CRO - Vrankovic announces 17-man preliminary squad for Croatia

ZAGREB (2010 FIBA World Championship) - Croatia coach Josip Vrankovic has included just six of the players that represented Croatia at last year’s EuroBasket in his 17-man preliminary squad for the FIBA World Championship.

The new national team coach has named, however, Marko Tomas, who missed last summer through injury, and big center Stanko Barac.

Both of those players have represented the national team before, with Tomas one of Croatia’s most important players.

Vrankovic, who replaced Jasmin Repesa at the helm after the EuroBasket, is hoping that 23-year-old Barac is able to overcome a back injury and play in Turkey.

"Doctors have estimated that with therapy and exercise, Barac should be ready for the start of preparations on July 15," Vrankovic said.

"We will see at what intensity he is able to participate.

"He's an interesting player for the future of the Croatian national team, so we have opted to wait in this situation."

As expected, Ante Tomic has been included after a terrific first half-season with Real Madrid.

Tomic provided a scoring punch the Spanish giants desperately needed after joining from KK Zagreb in January.

Madrid ended up not winning any trophies, though.

Mario Kasun announced his international retirement after last year's EuroBasket, when Croatia qualified for the FIBA World Championship but finished a disappointing sixth.

Sandro Nicevic, Nikola Vujcic, Marin Rozic, Marcio Stojic and veteran Nikola Prkacin played last summer but are not included.

Rozic suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in January.

Croatia will compete in Group B at the FIBA World Championship along with Team USA, Slovenia, Brazil, Iran and Tunisia.

All of their games will be played in Istanbul.

Roko-Leni Ukic (Fenerbahce Ulker), Zoran Planinic (BC Khimki), Marko Popovic (Unics Kazan), Davor Kus (Benetton Treviso), Marko Tomas (Fenerbahce Ulker), Bojan Bogdanovic (Cibona Zagreb), Hrvoje Peric (Zadar), Rok Stipcevic (Zadar), Krunoslav Simon (Zagreb), Kresimir Loncar (Unics Kazan), Marko Banic (Bilbao), Stanko Barac (Caja Laboral), Ante Tomic (Real Madrid), Luka Zoric (Zagreb), Vedran Vukusic (Cibona Zagreb), Mario Delas (Zalgiris) and Leon Radosevic (Cibona Zagreb).

FIBA