Finland national basketball team

Finland Finland Suomi
FIBA ranking 35Increase9
Joined FIBA 1939
FIBA zone FIBA Europe
National federation Finnish Basketball Association
Coach Henrik Dettmann
Nickname(s) Susijengi (The Wolf Pack)
Olympic Games
Appearances 2 (1952, 1964)
FIBA World Cup
Appearances 1 (2014)
FIBA EuroBasket
Appearances 13
Medals None
Uniforms
Light
Dark

The Finnish national basketball team (Finnish: Suomen koripallomaajoukkue, Swedish: Finlands herrlandslag i basket) represents Finland in international basketball.

It played at 13 EuroBasket tournaments, its best finish being 6th in 1967 on home soil. Finland made its FIBA World Cup debut in the 2014 edition.

History

Early years

Finnish national team during the EuroBasket 1939 in Lithuania.

Finland first competed at the European championship at its third installment, the EuroBasket 1939. In the round-robin, they initially struggled and lost to each of the other seven teams and finished with a 70–541 overall point differential.

1950s

Finland playing against Mexico at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics
Gerald Lee Jr. in 2010

Finland's next European competition was 12 years later, at the EuroBasket 1951 in Paris. Overall, they fared much better and split their four preliminary round games and finished at third place in the group at 2–2 but were eliminated from championship contention. They had success after that, winning all three of their classification round 1 games and both round 2 games to finish in 9th place of the 18 teams.

In 1952, by virtue of hosting the games in Helsinki, Finland played at the Olympic basketball competition for the first time. The team finished at the bottom of its first-round Group B with the Soviet Union, Bulgaria and Mexico, losing all of its games and scoring 147-178.[1]

Finland used this international experience when they competed again at the EuroBasket 1953 in Moscow. In the preliminary round, they finished with 1 win and 3 losses for 4th place of the 5 teams in the group. They fared significantly better in the first classification round, winning 3 and losing only 1 to finish in the middle of a three-way tie in the group. They lost both the 9–12 and 11/12 classification games, however, taking 12th place of 17 overall.

At the next event, Finland had some difficulty in the preliminary round of EuroBasket 1955. They lost all three early games in Budapest and were relegated to the classification round. Once again, not faced with the world elite opponents anymore, the Fins shone in the classification round and won all four of the pool play games. They won their classification 9–12 match as well, but lost to France in the 9/10 final to finish 10th of 18 in the tournament.

In Sofia, at the EuroBasket 1957, the Finns finished third in their preliminary group after going 1–2. They moved to the 9–16 classification pool and won five games there with only one loss. They took 11th place overall in the tournament.

Modern era

At the EuroBasket 1995 in Greece, Finland finished 13th.

Finland qualified for the EuroBasket 2011. The tournament berth was the first for Finland in 16 years. There they finished third out of six teams in EuroBasket 2011 Group C and defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 92–64 and Montenegro 71–65. This allowed them to they qualify for the EuroBasket 2011 Group F. In their first match they were easily defeated by Russia but afterwards they defeated Georgia, before losing to Slovenia in their final match of the tournament. Despite not making it to the best of 8 tournament, Finland ended up making it to their first ever FIBA World Championship as a Wild Card team alongside Greece, Turkey, and Brazil.

Competitive record

FIBA EuroBasket

FIBA EuroBasket
Year Position Pld W L
1935–1937 Did not qualify
Lithuania 19398th Place 7 0 7
1946–1949 Did not qualify
France 1951 9th Place 9 7 2
Soviet Union 1953 12th Place 10 4 6
Hungary 1955 10th Place 9 5 4
Bulgaria 1957 11th Place 10 6 4
Turkey 195913th Place 7 2 5
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 196114th Place 7 3 4
Poland 196314th Place 9 2 7
Soviet Union 196512th Place 9 3 6
Finland 19676th Place 9 6 3
1969–1975 Did not qualify
Belgium 197710th Place 7 1 6
1979–1993 Did not qualify
Greece 199514th Place 6 0 6
1997–2009 Did not qualify
Lithuania 20119th Place 8 3 5
Slovenia 20139th Place 8 5 3
FranceCroatiaGermanyLatvia 2015Qualified
Total13/37 115 47 68

Olympic Games

Summer Olympic Games Record
Year Position Pld W L
Finland 1952 9th Place 3 0 3
Japan 1964 11th Place 9 4 5
Total1248

FIBA World Cup

World Cup
Year Position Pld W L
Spain 2014 22nd place 5 1 4
Total514

Roster

The following is the Finnish roster in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Finland National Basketball Team 2014 roster
Players Coaches
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Pos. # Name Age - DOB Ht. Club
G 4 Koivisto, Mikko 27 – 18 April 1987 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) Skyliners Frankfurt Germany
F 5 Murphy, Erik 23 – 26 October 1990 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Cleveland Cavaliers United States
F 6 Muurinen, Kimmo 33 – 23 February 1981 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) Tapiolan Honka Finland
F 7 Huff, Shawn 30 – 5 May 1984 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) MHP Ludwigsburg Germany
C 8 Lee, Gerald 26 – 23 November 1987 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) CB Murcia Spain
G 9 Salin, Sasu 23 – 11 June 1991 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) CB Gran Canaria Spain
C 10 Kotti, Tuukka 33 – 18 March 1981 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) Nilan Bisons Finland
G 11 Koponen, Petteri 26 – 13 April 1988 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) BC Khimki Russia
F 12 Nuutinen, Matti 24 – 6 May 1990 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) Nilan Bisons Finland
F 13 Möttölä, Hanno (C) 37 – 9 September 1976 2.09 m (6 ft 10 in) Torpan Pojat Finland
G 14 Lehto, Antero 30 – 2 April 1984 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) Pallacanestro Varese Italy
G 15 Rannikko, Teemu 33 – 9 September 1980 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) Joensuun Kataja Finland
Head coach
Assistant coach(es)
  • Finland Pekka Salminen
  • Finland Jukka Toijala
  • Finland Lassi Tuovi
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • Club field describes current pro club
  • Age – describes age
    on 30 August 2014

Other notable active basketball players of Finnish descent:

Past rosters

1939 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 8 teams

Kalevi Ihalainen, Pauli Sarkkula, Erkki Linden, Ilkka Torronen, Erkki Saurala, Pentti Vuollekoski, Vladi Marmo, Martti Salminen, Reino Valtonen, Alo Suurna, Heinonen (Coach: Osmo Kupiainen)

1951 EuroBasket: finished 9th among 17 teams

Kalevi Heinanen, Pentti Laaksonen, Raimo Lindholm, Pertti Mutru, Tapio Poyhonen, Timo Suviranta, Kalevi Sylander, Oiva Virtanen, Olli Arppe, Kaj Gustafsson, Arto Koivisto, Juhani Kyostila, Raine Nuutinen, Allan Pietarinen (Coach: Eino Ojanen)

1952 Olympic Games: finished 15th among 23 teams

Kalevi Heinanen, Pentti Laaksonen, Juhani Kyostila, Raimo Lindholm, Pertti Mutru, Tapio Poyhonen, Eero Salonen, Timo Suviranta, Kalevi Sylander, Oiva Virtanen, Raine Nuutinen, Olavi Lahtinen, Tuomo Ristola, Esko Karhunen

1953 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 17 teams

Kalevi Heinanen, Pentti Laaksonen, Pertti Mutru, Allan Pietarinen, Raimo Lindholm, Timo Suviranta, Timo Lampen, Raine Nuutinen, Keijo Hynninen, Oiva Virtanen, Eero Salonen, Kaj Gustafsson (Coach: Eino Ojanen)

1955 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 18 teams

Kalevi Heinanen, Kalevi Sylander, Pertti Mutru, Oiva Virtanen, Timo Lampen, Taisto Ravantti, Seppo Kuusela, Timo Suviranta, Raine Nuutinen, Eero Salonen, Kalevi Tuominen, Asko Jokinen, Raimo Lindholm (Coach: Eino Ojanen)

1957 EuroBasket: finished 11th among 16 teams

Timo Lampen, Arto Koivisto, Pertti Mutru, Raine Nuutinen, Eero Salonen, Seppo Kuusela, Arvo Jantunen, Juhani Kala, Paavo Suhonen, Raimo Lindholm, Timo Suviranta, Kalevi Sylander (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1959 EuroBasket: finished 13th among 17 teams

Timo Lampen, Raimo Lindholm, Seppo Kuusela, Arvo Jantunen, Juhani Kala, Matti Nenonen, Raine Nuutinen, Eero Salonen, Raimo Vartia, Matti Koli, Kyosti Rousti, Palko (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1961 EuroBasket: finished 14th among 19 teams

Martti Liimo, Kari Liimo, Raimo Lindholm, Timo Lampen, Raimo Vartia, Pertti Laanti, Tony Barlund, Arvo Jantunen, Uolevi Manninen, Lauri Nurma, Seppo Kuusela, Rauno Ailus (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1963 EuroBasket: finished 14th among 16 teams

Martti Liimo, Kari Liimo, Jorma Pilkevaara, Timo Lampen, Pertti Laanti, Raimo Vartia, Uolevi Manninen, Antero Siljola, Juha Harjula, Seppo Kuusela, Rauno Ailus, Kauko Kauppinen (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1964 Olympic Games: finished 11th among 16 teams

Martti Liimo, Jorma Pilkevaara, Kari Liimo, Raimo Vartia, Pertti Laanti, Timo Lampen, Risto Kala, Kauko Kauppinen, Raimo Lindholm, Teijo Finneman, Uolevi Manninen, Juha Harjula (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1965 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 16 teams

Martti Liimo, Kari Liimo, Jorma Pilkevaara, Kari Lahti, Pertti Laanti, Timo Lampen, Uolevi Manninen, Jyrki Immonen, Hannu Paananen, Lars Karell, Kari Ronnholm, Teijo Finneman (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1967 EuroBasket: finished 6th among 16 teams

Veikko Vainio, Jorma Pilkevaara, Martti Liimo, Kari Liimo, Pertti Laanti, Kari Lahti, Uolevi Manninen, Teijo Finneman, Jyrki Immonen, Lars Karell, Olavi Ahonen, Kari Ronnholm (Coach: Kalevi Tuominen)

1977 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 12 teams

Heikki Taponen, Tapio Sten, Jarmo Laitinen, Erkki Saaristo, Antti Zitting, Mikko Koskinen, Klaus Mahlamaki, Risto Lignell, Raimo Mantynen, Anssi Rauramo, Kalevi Sarkalahti, Heikki Kasko (Coach: Robert Petersen)

1995 EuroBasket: finished 13th among 14 teams

Hanno Möttölä, Martti Kuisma, Kari-Pekka Klinga, Petri-Mikael Niiranen, Juha Luhtanen, Jyri Lehtonen, Pekka Markkanen, Sakari Pehkonen, Markku Larkio, Mika-Matti Tahvanainen, Riku Marttinen, Jarkko Tuomala (Coach: Henrik Dettmann)

References

  1. ↑ "Basketball at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games: Men's Basketball Round One". Sports Reference. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  2. ↑ http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=22724&SPID=1845&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=205530996
  3. ↑ http://www.sportsmedia101.com/washingtonwizards/2014/08/06/drew-gooden-to-play-for-finland-in-fiba-world-cup/

External links

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