Jeremy Buttell will not begin the season as the import player of the Musel Pikes’ men’s team. The 23 year-old US-American already left the club and will be replaced by Trenton Wurtz (picture), a 27 year-old and 2,03 m tall US-American, that played for the George Mason University, the Indian State Sycamores and the last two seasons for Christchurch Cougars in New Zealand.

The preliminary round of the Fiba World championships ended today with little to no surprise in terms of who’d make the cut. In group A, favorites Argentina and Serbia clinched the first 2 spots, followed by Australia and Angola. The young German team failed to qualify after losing 3 games by 4 points or less. Team USA dominated group B, only being challenged once in their qualifying round in a tight game against Brazil. Along with the US, Slovenia, Brazil and Croatia qualified for the knockout phase. Iran and Tunesia were left behind in this group. In group C, the host Turkey managed to get through the first rounds with a clean bill, securing their spot for the 1/8 finals along with Greece, Russia and China. Defending champion Spain had to fight for it’s place in the next round, after losing twice, against France and Lithuania. These 3 teams along with New Zealand qualified for the later stages of the tournament.

The 1/8 finals will start on saturday with the following setup:
Serbia – Croatia
Spain – Greece
Slovenia – Australia
Turkey – France
USA – Angola
Russia – New Zealand
Lithuania – China
Argentina – Brazil

Mihajlo Stojanovic will leave Racing Luxembourg (Nationale II) and join its league opponent BC Mess. The 24 year old guard made 15 appearances in last season’s championship and came to an average of 1,93 ppg. Stojanovic also tried to agree terms with Diekirch-League-clubs but finally decided to join the squad of coach Jérôme Alff. Furthermore we got the information that Racing signed two players on loan. The 19-year-old Ben Wampach (AS Zolwer) and the 21-year-old Yassine Rbiaa (Sparta) will complete the squad of coach Eric Grand.

Ninon Sitz will play next season for Avanti Mondorf in the Nationale III. Mondorf rebuilt a women’s team and therefore has to start again in the lowest division. The officials of Basket Esch thought that Sitz, that didn’t play in the past season due to her studies, would rejoin their squad. However the 22-year-old shooter signed now with Mondorf, where she will play with Muriel Damy, Magali Damy, Carine Speltz, Béatrice Willems, Jil Delvaux and Laura Maas. The team is still looking for a coach.

Black Star Mersch signed two further players to enforce its team. Tom Rausch (left) and Mikael Cortese will both come on loan from Amicale Steinsel and try to help the promoted team of coach Mike Smith to keep its place in the Diekirch League. Rausch, a 19-year-old point guard, made 29 championship-appearances last season and averaged 3,14 points per game. Cortese is also 19 years old and plays at the position 2. He has only played during five games in last season’s championship and hopes now to show his skills in the squad of Black Star.