Zrece, 10 July (STA) - The Slovenian men's basketball team gathered at the mountain resort of Rogla on Monday for the launch of its training camp ahead of the 2006 World Basketball Championships to be held between 19 August and 3 September in Japan.
The first warm-up match for Slovenia's top 15 players is scheduled for July 24 when they will face Poland.
The first serious test, however, will come between 27 and 31 July at the Efes Pilsen tournament in Ankara, Turkey, where the team of Ales Pipan will take on Lebanon, Nigeria and Turkey.
From 2 to 6 August the sixth-best team of the European Championships in Serbia-Montenegro will for the last time present themselves to the home crowd as they will face Venezuela, Canada and once again Lebanon at a
tournament in Maribor.
The final warm-up matches are scheduled for just prior to the Championships with Slovenia taking on the teams of Argentina, Serbia and Spain at a tournament in Singapore.
In the preliminaries in Sapporo, Slovenia will face Senegal, the US, Italy, Puerto Rico and China in group D.
* Player list:
- Sani Becirovic (Climamio Bologna)
- Domen Lorbek (Union Olimpija)
- Primoz Brezec (Charlotte Bobcats)
- Goran Dragic (Geoplin Slovan)
- Saso Ozbolt (Union Olimpija)
- Marko Milic (Union Olimpija)
- Nebojsa Joksimovic (Hemofarm Vrsac)
- Goran Jurak (FC Barcelona)
- Jaka Lakovic (Panathinaikos Athens)
- Zelimir Zagorac (Helios Domzale)
- Bostjan Nachbar (New Jersey Nets)
- Radoslav Nesterovic (Toronto Raptors)
- Beno Udrih (San Antonio Spurs)
- Uros Slokar (Benetton Treviso)
- Miha Zupan (Union Olimpija)
* Reserves:
- Aleksandar Capin (Viola Reggio Calabria)
- Sasa Doncic (Geoplin Slovan)
- Dragisa Drobnjak (Union Olimpija)
* Coaches:
- Ales Pipan - coach
- David Nikolic - assistant coach
- Franci Podlipnik - assistant coach
- Aleksander Sekulic - assistant coach