Macedonia national basketball team

Macedonia
FIBA ranking	34[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

EuroBasket EuroBasket Qualification Year Position Pld W L Pld W L 1993 Did not qualify 3 0 3 1995 Did not enter Did not enter 1997 Did not qualify 15 8 7 1999 13th 3 0 3 10 8 2 2001 Did not qualify 10 6 4 2003 10 4 6 2005 Division B 8 7 1 2007 Did not qualify 12 7 5 2009 9th 6 2 4 6 4 2 2011 4th 11 7 4 8 5 3 2013 21st 5 1 4 Directly qualified 2015 19th 5 1 4 6 5 1 2017 Did not qualify 6 2 4 Total 30 11 19

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

Team

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2017 qualifiers.

Macedonia men's national basketball team roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Age – Date of birth Ht. Club Ctr. SG 4 Karadžovski, Dimitar 31 – 7 October 1984 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) KK Kumanovo SG 6 Mekić, Adem 20 – 28 December 1995 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) MZT Skopje PG 7 Kostoski, Aleksandar 28 – 5 March 1988 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) KK Kumanovo SG 8 Stojanovski, Vojdan (C) 28 – 9 December 1987 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) Baloncesto Sevilla SF 9 Stojanovski, Damjan 28 – 9 December 1987 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) free agent C 10 Dujković, Marko 26 – 21 March 1990 2.26 m (7 ft 5 in) KK Metalac Valjevo F 11 Gjuroski, Stojan 24 – 6 November 1991 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) MZT Skopje PF 12 Krstevski, Bojan 27 – 4 June 1989 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) KK Kozuv C 13 Mladenovski, Ljubomir 21 – 2 May 1995 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) MZT Skopje PF 14 Janevski, Marjan 28 – 26 February 1988 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) KK Kumanovo C 15 Nikolovski, Kiril 28 – 9 June 1988 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) KK Feni Industries PG 19 Magdevski, Andrej 20 – 14 January 1996 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) KK Feni Industries PF 24 Travis, Romeo 31 – 10 December 1984 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) Pallacanestro Cantù	Head Coach Dragan Raca Assistant Coaches Vrbica Stefanov Legend Club – describes last team before the tournament Age – describes age on 5 September 2016

Depth chart

Pos.	Starter	Bench	Reserve	Injured
C	Kiril Nikolovski	Marko Dujković	Ljubomir Mladenovski
PF	Romeo Travis	Marjan Janevski	Bojan Krstevski
SF	Vojdan Stojanovski	Stojan Gjuroski		Damjan Stojanovski
SG	Aleksandar Kostoski	Adem Mekic
PG	Andrej Magdevski	Dimitar Karadzovski

Notable players

• Petar Naumoski (1995–2002)
• Vrbica Stefanov (1995–2009)
• Pero Blaževski (1995-2009)
• Todor Gecevski (1996–2013)
• Gjorgji Čekovski (1999–2013)
• Pero Antić (2002–2013)
• Bo McCalebb (2010-2013)
• 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
	Vojdan Stojanovski	2008 –	49
8	Vlado Ilievski	1998–2015	47
9	Petar Naumoski	1995–2002	42
10	Damjan Stojanovski	2009 -	41

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	Vojdan Stojanovski	2008 -	381	49	7.8
9	Pero Blaževski	1995–2009	314	54	5.8
10	Dušan Bocevski	1995–2001	314	40	7.9

• * 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
Vojdan Stojanovski	17.2	EuroBasket 2017 qualification

• 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