GER - Bauermann names Nowitzki-less Germany training squad ahead of EuroBasket

HAGEN (EuroBasket 2009) - Germany coach Dirk Bauermann will gather with 21 players at the end of this month in Leverkusen to begin training for the EuroBasket with several veterans at the camp but not Dirk Nowitzki.

Dallas Mavericks superstar Nowitzki, along with fellow NBA player Chris Kaman of the Los Angeles Clippers, have yet to announce if they will represent the country in Poland at the EuroBasket when the national team attempts to qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

Steffen Hamann, Johannes Herber, Jan-Hendrik Jagla, Ademola Okulaja and Sven Schultze are players with a lot of national team experience who have been named, along with Tim Ohlbrecht and Konrad Wysocki - two members of the team that competed at last year's Olympics.

The Germany training camp will be held from July 28 to August 6. A Germany team will then play friendly games against the Dutch national team and Israel in Leiden, the Netherlands, on August 7 and 8.

"I also wanted to name Johannes Strasser from Telekom Baskets Bonn but Johannes has told me that he did not want to play due to personal reasons," Bauermann said.

"The squad clearly shows the reorganization of the men's national team. Eleven players never played in our first team."

Several long-time Germany players have retired from the national team since the Beijing Games, including Patrick Femerling, Pascal Roller, Robert Garrett and Mithat Demirel. Demond Greene also announced last week that he was taking the summer off to spend time with his wife and children.

The level of play at EuroBaskets continues to get better. France and Italy have yet to even qualify for Poland.

"It needs to be clear that even with Dirk and/or Chris, it is going to be extremely difficult to be one of the best eight teams at the European Championship in Poland," Bauermann said.

Germany squad for Leverkusen training camp (July 28 to August 6):
Dominik Bahiense de Mello (Deutsche Bank Skyliners/ TV 1862 Langen), Robin Benzing (TV 1862 Langen/Deutsche Bank Skyliners), Bastian Doreth (Franken Hexer/Brose Baskets Bamberg), Gordon Geib (Giants Düsseldorf), Per Günther (ratiopharm Ulm), Steffen Hamann (ALBA Berlin), Elias Harris (Gonzaga University/USA./BiS Baskets Speyer), Johannes Herber (ALBA Berlin), Yassin Idbihi (CSP Limoges/France), Jan-Hendrik Jagla (DKV Joventut Badalona/Spain), Johannes Lischka (Lti Gießen 46ers / Lti Lich), Tim Ohlbrecht (Brose Baskets Bamberg), Ademola Okulaja (without club), Tibor Pleiß (Köln 99ers), Heiko Schaffartzik (New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig), Sven Schultze (Picture, Olympia Larissa/Greece, Junior Casale Monferrato/Italy), Philipp Schwethelm (Köln 99ers), Lucca Staiger (Iowa State University/USA), Konrad Wysocki (Deutsche Bank Skyliners), Maik Zirbes (TBB Trier), Philip Zwiener (ALBA Berlin).

FIBA