Six newcomers in for Boomers

THE Boomers will field one of the most depleted squads in their recent history for the opening window of the 2021 Asia Cup men’s basketball qualifiers in Brisbane.

There are six newcomers in a 12-man national squad that not only has no US or Europebased players but is also without players from any of the four NBL semi- finals teams.

Potential new caps are Illawarra Hawks trio Angus Glover, Sam Froling and Sunday Dech, South East Melbourne Phoenix pair Kyle Adnam and Dane Pineau plus Centre of

Excellence small forward Josh Giddey.

The Hawks, who won only five of their 28 games this NBL season, are most heavily represented with five players.

The Boomers will be under interim head coach Will Weaver, the Sydney Kings mentor, with Brett Brown unavailable amid NBA commitments with the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Boomers are the defending Asia Cup champions but the Tokyo Olympics are the clear priority this year.

Australia start their Asia

Cup campaign against New Zealand (February 20) and Hong Kong (February 23) at the newly-opened Nissan Arena in Brisbane.

The Boomers are competing in Group C with Guam the other nation in the quartet, with each team playing each other home and away during the qualifying phase.

“We have selected 12 exceptional representatives for this qualifying window and looking forward to quickly coalescing into a team befitting the honour of representing Australia,” Weaver said.