Great Britain Under-20 coach Doug Leichner has named his initial squad for this summer’s European Championships in Greece with four of the line-up which gained promotion to Division A in 2013 making a return.
The 16-strong group, which includes just one non-English player, sees a call-up for highly-rated guard Luke Nelson fresh from his freshman season at UC Irvine as well as his team-mate there Alex Young.
Leichner’s side open the group stages against Latvia on July 8 with their first round pool also including Hungary, Greece and Lithuania.
“Nobody will have bigger expectations of what we can do as a group, than ourselves,” the head coach said. “We have good talent and depth and in their different ways, they’ve all experienced a measure of success.â€
“The challenge we offer to them is to lay down the groundwork – putting in the hard work, team bonding, creating a winning culture. After all, we have to unify this group in a small preparation camp.  We look forward to what Division A has in store and it’s going to be exciting.â€Â
They will hold training camp later this month at the University of Essex.
Roster
Kavell Bigby Williams, 6’10, forward, Lewisham Thunder ,
Rowell Graham,        6’5, forward, Leeds Carnegie ,
Tyrell Isaacs,             5’11, guard, London GP,
Ben Lawson,              7’0, forward, Western Kentucky,
Joseph Lockwood,     6’8 , forward, Barking Abbey,
Grant Mackay,           6’4, forward, St Anselm’s College NH,
Luke Mascall Wright, 6’3 guard Ipswich,
Joshua McSwiggan,  6’7 guard/forward, Leicester Riders,
Benjamin Mead,       6’9, forward, Franklin Pierce,
Connor Murtagh,      6’5, guard, Manchester Magic,
Luke Nelson,             6’3, guard, UC Irvine, California,
Tamas Okros,            6’7 , forward, Bristol Flyers,
Dwayne Orija,           6’3, guard, Medway Park,
Elliot Sentence,         6’5 guard, Leicester Warriors,
Morayo Soluade,       6’5 , forward, Unicaja Malaga,
Jordan Spencer,        6’2, guard, Augustana College SD,
Lucas Stivrins,           6’11, centre University of Nevada,
Alex Young,               6’1, guard, UC Irvine, California
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