Macedonia national basketball team

Macedonia Republic of Macedonia Македонија
FIBA ranking 33 Increase1[1]
Joined FIBA 1993
FIBA zone FIBA Europe
National federation Basketball Federation of Macedonia
Coach Aleksandar Džikić
Nickname(s) Лавови (Lions)
Црвено-Жолти (Red-Yellows)
Фаланга (Phalanx)
FIBA EuroBasket
Appearances 5 (1999, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015)
Uniforms
Light
Dark
Macedonia basketball team prior to a match at Boris Trajkovski Sports Center

The Macedonia national basketball team (Macedonian: Кошаркарска репрезентациjа на Македониjа / Košarkarska reprezentacija na Makedonija) represents the Republic of Macedonia in international basketball. [2] The Macedonian national basketball team is run by the Basketball Federation of Macedonia, the governing body of basketball in Macedonia, which was created in 1992 and joined FIBA in 1993. Prior to 1993, Macedonia was part of the Yugoslavia national basketball team.

Current Roster

Macedonian National Basketball Team roster
Players Coaches
Pos. # Name Age - DOB Ht. Club
SG 4 Dimcevski, Ivica 25 – 27 June 1989 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) KK Rabotnicki Republic of Macedonia
PG 5 Magdevski, Andrej 19 – 14 January 1996 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) CB Axarquía Spain
SG 6 Sokolov, Darko 28 – 8 May 1986 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) KK Rabotnicki Republic of Macedonia
PG 7 Kostoski, Aleksandar 26 – 5 March 1988 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) Kumanovo Republic of Macedonia
SF 8 Stojanovski, Vojdan (C) 27 – 9 December 1987 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) BC Andorra Spain
SF 9 Stojanovski, Damjan  27 – 9 December 1987 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) MZT Skopje Republic of Macedonia
SG 10 Simonovski, Marko 25 – 28 June 1989 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) MZT Skopje Republic of Macedonia
PF 11 Brčkov, Vladimir 25 – 29 December 1989 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) Kozuv Republic of Macedonia
PF 12 Trajkovski, Bojan 28 – 11 September 1986 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Sigal Prishtina Kosovo
PF 13 Gjuroski, Stojan 23 – 6 November 1991 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) BC Levski Sofia Bulgaria
PF 14 Janevski, Marjan 26 – 26 February 1988 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) KK Kumanovo Republic of Macedonia
C 15 Hendrix, Richard 28 – 15 October 1986 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) PBC Lokomotiv-Kuban Russia
C 24 Mladenovski, Ljubomir 19 – 2 May 1995 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) MZT Skopje Republic of Macedonia
C - Krstevski, Bojan 25 – 4 June 1989 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) Kavala B.C. Greece
SG - Ilievski, Vlado 35 – 19 January 1980 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Cibona Croatia
PG - McCalebb, Bo 29 – 4 May 1985 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) FC Bayern Munich (basketball) Germany
PF - Antić, Pero 32 – 29 July 1982 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) Atlanta Hawks United States
PF - Čekovski, Gjorgji 35 – 11 December 1979 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) KK Rabotnicki Republic of Macedonia
C - Samardžiski, Predrag 28 – 11 April 1986 2.15 m (7 ft 1 in) MZT Skopje Republic of Macedonia
PG - Washington, Darius 29 – 6 December 1985 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) ČEZ Basketball Nymburk Czech Republic
C - Nikolovski, Kiril 26 – 9 June 1988 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) MZT Skopje Republic of Macedonia
Head coach
Assistant coaches


Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • Club field describes current pro club

Depth chart

Pos. Starter Bench Reserve
C Richard Hendrix Marjan Janevski Ljubomir Mladenovski
PF Bojan Trajkovski Stojan Gjuroski Vladimir Brčkov
SF Damjan Stojanovski Marko Simonovski
SG Vojdan Stojanovski Darko Sokolov Ivica Dimcevski
PG Andrej Magdevski Aleksandar Kostoski

Notable players

History

Before 1993, Macedonian players represented the Yugoslav national basketball team in international basketball.

EuroBasket 1999

Macedonia basketball team at a time out during a match with Latvia.

After qualifying for EuroBasket 1999, the basketball team was placed in Group A, along with FR Yugoslavia, France and Israel. First game, Macedonia came out firing showing solid competitive play against the French Team, however, eventually lost by a narrow margin of 67–71. Next up, was Group A favorites FR Yugoslavia, showing superior play with their post up offense, Macedonia lost 68–83. With the final game of the group, Macedonia played a fairly even match, however, luck was not on their side, losing 82–84, henceforth, being eliminated from the tournament. Even though Macedonia lost all 3 games, the team showed heart and talent with their impressive play against France and Israel. Due to their small margin of the losses Macedonia ended the tournament ranked as 13th overall.

EuroBasket 2009

After qualifying for EuroBasket 2009, the Macedonian national basketball team was placed in Group A, along with Greece, Croatia and Israel. Macedonia began the tournament with a heavy 54–86 loss to rivals Greece, but rebounded with an 82–79 victory over Israel. Despite dropping their last game against Croatia, the Israel result was enough to secure second round qualification. In the second round, Macedonia was placed in Group E alongside France, Germany and Russia. Macedonia lost to France in the second round opener, but famously defeated Germany in the next game. Against Russia, Macedonia was narrowly defeated by a score of 69–71. This performance was not enough to secure a berth in the knockout round. Nevertheless, Macedonia considers this as a historic success for the national team, since it was only the country's second appearance in EuroBasket and the team advanced past the first round. In the final tournament rankings, Macedonia ranked 9th place with a record of 2–4.

EuroBasket 2011

Through the qualifying round, Macedonia qualified for EuroBasket 2011 and was in Group C along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, and Finland in the preliminary round. The team lost their first game to Montenegro (65–70) in overtime but won the remaining four against Croatia (78–76), Greece (72–58), Finland (72–70), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (75–63). Macedonia finished first in the group and advanced to the second round.

In the second round, Macedonia was in Group F with Russia, Slovenia, Greece, Georgia, and Finland. Having beaten Greece and Finland in the preliminary round, Macedonia went into the second round with a 2–0 record. After beating Georgia (65–63), Macedonia qualified for the knockout round. The team then beat Slovenia (68–59), but lost to Russia by 2 points (63–61) after Sergey Monya made a buzzer-beating shot to win the final game of the second round. Macedonia, therefore, finished second in Group F.

For the first time in the team's history, it reached the knockout round where it defeated host country Lithuania (67–65) by 2 points in the quarterfinals. Macedonia then lost to Spain (92–80) in the semifinals. They lost to Russia in the third place game (68–72) and finished in fourth place.

2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournament

By finishing in 4th place at EuroBasket 2011, Macedonia qualified for the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament. It has been drawn into Group D along with Angola and New Zealand. In the first game against Angola, Macedonia came out non-aggressive in the 1st half falling to a 13 pt deficit (40–53) at halftime. During most of the match, the top Macedonian players showed fatigue due to the grueling playoff matches they had played for their club teams. In addition, Macedonia came out with a strong 4th quarter, eventually losing by a margin of 4 points, with the final score being 84–88 Angola. Top scorers for Macedonia against Angola were Antic with 17, and McCalebb had 21. On the next match day, which was the day after with less than 24 hours of rest, Macedonia came out a lot stronger in the 1st quarter with a strong lead that carried over the entire game. Eventually, New Zealand could not recover, and fell to Macedonia (Final score 84–62) by a margin of 22 points. Leading scorers for the game were Gecevski added 16, Antic had 17, and McCalebb with 23.

The Macedonian players got much needed rest, before the quarterfinals would begin in two days on 6 July. The team, following the 68–64 victory by New Zealand over Angola, won Group D and its opponent in the quarterfinals was to be the Group C runner-up, Dominican Republic. Macedonia lost the game 86–76, though the team had a 13-point lead at halftime.

EuroBasket 2013

By participating at the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Macedonia has qualified for EuroBasket 2013 in Slovenia. In a disappointing campaign, the Macedonian national team didn't manage to repeat the success from the previous Eurobasket, having one victory in five matches in the Group B against Serbia (89–75), which was good enough only for the last place in the group stage and 21st overall. The first game of the Eurobasket against Montenegro was particularly demoralizing, as the Montenegrins won 81–80 in a controversial fashion, after the referees didn't call interference on the basket during Čekovski's last second game winning attempt, despite the fact that one of the Montenegrin players has gotten his hand trapped in the net.[3] Macedonia's best performers were once again McCalebb and Antić, with 17.6 and 13.8 points per game, respectively.[4] After the tournament, several of the Macedonian veteran players, led by captain Antić, announced their retirement from the national team.

Competitive record


Performance at FIBA EuroBasket

Year Position Pld W L
Switzerland 1935 SwitzerlandDid not qualify
Latvia 1937 Latvia
Lithuania 1939 Lithuania
Switzerland 1946 Switzerland
Czechoslovakia 1947 Czechoslovakia13th523
Egypt 1949 EgyptDid not qualify
France 1951 France
Soviet Union 1953 Soviet Union6th1165
Hungary 1955 Hungary8th1147
Bulgaria 1957 Bulgary6th1046
Turkey 1959 Turkey9th761
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1961 Yugoslavia2nd 1082
Poland 1963 Poland3rd 981
Soviet Union 1965 Soviet Union2nd 981
Finland 1967 Finland9th963
Italy 1969 Italy2nd 761
Germany 1971 Germany2nd 761
Spain 1973 Spain1st 770
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1975 Yugoslavia1st 880
Belgium 1977 Belgium1st 761
Italy 1979 Italy3rd 963
Czechoslovakia 1981 Czechoslovakia2nd 1082
France 1983 France7th743
Germany 1985 Germany7th853
Greece 1987 Greece3rd 853
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1989 Yugoslavia1st 550
Italy 1991 Italy1st 550
Germany 1993Did not qualify
Greece 1995
Spain 1997
France 199913th Place303
Turkey 2001Did not qualify
Sweden 2003
Serbia and Montenegro 2005
Spain 2007
Poland 20099th Place624
Lithuania 2011Fourth place1174
Slovenia 201321st place514

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Performance at Summer Olympic Games

Year Position Pld W L
Nazi Germany 1936 BerlinDid not qualify
United Kingdom 1948 London
Finland 1952 Helsinki
Australia 1956 Melbourne
Italy 1960 Rome6th844
Japan 1964 Tokyo7th954
Mexico 1968 Mexico City2nd 2972
Germany 1972 Munich5th972
Canada 1976 Montreal2nd 2752
Soviet Union 1980 Moscow1st 1880
United States 1984 Los Angeles3rd 3871
South Korea 1988 Seoul2nd 2862
Spain 1992 Barcelona Did not qualify
United Kingdom 2012 London

Performance at FIBA World Cup

Year Position Pld W L
Argentina 1950 Argentina10th505
Brazil 1954 Brazil11th514
Chile 1959 ChileDid not qualify
Brazil 1963 Brazil2nd 981
Uruguay 1967 Uruguay2nd 963
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1970 Yugoslavia1st 651
Puerto Rico 1974 Puerto Rico2nd 761
Philippines 1978 Philippines1st 11110
Colombia 1982 Colombia3rd 1082
Spain 1986 Spain3rd 12102
Argentina 1990 Argentina1st 871
Canada 1994 CanadaDid not qualify
Spain 2014 SpainDid not qualify

Most games played

Rank Name NT Career Games
1 Todor Gečevski 1996–2013 89
2 Vrbica Stefanov 1995–2009 66
3 Gjorgji Čekovski 1999 – 56
4 Pero Blaževski 1995–2009 54
5 Pero Antić 2002–2013 49
6 Predrag Samardžiski 2005 – 47
7 Petar Naumoski 1995–2002 42
8 Vlado Ilievski 1998–2013 42
9 Dušan Bocevski 1995–2001 40
10 Vojdan Stojanovski 2008 – 39

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All time points scored

Rank Name NT Career Total Points
1 Petar Naumoski 1995–2002 989
2 Vrbica Stefanov 1995–2009 947
3 Todor Gečevski 1996–2013 891
4 Pero Antić 2002–2013 605
5 Bo McCalebb 2010 – 543
6 Vlado Ilievski 1998–2013 455
7 Dejan Jovanovski 1995–2002 394
8 Pero Blaževski 1995–2009 314
9 Dušan Bocevski 1995–2001 314
10 Gjorgji Čekovski 1999 – 286

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Leader in points per game

Name PPG Competition
Petar Naumoski 29.4 FIBA EuroBasket 1997 qualification
Petar Naumoski 30.5 FIBA EuroBasket 1999 qualification
Petar Naumoski 15.0 EuroBasket 1999
Vrbica Stefanov 21.2 FIBA EuroBasket 2001 qualification
Petar Naumoski 19.3 FIBA EuroBasket 2003 qualification
Vrbica Stefanov / Pero Antić 15.2 FIBA EuroBasket 2005 Division B*
Vrbica Stefanov 19.0 FIBA EuroBasket 2007 qualification
Vrbica Stefanov 15.0 FIBA EuroBasket 2009 qualification
Pero Antić 12.5 FIBA EuroBasket 2009
Bo McCalebb 23.5 FIBA EuroBasket 2011 qualification
Bo McCalebb 21.4 FIBA EuroBasket 2011
Bo McCalebb 26.3 2012 Olympic Qualifying
Bo McCalebb 17.6 FIBA EuroBasket 2013
Bojan Trajkovski 11.3 FIBA EuroBasket 2015 qualification

Former coaches

Past rosters

As Macedonia

1999 Eurobasket: finished 13th among 16 teams

4 Vrbica Stefanov, 5 Vlado Ilievski, 6 Gjorgji Čekovski, 7 Mirza Kurtović, 8 Marjan Srbinoski, 9 Igor Mihajlovski, 10 Petar Naumoski, 11 Todor Gečevski, 12 Dejan Jovanovski, 13 Srđan Stanković, 14 Pero Blaževski, 15 Dušan Bocevski (Coach: Zare Markovski)

2009 Eurobasket: finished 9th among 16 teams

4 Vrbica Stefanov, 5 Dimitar Mirakovski, 6 Darko Sokolov, 7 Riste Stefanov, 8 Vojdan Stojanovski, 9 Pero Blaževski, 10 Dime Tasovski, 11 Todor Gečevski, 12 Pero Antić, 13 Damjan Stojanovski, 14 Jeremiah Massey, 15 Predrag Samardžiski (Coach: Jovica Arsić)

2011 Eurobasket: finished 4th among 24 teams

4 Dimitar Mirakovski, 5 Vlado Ilievski, 6 Darko Sokolov, 7 Bo McCalebb, 8 Vojdan Stojanovski, 9 Damjan Stojanovski, 10 Marko Simonovski, 11 Todor Gečevski, 12 Pero Antic, 13 Ivica Dimcevski, 14 Gjorgji Čekovski, 15 Predrag Samardžiski (Coach: Marin Dokuzovski)

2012 Olympic Qualifying Tournament

4 Aleksandar Kostoski, 5 Vlado Ilievski. 6 Darko Sokolov, 7 Bo McCalebb, 8 Vojdan Stojanovski, 9 Damjan Stojanovski, 10 Marko Simonovski, 11 Todor Gečevski, 12 Pero Antić, 13 Kiril Nikolovski, 14 Gjorgji Čekovski, 15 Predrag Samardžiski (Coach: Marjan Lazovski)

2013 Eurobasket: finished 21st among 24 teams

4 Aleksandar Kostoski, 5 Vlado Ilievski. 6 Darko Sokolov, 7 Bo McCalebb, 8 Vojdan Stojanovski, 9 Damjan Stojanovski, 10 Vladimir Brčkov, 11 Todor Gečevski, 12 Pero Antić, 13 Stojan Gjuroski, 14 Gjorgji Čekovski, 15 Predrag Samardžiski (Coach: Aleš Pipan)

References

External links