Belgium national basketball team

Belgium
FIBA ranking	44 7
Joined FIBA	1932
FIBA zone	FIBA Europe
National federation	Royal Belgian Basketball Federation
Coach	Eddy Casteels
Nickname(s)	Belgian Lions
Olympic Games
Appearances	3
EuroBasket
Appearances	17
Uniforms
Light Dark

The Belgian national basketball team is the basketball side that represents Belgium in international competitions.^[1]

They have qualified for the FIBA EuroBasket 13 times, having their best result at the EuroBasket 1947 when they finished 4th. Further, they entered the Basketball Olympic Tournament on three occasions, in 1936, 1948 and 1952. Their best result was 11th place at the 1948 Olympic Games, in London. Their qualification for the EuroBasket 2011 marked their first qualification in almost 20 years.

The team is nicknamed the Belgian Lions.

History

Continental Stage

EuroBasket 1935

The Belgian side came in sixth place at the first European basketball championship, the EuroBasket 1935 held by the International Basketball Federation's FIBA Europe continental federation. They lost to Romania in the preliminary round. In the 5th to 8th place classification match, the Belgians defeated Bulgaria to advance to the 5th/6th playoff. There they were defeated by the French, 49–30.

EuroBasket 1946

The next European championship that Belgium contested was EuroBasket 1946. In the most competitive of the preliminary groups, Belgium lost close contests to Switzerland and eventual champions Czechoslovakia. Their third-place finish in the group relegated them to the 7th–10th place semifinals, where they defeated Poland handily. In the 7th/8th place final, the Belgians were victorious over the Luxembourg team,in 7th place.

EuroBasket 1947

Belgium's third EuroBasket was EuroBasket 1947. The team went 2–1 in the preliminary round, losing only to Egypt. Czechoslovakia gave Belgium their only loss in the semifinal round, as they went 2–1 again. This put Belgium in a rematch with Egypt, this time with the bronze medal on the line. Egypt won again, relegating Belgium to 4th place.

EuroBasket 1951

EuroBasket 1951 was the next competition that Belgium contested. They defeated medal favorite (and in fact eventual silver medallists Czechoslovakia in the preliminary round on their way to winning the group with a 3–0 record. That record was reversed in the semifinal round, though, as Belgium lost all three of their games, by 10 points or fewer in each contest. Their losses continued as they dropped their classification 5–8 game to Italy, but Belgium did finish with a win, over Greece in the classification 7/8 game, the basketball team is beast over the world

EuroBasket 1953

Belgium competed again at EuroBasket 1953 in Moscow. Their preliminary round group included both the eventual gold medallist Soviet Union and silver medallist Hungary teams, and Belgium lost to both but defeated Denmark to finish third place in the group with a 1–2 record. In a less competitive classification round pool, Belgium finished on top with a 3–1 record, losing only to Romania. They then won their 9–12 classification match but lost to Bulgaria in their final game to finish 10th place of 17.

At the 2015 EuroBasket, Belgium achieved its best winning ratio in more than 50 years.

in 1974 was the belgium team two of the world

EuroBasket 1957

Four years later, Belgium competed at EuroBasket 1957 in Sofia. They lost all three of their preliminary games, taking fourth position in the group and being sent to the classification round. There, they again lost three games but this time it was out of seven games in the round instead of three. Their 4–3 record in the classification pool put them in 12th place overall.

EuroBasket 2013 and 2015

In 2013, the Belgian Lions beat Germany 77-73. This was their first victory at the final stages of the EuroBasket in 20 years. In 2015, they improved further as they achieved three victories in six games.

Global Stage

On several occasions, Belgium qualified for events where they competed at the global stage. Yet, the country's major performances there date back to the 1940s/1950s. The country had its best performance at the 1948 Summer Olympics when it won 5 out of 8 games.

Competitive record

Olympic Games Summer Olympic Games Record Year Position Pld W L 1936 19th Place 2 0 2 1948 11th Place 8 5 3 1952 17th Place 3 1 2 1956–2012 Did not Qualify Total 3/18 13 6 7

EuroBasket FIBA EuroBasket Qualification Year Position Pld W L Pld W L 1935 6th 3 1 2 1937 Did not Qualify 1939 1946 7th 4 2 2 1947 Fourth 7 4 3 1949 Did not Qualify 1951 7th 8 4 4 1953 10th 9 5 4 1955 Did not Qualify 1957 7th 9 4 5 1959 15th 7 3 4 1961 8th 8 4 4 1963 8th 9 5 4 Directly qualified 1965 Did not Qualify 3 1 2 1967 15th 9 2 7 3 3 0 1969 Did not Qualify 5 2 3 1971 4 2 2 1973 7 3 4 1975 Did not enter Did not enter 1977 8th 7 2 5 Directly qualified 1979 12th 8 0 8 1981 Did not Qualify 5 1 4 1983 5 2 3 1985 12 5 7 1987 5 2 3 1989 4 2 2 1991 10 6 4 1993 12th 6 1 5 6 4 2 1995 Did not Qualify 6 3 3 1997 10 4 6 1999 13 4 9 2001 15 11 4 2003 10 3 7 2005 10 3 7 2007 12 6 6 2009 12 6 6 2011 21st 5 0 5 8 6 2 2013 9th 8 3 5 8 5 3 2015 13th 6 3 3 6 5 1 2017 Qualified 6 5 1 Total 17/40 113 43 70

Team

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2015.

Belgium men's national basketball team roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Age – Date of birth Ht. Club Ctr. G 4 Bosco, Lionel 33 – 18 September 1981 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) Belfius Mons-Hainaut PG 5 Van Rossom, Sam 29 – 3 June 1986 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Valencia PF 7 Hervelle, Axel 32 – 12 May 1983 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Bilbao Basket PF 8 Mwema, Jean-Marc 25 – 5 December 1989 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Antwerp Giants SG 9 Tabu, Jonathan 29 – 7 October 1985 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Baloncesto Fuenlabrada SG 10 Serron, Quentin 25 – 25 February 1990 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) Oostende F 12 Mukubu, Wen 32 – 2 August 1983 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Spirou Charleroi PF 13 Gillet, Pierre-Antoine 24 – 16 April 1991 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) Oostende PF 14 de Zeeuw, Maxime 28 – 26 April 1987 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) Nymburk C 22 Tumba, Kevin 24 – 23 February 1991 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in) Spirou Charleroi F 23 Salumu, Jean 25 – 26 July 1990 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) Oostende SG 24 Lojeski, Matt 30 – 24 July 1985 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) Olympiacos	Head coach Eddy Casteels Assistant coach(es) Pascal Angillis Jacques Stas Legend Club – describes last club before the tournament Age – describes age on 5 September 2015

Depth Chart

Pos.	Starter	Bench	Bench	Reserve
C	Kevin Tumba	Maxime De Zeeuw
PF	Axel Hervelle	Pierre-Antoine Gillet
SF	Matt Lojeski	Jean-Marc Mwema	Wen Mukubu
SG	Quentin Serron	Jonathan Tabu	Jean Salumu
PG	Sam Van Rossom	Lionel Bosco

Head coach position

• Eddy Casteels – since 2005

Past rosters

1935 EuroBasket: finished 6th among 10 teams

Robert Brouwer, Gaston de Houwer, Louis Levaux, Rene Demanck, Emile Laermans, Pierre van Basselaere, Gustave Vereecken

1936 Olympic Games: finished 19th among 21 teams

Robert Brouwer, Gustave Crabbe, Rene Demanck, Emile Laermans, Guillaume Merckx, Pierre van Basselaere, Gustave Vereecken, Raymond Gerard

1946 EuroBasket: finished 7th among 10 teams

Pierre van Basselaere, Louis Vandegoor, Armand van Wambeke, Henri Hollanders, Emile Kets, Marcel de Haeck, Auguste Wijns, Georges Baert, Augustin Bernaer, Henri Hermans, Ange Hollanders, Julien Meuris, Fernand Rossius, Henri Servaes (Coach: Raymond Briot)

1947 EuroBasket: finished 4th among 14 teams

Emile Kets, Georges Baert, Henri Hermans, Fernand Rossius, Joseph Pirard, Julien Meuris, Henri Coosemans, Guillaume van Damme, Henri Hollanders, Gustave Poppe, Ange Hollanders, Rene Steurbaut, Francois de Pauw, Armand van Wambeke (Coach: Raymond Briot)

1948 Olympic Games: finished 11th among 23 teams

Emile Kets, Henri Hollanders, Ange Hollanders, Gustave Poppe, Henri Hermans, Francois de Pauw, Julien Meuris, Rene Steurbaut, Armand van Wambeke, Augustin Bernaer, Henri Coosemans, Louis van de Goor, Georges Baert, Leon Lampo (Coach: Raymond Briot)

1951 EuroBasket: finished 7th among 17 teams

Joseph Eygel, Emile Kets, Georges Baert, Henri Coosemans, Guy Gekiere, Desire Ligon, Francois Plas, Alex van Gils, Roger van Harck, Jean Crick, Francois de Pauw, Philippe Dewandelaer (Coach: Raymond Briot)

1952 Olympic Games: finished 18th among 23 teams

Joseph Eygel, Henri Coosemans, Desire Ligon, Alex van Gils, Felix Roosemont, Julien Meuris, Henri Crick, Josef du Jardin, Johannes Ducheyne, Pierre van Huele, Jules Boes, Jan Ceulemans, Yves Delsarte

1953 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 17 teams

Georges Baert, Andre Vermeulen, Emile Kets, Henri Coosemans, Desire Ligon, Joseph Decombe, Felix Roosemont, Maurice Chavagne, Rene Steurbaut, Julien Meuris, Alex van Gils, Edouard Samson, Jean Nolis, Roger van Harck (Coach: Louis van Hof)

1957 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 16 teams

Eddy Terrace, John Loridon, Emile Martin, Charles Storme, Jean de Nayer, Elie Deweerdt, Charles Feyen, Albert van Mechelen, Alex van den Avondt, Lucien van Kersschaever, Georges de Meyer, Robert Jolijt

1959 EuroBasket: finished 7th among 17 teams

Joseph Eygel, Jean Steveniers, John Loridon, Richard Wagner, Maurice Chavagne, Rene Aerts, Pierre van Huele, Francois de Pauw, Elie Deweerdt, Lucien van Kersschaever, Henry Raets, Lievin Vinck (Coach: Eddy Verswijvel)

1961 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 19 teams

Joseph Eygel, John Loridon, Jean Steveniers, Rene Aerts, Henri Degraeve, Andre Desplats, Oscar Wauters, Joseph Serron, Alphonse Maes, Charles Feyen, Pierre van Huele, Guido Scholiers (Coach: Rene Mol)

1963 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 16 teams

Joseph Eygel, John Loridon, Rene Aerts, Lucien Michelet, Willy Ivens, Camille Dierckx, Pierre Dewandeler, Lucien van Kersschaever, Pierre van Huele, Francois d’Hoir, Guido Scholiers, Francois Clement (Coach: Roger Staes)

1967 EuroBasket: finished 15th among 16 teams

Joseph Eygel, Etienne Geerts, Rene Aerts, Lucien Michelet, John Loridon, Lucien van Kersschaever, Alfons Declerck, Willy Ivens, Robert van Herzele, Raoul Schoeters, Camille Dierckx, Willy d’Hondt (Coach: Rene Mol)

1977 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 12 teams

Etienne Geerts, Imre Nytrai, Olin "Corky" Bell, Rene van den Broeck, Christian Becknel, Roger Marien, Hector Vermeersch, Alain Stollenberg, Robert van Herzele, Jos Peeters, Francois Huysmans, Ive van Poppelen (Coach: Rene Mol)

1979 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 12 teams

Etienne Geerts, Imre Nytrai, Rik Samaey, Rene van den Broeck, Jean-Luc Selicky, Jos Peeters, Herman Reynders, Francois Huysmans, Etienne Bodson, Tony Van den Bosch, Alain Stollenberg, Ive van Poppelen (Coach: Rene Mol)

1993 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 16 teams

Eric Struelens, Rik Samaey, Ronny Bayer, Jacques Stas, Erik Cleymans, Marc Deheneffe, Daniel Goethals, Dimitri Lambrecht, Danny Herman, Herman Bruyninckx, Dirk Snyders, Ivan Verberckt (Coach: Tony Van den Bosch)

2011 EuroBasket: finished 23rd among 24 teams

Roel Moors, Sam Van Rossom, Christophe Beghin, Randy Oveneke, Jorn Steinbach, Jonathan Tabu, Dimitri Lauwers, Guy Muya, Marcus Faison, Maxime De Zeeuw, Tomas Van Den Spiegel, D.J. Mbenga (Coach: Eddy Casteels)

2013 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 24 teams

Roel Moors, Sam Van Rossom, Christophe Beghin, Axel Hervelle, Jean-Marc Mwema, Jonathan Tabu, Quentin Serron, Guy Muya, Wen Mukubu, Maxime De Zeeuw, Sasha Massot, Yannick Driesen (Coach: Eddy Casteels)

Kit

Manufacturer

2015: KIPSTA

Sponsor

2015: Voo

See also

• Belgium national under-19 basketball team
• Belgium national under-17 basketball team
• Belgium women's national basketball team
• Belgium national 3x3 team

Notes

References

1. FIBA National Federations – Belgium, fiba.com, accessed 5 July 2013.

External links

• Official website
• FIBA profile
• Eurobasket.com
• Archived records of Belgium team participations

Videos

• Lithuania v Belgium - Group D - Game Highlights - EuroBasket 2015 Youtube.com video