

Eddy Casteels, the Belgium coach, says Lojeski's name is already pencilled into the squad.

"If you have a player that plays for Real Madrid that makes it to the [Euroleague] Final Four," he said, "or plays for Olympiacos as Lojeski does and makes it the Final Four, if you have that kind of talent, for a country like Belgium, you have to take advantage of that situation.

"It's not like you have 10 or 15 players competing at that kind of level in the Belgium team."

Casteels gets excited when he talks about the development of Lojeski, a player who launched his professional career at Okapi Aalstar in 2007.

"I have to recognize how he grew from Okapi Aalstar and went to Oostende, and how he grew from Oostende and went to Olympiacos," Casteels said.

"He developed into a champion.

"Top talent like Matt didn't have luck in his career to make it in the States, but he's proved how good he is."

Lojeski wasn't able to play at EuroBasket 2013, but he did help Belgium in qualifying for this year's event.

Gillet, meanwhile, who has seen his career take off at Telenet Oostende, where he plays for coach Dario Gjergja, has already celebrated one great moment this year.

He helped his club lift the Belgian Cup.

The 24-year-old says he was not expecting to be named Player of the Year.

"I thank the coach, the staff, my teammates and the whole Oostende club," he said.

"This is a surprise to me, but a very pleasant one."

Gillet has played for Belgium in their last two qualification campaigns.

As part of their preparations, Belgium will host four friendly games.

In Antwerp, Belgium will take on the Netherlands on 4 August and then Greece five days later.

After traveling to Lugo, Spain, to face the Spaniards on 11 August, Belgium will return home to face Finland in Braine on 15 August and in Pepinster the following day.

The Belgians won't have far to travel for their next warm-up games.

They will take on Georgia in Rouen, France, 20 August, and then on 22 August face Les Bleus.

In Poland 28-30 August, Belgium will square off against F.Y.R of Macedonia (MKD), Iceland and the Poles.

Go to eurobasket2015.org for full coverage of EuroBasket 2015.

FIBA