MARYBOROUGH'S Matthew Dellavedova has been named in the Australian Boomers final squad of 12 to contest the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers guard will be joined by fellow NBA talent Dante Exum (Utah), Aon Baynes (San Antonio) and Cameron Bairstow (Chicago).
Experienced quartet David Andersen, Joe Ingles, Brad Newley and Adam Gibson also made the final 12.
Brock Motum, Chirs Goulding, Ryan Broekhoff and Nathan Jawai will make their World Cup debut for the Boomers.
“The selection process has been vigorous and thorough,” Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis said.
“The really positive news for Australian basketball is that we have a depth of talent available now – which certainly made final selection challenging.
“The team would like to thank the five players who missed selection for their contribution – all are wonderful people and tremendous basketball players.
“I have always said that difficult decisions would need to be made, and it was very tough as a staff to settle on the final squad, which is tremendous credit to all who competed at the camp.
“I would also like to thank the players who participated in the Sino Challenge for the contribution they have made to our World Cup campaign – everybody plays their part.”
The Boomers will depart for Europe on Tuesday, August 5, beginning their nine-game pre-FIBA Basketball World Cup tour in Lithuania, where they will face their Group D rivals along with Finland and Ukraine.
This will be followed by a one-game stay in Helsinki to take on Finland in front of their home crowd, before travelling to the south of France for games against the French, Ukraine and the Philippines in Nice.
Rounding out the Boomers preparation will be two games in Strasbourg near the French-German border, with fixtures against Finland and France prior to arriving in the Canary Islands.