Macedonia national basketball team

Macedonia Македонија

FIBA ranking	33 1[1]
Joined FIBA	1993
FIBA zone	FIBA Europe
National federation	Basketball Federation of Macedonia
Coach	Dragan Raca
Nickname(s)	Лавови (Lions) Црвено-Жолти (Red-Yellows) Фаланга (Phalanx)
EuroBasket
Appearances	5
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.

History

Before 1991, Macedonia was a Federal Republic of Federation SFRJ and part of the national basketball team .

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

Marin Dokuzovski, head coach of the team in 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

Olympic Games

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
1936 to 1988	Part of Yugoslavia
1992 Barcelona	Did not qualify
2016 Rio de Janeiro

World Cup

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
1950 to 1990	Part of Yugoslavia
1994 Canada	Did not qualify
1998 Greece	Did not qualify
2002 United States	Did not qualify
2006 Japan	Did not qualify
2010 Turkey	Did not qualify
2014 Spain	Did not qualify
2019 China	To be determined

EuroBasket

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
1935 to 1991	Part of Yugoslavia
Germany 1993	Did not qualify
Greece 1995
Spain 1997
France 1999	13th Place	3	0	3
Turkey 2001	Did not qualify
Sweden 2003
Serbia and Montenegro 2005
Spain 2007
Poland 2009	9th Place	6	2	4
Lithuania 2011	4th Place	11	7	4
Slovenia 2013	21st place	5	1	4
France 2015	19th Place	5	1	4
2017	Banned

Team

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2015.

Macedonia men's national basketball team roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Age – Date of birth Ht. Club Ctr. SF 4 Brčkov, Vladimir 26 – 29 December 1989 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) KK Kožuv PG 5 Ilievski, Vlado (C) 35 – 19 January 1980 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) Orlandina Basket SG 6 Sokolov, Darko 29 – 8 May 1986 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) KK Karpoš Sokoli PG 7 Kostoski, Aleksandar 27 – 5 March 1988 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) KK Kumanovo SF 8 Stojanovski, Vojdan 28 – 9 December 1987 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) BC Andorra SF 9 Stojanovski, Damjan 28 – 9 December 1987 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) MZT Skopje SG 10 Simonovski, Marko 26 – 28 June 1989 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) KK Kumanovo C 11 Mladenovski, Ljubomir 20 – 2 May 1995 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) MZT Skopje PF 12 Trajkovski, Bojan 29 – 11 September 1986 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) KK Kumanovo F 13 Gjuroski, Stojan 24 – 6 November 1991 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) KK Kozuv PF 14 Hendrix, Richard 29 – 15 October 1986 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. C 15 Samardžiski, Predrag 29 – 11 April 1986 2.15 m (7 ft 1 in) Büyükçekmece Basketbol	Head Coach Marjan Srbinovski Assistant Coaches Pero Blazevski Aleksandar Jončevski Legend Club – describes last club before the tournament Age – describes age on 5 September 2015

Added roster

Players under consideration for 2017 Eurobasket qualifiers in August 2016

Added roster roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Age – Date of birth Ht. Club Ctr. PF Antic, Pero 33 – 29 July 1982 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) Fenerbahçe Men's Basketball PG McCalebb, Bo 30 – 4 May 1985 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) Limoges CSP G Magdevski, Andrej 19 – 14 January 1996 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) KK Partizan PG Nikolov, Kristijan 19 – 15 October 1996 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) Yeşilgiresun Belediye F Maslinko, Andrej 18 – 20 May 1997 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Fulgor Omegna F Dvojakovski, Oliver 18 – 26 January 1997 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) L'Alfas PG Dimitrijević, Nenad 17 – 23 February 1998 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) Joventut PF Bakoč, Filip 19 – 2 May 1996 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) Karpos Sokoli SF Markovski, Gorjan 23 – 19 June 1992 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) MZT Skopje C Nikolovski, Kiril 27 – 9 June 1988 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) KK Feni Industries C Krstevski, Bojan 26 – 4 June 1989 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) KK Rabotnicki

Depth chart

Pos.	Starter	Bench	Reserve
C	Predrag Samardžiski	Richard Hendrix	Ljubomir Mladenovski
PF	Bojan Trajkovski	Stojan Gjuroski
SF	Marko Simonovski	Damjan Stojanovski	Vladimir Brčkov
SG	Vojdan Stojanovski	Darko Sokolov
PG	Vlado Ilievski	Aleksandar Kostoski

Notable players

• Petar Naumoski (1995–2002)
• Vrbica Stefanov (1995–2009)
• Todor Gecevski (1996–2013)
• Gjorgji Čekovski (1999–2013)
• Pero Antić (2002–2013)
• Vlado Ilievski (1998-2015)

Former coaches

• Aleksandar Knjazev (1993-1994)
• Blagoja Georgievski (1995-1996)
• Zare Markovski (1997-1999)
• Marin Dokuzovski (1999-2001)
• Jordančo Davitkov (2001-2007)
• Jovica Arsić (2007-2009)
• Marin Dokuzovski (2010-2011)
• Marjan Lazovski (2012)
• Aleš Pipan (2013)
• Aleksandar Džikić (2014)
• Marjan Srbinovski (2015)

Past rosters

1999 Eurobasket: finished 13th among 16 teams

4 Vrbica Stefanov, 5 Vlado Ilievski, 6 Gjorgji Čekovski, 7 Mirza Kurtović, 8 Marjan Srbinovski, 9 Igor Mihajlovski, 10 Petar Naumoski, 11 Todor Gečevski, 12 Dejan Jovanovski, 13 Srdjan 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)

2015 Eurobasket: finished 19th among 24 teams

4 Vladimir Brčkov, 5 Vlado Ilievski. 6 Darko Sokolov, 7 Aleksandar Kostoski, 8 Vojdan Stojanovski, 9 Damjan Stojanovski, 10 Marko Simonovski, 11 Ljubomir Mladenovski, 12 Bojan Trajkovski, 13 Stojan Gjuroski, 14 Richard Hendrix, 15 Predrag Samardžiski (Coach: Marjan Srbinovski)

Statistics

Most games played

Rank	Name	NT Career	Games
1	Todor Gečevski	1996–2013	89
2	Vrbica Stefanov	1995–2009	66
3	Gjorgji Čekovski	1999–2013	56
4	Pero Blaževski	1995–2009	54
5	Predrag Samardžiski	2005 –	52
6	Pero Antić	2002–2013	49
7	Vlado Ilievski	1998–2015	47
8	Vojdan Stojanovski	2008 –	43
9	Petar Naumoski	1995–2002	42
10	Dušan Bocevski	1995–2001	40

All time points scored

Rank	Name	NT Career	Total Points	Caps	Points per game
1	Petar Naumoski	1995–2002	989	42	23.5
2	Vrbica Stefanov	1995–2009	947	66	14.3
3	Todor Gečevski	1996–2013	891	89	10.0
4	Pero Antić	2002–2013	605	49	12.3
5	Bo McCalebb	2010–2013	543	25	21.7
6	Vlado Ilievski	1998–2015	500	47	10.6
7	Dejan Jovanovski	1995–2002	394	38	10.4
8	Pero Blaževski	1995–2009	314	54	5.8
9	Dušan Bocevski	1995–2001	314	40	7.9
10	Predrag Samardziski	2005 -	308	52	5.9

• * Active NT players are listed in bold
• * Official FIBA games excluding Friendly games

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
Aleksandar Kostoski	9.8	FIBA EuroBasket 2015

• Only played 2005 season in Division B (won promotion)

References

1. FIBA Rankings
2. F.Y.R. of Macedonia at EuroBasket 2011
3. http://www.orlandomagicdaily.com/2013-articles/september/montenegro-macedonia-090413.html

External links

• Official website
• FIBA profile
• Eurobasket.com