Basketball / Mekel dropped as squad jets off to Italy

Israel's national basketball team is due to leave for Italy Sunday morning, ahead of its opening game in the 2011 European Championships qualifying tournament. The national team's first game is in Bari against Italy tomorrow night. Israel has been drawn in the same group as Italy, Latvia, Finland and, fresh out of Division B, emerging powerhouse Montenegro. The top team in each of the three groups qualifies for next year's final, along with the top two second-placed teams.

Not traveling with the 13-man squad to Italy, however, will be Gal Mekel, who was dropped from the roster by coach Arik Shevak. Mekel only joined the national squad last summer and was immediately selected as the starting center. A poor performance in the European Championships, however, left him out of favor with Shevak and since then he has been relegated to the bench.

"I told Gal straight out that he was in danger of being cut from the roster," said Shevak yesterday. "It was a tough decision, but someone has to be the bad guy. Gal is no worse than any other player on the roster, but someone had to stay home and that was my decision. He took it like a man."