EUROBASKET QUALIFIERS

Marcin Gortat is coming off a great season in the NBA and Poland expect him to form a strong froncourt partnership with Maciej Lampe, who is now fullly fit

Poland head coach Ales Pipan has named a 21-strong preliminary squad for the EuroBasket 2013 Qualification Round.

Pipan finds himself in the kind of troubling situation any coach would be pleased to have to deal with.

Poland will be, in effect, spoilt for choice when the Qualification Round games begin.

Big stars Marcin Gortat and Maciej Lampe, who missed out on EuroBasket 2011, will both be available this summer to form one of the best frontcourt combinations in Europe.

Gortat is coming off one of his best seasons in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns while Lampe has now recovered fully from the injury that had troubled him for a long time and had a solid second half of season in the Spanish Liga Endesa with Caja Laboral.

On the other hand, Pipan can also count with young stars Przemyslaw Karnowski and Mateusz Ponitka while guards Lukasz Koszarek, Tomas Kelati and Dardan Berisha, who led the team in Lithuania last year, are also at his disposal.

The Polish team will gather on 12 July in Warsaw to begin their preparations.

Their first two warm-up games will be at home against China, right before the Olympics.

"We are very pleased that we managed to convince them (China) that their last training sessions and friendly matches before London take place in Poland," said Polish Federation Secretary General Marcin Widomski.

Poland will then participate in a tournament in Bulgaria where they will go up against the hosts, Turkey and Ukraine.

The team will later head back home and play host to the first international friendly tournament in Wroclaw since 2004, with Montenegro, Latvia and Italy as their guests.

Their last round of warm-up games before the start of the EuroBasket 2013 Qualification Round will be in Germany.

Poland's first game in Qualification Round Group E is at home to Belgium on 15 August.

Finland, Albania and Switzerland are their remaining opponents in the group, with the top two earning a ticket to Slovenia while the third-placed team is also in with a chance to qualify.

Poland preliminary squad: Lukasz Koszarek (Trefl Sopot), Robert Skibniewski (Slask Wroclaw), Krzysztof Szubarga (Anwil), Tomasz Snieg (Polpharma), Dardan Berisha (Anwil), Piotr Pamula (AZS Koszalin), Mateusz Ponitka (Asseco Prokom), Lukasz Wisniewski (Trefl Sopot), Michal Ignerski (Lokomotiv), Thomas Kelati (Khimky), Adam Waczynski (Trefl Sopot), Przemyslaw Zamojski (Asseco Prokom), Maciej Lampe (Caja Laboral), Pawel Leonczyk (Energa Czarni), Szymon Szewczyk (Umana Venezia), Piotr Stelmach (Zastal ZG), Marcin Gortat (Phoenix Suns), Adam Hrycaniuk (Asseco Prokom), Przemyslaw Karnowski (Siarka Jezioro), Damian Kulig (PGE Turow), Adam Lapeta (Asseco Prokom).