Great Britain’s senior men face their first EuroBasket preparation game tonight as part of a four team tournament in Patras, Greece.

They will take on two of three other teams heading for FIBA EuroBasket 2017, with Ukraine first up tonight at 1645 BST.

It’s the first shot in anger for Head Coach Joe Prunty’s team, who have spent a first week’s practice firstly at Manchester’s National Basketball Performance Centre before heading to Patras in Eastern Greece.

There is likely to be a mix of settled experience and youthful talent on show for Britain as the coaching staff run through their options.

Having been in camp since mid-July, Ukraine will provide the opposition with a tall and powerful lineup in the frontcourt, albeit as they were for the qualifying campaign, they will be without guards Sergii Gladyr and Eugene ‘Pooh’ Jeter as well as captain , Kyrylo Fesenko.  Ukraine are due to face Germany, Georgia, Italy, Israel and Lithuania in their group at EuroBasket.

The game is being live-streamed by Greek television, as is tonight’s second game, with the winners and losers of both playing each other on Tuesday night.

Britain will then head to Tel Aviv for a preparation game against Israel on Sunday evening, before returning to the UK for a high-profile friendly against Greece at London’s Copper Box on Saturday August 19th.

Lower tier seats have almost sold out but there remain tickets available for the game and fans should move quickly to avoid disappointment.

Three more prep games follow in Poland in the final week of the month, with the hosts, Israel and Hungary lying in wait, before Britain can show what they can do against the best on the continent at EuroBasket 2017.

The senior men take centre stage following the promotion of both Great Britain’s U20 and U18 Men into Division A of their respective European Championships. It means the cream of young British talent will take on the very best in Europe in 2018.