European Prospects

Today, the German Basketball federation officially announced the 16 participating teams of 25th Albert Schweitzer Tournament that will be played from the 3rd to the 10th April 2010 in Mannheim.

The 2010 edition of the tournament will feature 7 non-European teams with Argentina, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Two teams have been added that will come for their first ever participation with Brazil and Japan. Of course, there is a Team USA participating. On the European side, the organization managed to bring in the following teams.

France will be present with their highly talented core around Evan Fournier, Leo Westermann and the very long Vincent Pourchot. The defending champion from Greece may be a less talented than in 2008 but the squad still features one of the most promising players of the 1992 generation in Linos Chrysikopoulos. Italy will probably built around the scorers Alessandro Gentile and Nunzio Sabbatino and the hard working Tommaso Ingrosso. Spain features the talented wings Miguel Servera and Joan Tomas while Turkey may be one of the favorites if they bring Enes Kanter and Safak Edge. Israel and Croatia will certainly fight hard for earning a good spot on the tournament.

Germany will be present through two teams. The U17 team that prepares for the U17 World Championship will participate next to the highly talented U18 team that features the promising Wendt twins, Matthis Mönninghoff and inside presence Philipp Neumann. It looks like the 2010 edition of the tournament should be a bit stronger than in 2008 as the 1990 generation was not among the strongest in Europe. The presence of the 7 non-European teams makes the tournament highly interesting as it gives an opportunity to see a lot of players that are normally not that often in Europe.

More information can be found on the official website: www.ast-basketball.de