BRITS FACE TOUGH EUROBASKET GROUP
11/08/2008 Great Britain must face world champions Spain, Slovenia and Serbia in the opening group at next summer's European Championships in Poland.

Great Britain must face world champions Spain, Slovenia and Serbia in the opening group at next summer's European Championships in Poland.

In today's draw, Chris Finch's team found itself placed in comfortably the hardest pool, Group C, which will be staged in Warsaw next September.

While the Brits will be assured of having Chicago Bulls star Luol Deng in their line-up, the new NBA season tipped off last month with five players each from Spain and Serbia and four from Slovenia in the league.

Finch said: "It's an absolutely murderous draw, by far the hardest group and by far our hardest challenge since our programme got underway in 2006.

"It's going to be like an NBA All Star group! But I'm still excited. We have a chance to prove ourselves against Europe's best.

"It will be a pretty intense proving ground but that is why we want to be here at this level."

Luckily for GB, three teams advance from each group to the second stage so one victory may be enough to take them forward.

Ian Whittell for 24/7