The Paul Henare era officially got under way a few days ago with an extended squad of players invited to try out for this years tour of Europe and China and today he named his first 14 man squad to head away for those games against Great Britain, Croatia, Slovenia, China, Venezuela and Mexico.
The fourteen players selected are:
Tom Abercrombie
Duane Bailey
Everard Bartlett
Isaac Fotu
Leon Henry
Shea Ili
Jarrod Kenny
Rob Loe
Dion Prewster
Lindsay Tait
Reuben Te Rangi
Mika Vukona
Corey Webster
Tai Wynyard
Duane Bailey, Shea Ili and Dion Prewster all make their national team debuts after impressive NBL seasons for their respective teams! With Casey Frank and Kirk Penney not being available (or retired, not sure) it is definitely a young squad and players like Tom Abercrombie, Corey Webster, Jarrod Kenny and even Rob Loe (despite only being 23) have definitely entered 'veteran' status alongside Mika Vukona and Lindsay Tait.
After the tour around China and Europe the squad will be reduced to 12 for the two games against the Boomers in August! The big question is obviously whether or not Steven Adams will be given the all clear by the Oklahoma City Thunder to play in the series...Its kind of hard to know at this point but hopefully Billy Donovan will think playing against an Aussie team that will have plenty of NBA talent will be good for him!
Big congrats to the 14 who got selected! Its a great feeling hearing your name get called after a tough trial and knowing you get to put on the Black singlet!
AP
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