HELSINKI (EuroBasket Additional Qualifying Round) - Finland coach Henrik Dettmann has included the son of his former national team player Gerald Lee in his latest squad.

Gerald Lee Jr, a player at Old Dominion in Virginia who just won the CIT Tournament, has played in 71 games at junior level in Finland.

His father, Lee Sr, was a naturalized Finn from America who made his national team debut in 1992 at the age of 41 when Dettmann was beginning his first coaching stint with Finland.

Lee Sr is still the all-time leader of the Finnish league in scoring with 12,556 career points.

Dettmann could not be happier with the progress the national team has made in recent years.

They beat Hungary twice and Serbia once in EuroBasket Division A last summer which earned them a place in the Additional Qualifying Round for EuroBasket 2009 in Poland.

"We have come a long way in four years," Dettmann said.

"Like last year, we are now able to prepare against countries which have regularly participated in World Championships, Olympics or European Championships.

"It wasn't like this four years ago, which tells you something about our development."

Indeed, Finland, who face France and Italy in Group B of the Additional Qualifying Round in August, have been invited to play in an international tournament in Portugal from July 10-12 with Brazil, the Portuguese and African champions Angola also taking part.

Hungary will also host a tournament from July 24-26 which includes Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden.

On July 31, the Finns will go up against Estonia and on August 2 in another friendly they will face New Zealand's Tall Blacks.

Their first Additional Qualifying Round game is against France on August 8 in Pau.

FIBA