U20 MEN

Mathis Mönninghoff, Germany's second leading scorer and best 3-point shooter at last year's U20 European Championship, is among the players who will return this year

Germany were a big hit at last year's U20 European Championship Division A in Spain, finishing fifth in the competitive 16-team event.

Now coach Frank Menz knows the players that will be competing for spots in this year's team and some of them he knows very well.

Among those in the preliminary squad are highly-rated Patrick Heckmann, who plays American college basketball at Boston College in the vaunted Atlantic Coast Conference.

Heckmann averaged 8.7 points, 2.8 assists and 2.4 rebounds for Germany's U20 side in the 2011 edition of the U20 European Championship.

Other returning members are Mathis Mönninghoff and Ole Wendt.

The former plays with Germany's senior team member Elias Harris at Gonzaga University.

Mönninghoff, a 2.00m guard/forward, poured in 10.4 points per contest last year and shot 42 percent (21 of 50) from behind the arc.

Wendt, a point guard, averaged six points and 2.6 assists for Germany at the U20 event.

This year's U20 European Championship Division A is being staged in Ljubljana, Domzale and Kranjska Gora in Slovenia.

Germany are in Group A with France, Serbia and Montenegro.

In addition to training camps, Germany will have warm-up games against Poland and France.

Germany U20 squad: Besnik Bekteshi (EnBW Ludwigsburg/VfL Kirchheim Knights), Mario Blessing (University of South Carolina Upstate), Kevin Bright (Erdgas Ehingen/Urspringschule), Sebastian Fülle (ALBA Berlin), Stephan Haukohl (Science City Jena), Patrick Heckmann (Boston College), Florian Koch (Telekom Baskets Bonn), Mathis Mönninghoff (Gonzaga University), Jarelle Reischel (Rice University), Johannes Richter (TSV Breitengüßbach), Dennis Schröder (Sport Up Braunschweig / New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig), Daniel Theis (Spot Up Braunschweig / New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig), Leon Tolksdorf (ALBA Berlin), Johannes Voigtmann (Science City Jena), Ole Wendt (webmoebel Baskets).