GER - Upbeat and confident

HAGEN (EuroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - The confidence is high for Germany's national team, less than a year away from EuroBasket 2013.

The squad will travel to Slovenia for the event that serves as a qualifying tournament for the FIBA Basketball World Cup in good hands, with their coach, Svetislav Pesic, among the best in the history of the sport.

Pesic led Germany to the EuroBasket 1993 crown and later coached the former Yugoslavia to gold medals at EuroBasket 2001 in Istanbul and the 2002 FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis.

This past summer, the veteran tactician guided a German team without Dallas Mavericks duo Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Kaman to eight wins in as many games in the Qualification Round.

On Sunday, Germany were drawn against Ukraine, France, Great Britain, Israel and Belgium in Group A, thus avoiding what many consider to be the 'group of death' that has Montenegro, Serbia, Lithuania, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MKD), Latvia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Captain Jan Jagla considered the challenges that await Germany.

He said: "We have to beat Belgium, Israel, Ukraine and for the Great Britain game, it depends on who actually ends up playing for them."

Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls has yet to announce if he will play in Slovenia.

"France is the favorite in our group but our team has proven in the past that it has its chances against France," Jagla said.

The DBB sports director Peter Radegast said after the draw: "We can be very satisfied with the draw, in this group is good stuff possible.

"We look forward to interesting and exciting games and will first move into the second round."

FIBA