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    Five holdovers from Serbia team that beat Gilas by 59 at World Cup

    Without Jokic and Bogdan, Marjanovic and Bjelica will lead host Serbia in the OQT match against a younger Gilas side
    Jun 27, 2021
    PHOTO: fiba.basketball

    SERBIA has yet to name its 12-man roster for the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade, but it will be a different team from the one Gilas Pilipinas met in the 2019 Fiba World Cup in China.

    Only five of the 12 men who dealt the Philippines a 126-67 beatdown two years ago are included in the 16-man pool put together by the hosts.

    Leading the list is Nemanja Bjelica, who scored 20 points on a perfect 7-of-7 clip against the Filipinos in that bloodbath in Foshan. The Miami Heat forward averaged 10.7 points on 43-percent shooting from deep, to go with 4.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists for Serbia in that campaign.

    Boban Marjanovic and June Mar Fajardo face off in the 2019 Fiba World Cup.

    Also back for the Serbians is 7-foot-4 center Boban Marjanovic, who gave June Mar Fajardo and the rest of the Gilas big men a tough time in the paint in China. The Dallas Mavericks behemoth posted averages of 6.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in that trip.

    Aside from the two, the other holdovers from the Serbia team which finished in fifth place were Stefan Jovic, Nikola Milutinov, and Vasilije Micic.

    Obviously, the biggest absentees are 2021 NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, who opted to skip the Belgrade OQT after his playoff run with the Denver Nuggets, and Bogdan Bogdanovic, who is still in the thick of the NBA title race with the Atlanta Hawks.

    New coach for Serbia

    Even coach Sasha Djordjevic, who delivered a brutally frank assessment on Gilas' play and said that there was a 'lack of quality' and called out the Filipinos for what he claimed were 'dirty plays,' is already out of the picture.

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    Taking the lead for Serbia in this OQT is coach Igor Kokoskov, the former Phoenix Suns head coach who handled the team in the 2018-19 NBA season.

    Nevertheless, it's still a potent crew for the Serbians, still ranked No. 5 in the world, this time led by youth team star Filip Petrusev.

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      The 21-year-old, 6-foot-7 forward was the breakout star for Serbia in the 2021 Acropolis International Basketball Tournament after averaging 18.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in the tourney.

      Petrusev, who studied in Gonzaga from 2018 to 2020, was the Adriatic League MVP this past season for his run with Mega Soccerbet and is expected to be a first round selection in the upcoming 2021 NBA Draft.

      Also in the running is longtime national team starting point guard Milos Teodosic, who is currently playing for Virtus Bologna in Italy.

      Completing the 16-man pool are Dragan Milosavljevic and Dalibor Ilic (Mega Basket); Dejan Davidovac, Ognjen Dobric, and Branko Lazic (KK Crvena Zvezda); Nikola Kalinic and Vanja Marinkovic (Valencia - Spain); Aleksa Avramovic (CB Estudiantes - Spain); and Danilo Andjusic (JL Bourg-en-Bresse - France).

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      Gilas plays Serbia on July 1 (Manila time), with both nations gunning for the lone Olympic ticket at stake in the Belgrade OQT.

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        PHOTO: fiba.basketball
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