Spain names eight Euroleague players for World Cup qualifiers vs Montenegro, Greece

A squad built around Euroleague players

Spain's men's basketball coach Chus Mateo announced his squad on Friday, 13 November, at the Spanish Basketball Federation's museum in Alcobendas, near Madrid. Elisa Aguilar, the federation's president, attended the presentation. Eight players from Euroleague clubs lead the list: Darío Brizuela and Joel Parra of Barça, Alberto Abalde and Jaime Pradilla of Real Madrid, Álvaro Cárdenas and Mario Saint-Supéry of Valencia Basket, Juancho Hernangómez of Panathinaikos and Santi Yusta of Anadolu Efes. Sources note that clubs in that competition rarely release players for international windows, which makes the choice unusual. The rest of the list is made up of Francis Alonso, Ferran Bassas, Jaime Fernández, Willy Hernangómez, Pierre Oriola, Oriol Paulí and Álex Reyes.

Invited players and absences

Six invited players will also be part of the camp: Héctor Alderete, Carlos Alocén, Mikel Sanz, Yankuba Sima, Pablo Tamba and Adrián Torres. ABC reports that they will take part in the daily work of the squad but would only play if a player is injured. Alocén, Sanz and Sima stay for the whole camp, which begins on Monday, 23 November in Guadalajara, while the other three are present only for its opening period. Compared with the previous call-up, for the games in which Spain lost to Portugal and Greece, five players based in the United States are not included: Santi Aldama, Izan Almansa, Aday Mara, Hugo González and Sergio de Larrea. Alberto Díaz, who is injured, is also absent.

The coach's case for Euroleague call-ups

Mateo defended the choice during the announcement on Friday, saying:

“The competitive situation has changed. It is the moment to do it.”

The Barça, Valencia and Panathinaikos players play on Tuesday, 24 November, and will travel to Montenegro with the squad. Pradilla, Abalde and Yusta play on Wednesday, 25 November, and will join the group in Galicia rather than in Montenegro. Mateo said workloads will be managed carefully and pointed to the players' own request to be included:

“The players asked me, from the very first moment, to be part of it. It shows a great commitment.”

Schedule and Group I standings

Spain plays Montenegro in Podgorica on Thursday, 26 November, at 19:00, and Greece in Santiago de Compostela on Sunday, 29 November, at 18:00. Four qualifiers remain in total, so after these two games Spain travels to Portugal on 26 February and hosts Montenegro on 1 March.

Spain has a 5-3 record after losing its last two games, both against Portugal and Greece in the August matches. According to La Razón, Spain is second in Group I with 13 points, level with Georgia and one point behind Ukraine on 14, and the top three teams qualify. Reaching that top three makes the two games in this window essential.

Ukraine14

Spain13

Georgia13

Ukraine

14 points

Spain

13 points

Georgia

13 points

Data from the article text