Finland Releases Preliminary Squad for Additional Qualifying Tourney

Looking to book a trip to Lithuania for this year’s European Championship, Finland named their preliminary squad that will undergo rigorous training for their upcoming campaign in the three-team Additional Qualifying Tournament next month.

Finland head coach Henrik Dettmann released an 18-man preliminary squad, who will go all out against Hungary and Portugal to earn a spot in the EuroBasket for the first time since finishing in 14th place in the 1995 edition of the tournament.

Dettmann said that the team is upbeat about their chances in the AQT and most of the players are already practicing hard ahead of their official training camp.

“Most of the players have already been practicing voluntarily as a team this past week,” Dettmann said. “All the guys are in great shape after the season and the motivation is high. Once the training camp begins, we want to prepare ourselves for the challenge of the high-tempo game of international competition.”

Finland will compete in the Nordic Championship Games later this month before travelling to Germany for a training camp on August 3 to 6 where they will also be having a tune-up match against the national team of Germany, who will be coached by Dirk Bauermann.

Dettmann and the rest of the squad will kick of their AQT campaign on August 12 against Hungary in the tournament where the top two teams will advance to the main draw of the tournament that will start on August 31 in Lithuania.

Finland Preliminary Squad for EuroBasket Men 2011

• Samuel Haanpää
• Petri Heinonen
• Shawn Huff
• Tuomas Iisalo
• Antti Kanervo
• Kataja Joensuun
• Mikko Koivisto
• Petteri Koponen
• Tuukka Kotti
• Gerald Lee
• Kimmo Muurinen
• Vesa Mäkäläinen
• Hanno Möttölä
• Antti Nikkilä
• Teemu Rannikko
• Sasu Salin
• Petri Virtanen