FRANCE
After an impressive showing in the final qualifying round, Les Bleus find themselves favorites to win their group and possibly make the final four. But, with this team, we have no idea what to expect. The team that messed up the "regular" qualifying round, or the one that beat Italy home and away? The one that lost narrowly to Belgium on the road, or the one that slaughtered the Belgians in Pau? On their day, the French just may be Spain's strongest competitors, but they could just as well find themselves missing out on an auto-qualifying spot for next year's WBC. Basically? Who knows.
Their roster: Nicholas Batum (Portland Trailblazers), Yannick Bokolo (BCM Gravelines), Nando De Colo (Valencia), Boris Diaw (Charlotte Bobcats), Antoine Diot (Le Mans Sarthe), Aymeric Jeanneau (ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne), Alain Koffi (Joventut Badalona), Ian Mahinmi (Austin Toros/San Antonio Spurs), Tony Parker (San Antonio Spurs), Florent Pietrus (Valencia), Ali Traore (ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne), Rony Turiaf (Golden State Warriors).
GERMANY
Missing Dirk and Kaman, these guys look to be in trouble. In a pretty strong group, they'll probably be quite happy with the third spot, which would see them into the next round. They come into the tournament with a team made up almost entirely of DBLers, and as such have a collection of players few will be too familiar with. They did have an encouraging performance at the Efes Pilsen Cup, where they managed to beat Turkey and Latvia. They'll likely be favorites for the third spot, and could possibly spring an upset against either France or Russia to see them into second. Qualification for the World Basketball Championship is likely out of reach, though.
Their roster: Robin Benzing (Ratiopharm Ulm), Patrick Femerling (Alba Berlin), Demond Greene (Brose Baskets), Elias Harris (Gonzaga University), Yassin Idbihi (New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig), Jan Jagla (Joventut Badalona), Tibor Pleiss (Köln 99ers), Heiko Schaffartzik (New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig), Sven Schultze (Olympia Larissa), Lucca Staiger (Iowa State University), Konrad Wysocki (Deutsche Bank Skyliners).
LATVIA
Only one player from the Latvian roster is likely to stick out to most basketball fans, and that's Andris Biedrins. The Warriors' center is the undoubted star of a team that's otherwise made up of locally based players, heading a national team that's qualified for their fifth straight Eurobasket. They don't look likely to do any better than their previous finishes (13th three straight times), and will likely need a bit of luck to pull off an upset over Germany. That's pretty much their only shot at getting into the next round, as their recent form doesn't indicate that they pose much of a threat to either France or Russia.
Their roster: Kaspars Berzins (Barons/LMT Riga), Andris Biedrins (Golden State Warriors), Janis Blums (Bilbao), Rolands Freimanis, Uvis Helmanis (ASK Riga), Gatis Jahovics (BK VEF Riga), Kristaps Janicenoks (Reyer Venezia Mestre), Ernests Kalve (last season with ASK Riga), Kaspars Kambala (Jenisej), Armands Skele (Barons LMT), Arturs Stalbergs, Aigars Vitols (ASK Riga).
RUSSIA
The defending champions (how soon we forget) come into this tournament without arguably their two best players, in J.R. Holden and Andrei Kirilenko, and as a result it's unknown what we should really expect from them. They still have a solid roster made up entirely of decent to very good Russian based players (most from CSKA), and they'll be coached once again by the excellent David Blatt. But they were very disappointing at last year's Olympics, and managed only a fourth place finish at the recent Acropolis Tournament. They could easily finish anywhere from first to third in this group, and are likely outside shots to finish within the top 6 overall, which would guarantee them a place next year in Istanbul.
Their roster: Sergei Bykov (Dynamo Moscow), Vitaly Fridzon (Khimki), Nikita Kurbanov (CSKA Moscow), Kelly McCarty (Khimki), Sergei Monya (Dynamo Moscow), Timofey Mozgov (Khimki), Anton Ponkrashov (CSKA Moscow), Alexey Shved (CSKA Moscow), Dmitri Sokolov (CSKA Moscow), Andrey Vorontsevich (CSKA Moscow), Egor Vyaltsev (Triumph Lyubertsy)
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