Australia will take a largely inexperienced 12-man squad to next month's Stankovic Cup basketball tournament in China.
The squad is headlined by highly-rated teenagers Hugh Greenwood and Anthony Drmic, who were both members of the Australian Emus team at the recent under-19 world championship.
The pair will join veteran players such as Adam Gibson, Mark Worthington and Luke Schenscher while Melbourne Tiger Cameron Tragardh also earned a spot after impressing at this week's training camp on the Gold Coast.
Boomers head coach Brett Brown said he was pleased with the progress made at the camp and excited at the prospect of testing out his team against strong competition at the Stankovic Cup, which will be held in the Chinese city of Haining.
"Each camp gets a little bit easier to form the team," said Brown, who will have to make do in the tournament without NBA stars Patty Mills and Andrew Bogut.
"The familiarity, me with them and them with me, just enables us to get a little bit cleaner with both offensive and defensive structures and I'm excited with the group we selected.
"The Stankovic Cup is just a very respected tournament, it's been going on for a number of years. We appreciate the invitation to once again be a part of it."
The Boomers' Stankovic Cup campaign begins against Russia on August 1 before further matches against Angola on August 2 and China on August 3.
The final will be held on August 4.
The tournament is a vital part of the Boomers' preparations for their all-important Olympic qualification series against New Zealand in September.
Boomers squad: Peter Crawford, Matthew Dellavedova, Anthony Drmic, Adam Gibson, Hugh Greenwood, Luke Nevill, Luke Schenscher, Nate Tomlinson, Cameron Tragardh, Jesse Wagstaff, Stephen Weigh, Mark Worthington.
AAP
Tags: basketball, sport, china, australia First posted July 29, 2011 18:47:19
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