FORMER ASEAN Basketball League import Doug Herring is set to make his debut as a naturalized player for Syria in the third window of the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers in Amman.
Herring, a 6-foot-3 guard out of Utica, helped the Indonesian club CLS Knights capture the 2019 ABL crown.
He last played for the Macau Wolf Warriors in the truncated 2020 season.
Herring will replace Trey Kell, who led Syria in the qualifiers with 34.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists in two games.
He won't be the only new face for Syria as the team is also welcoming a new head coach in Russian mentor Mikhail Terekhov.
Mainstays Rami Merjaneh, Jamil Saddir, Abdulwahab Alhamwi, Anthony Bakar, Hani Adrebi, Tarek Aljabi, Sharif Alosh, and Tofek Saleh will also be back for the Syrians, while among the new additions in the 13-man pool are Syrian-Turk center Kemal Canbolat, Zakaria Alhusain, Anas Shaban, and Amer Alsati.
The Syrian national team has been in training camp since May in Russia, where it worked with an 18-man pool.
Among the cuts for the Amman bubble are 6-foot-7 Wael Jlilaty, who averaged 10.3 points, 5.0 boards, and 1.0 steal in four games of the qualifiers, Omar Idelbi, Elias Azarieh, and Joseph Youssef, and Omar Sheikh Ali. Syrian-Argentinian guard Fabian Sahdi was also unable to join the camp.
Syria, which holds an even 2-2 record in Group E, is set to face Saudi Arabia (2-2) on June 12 and Qatar (1-3) on June 14.
It is behind leaders Iran (3-1) and is seeking to finish in the top two of the group to formally book its spot in the continental tilt in Indonesia in August.
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