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Belgium national basketball team

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FIBA ranking
  
44 7

Nickname(s)
  
Belgian Lions

Appearances
  
17

Coach
  
Eddy Casteels

Joined FIBA
  
1932

FIBA zone
  
FIBA Europe

Appearances
  
3

Light
  
Dark

Location
  
Belgium

Belgium national basketball team httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumbd

National federation
  
Royal Belgian Basketball Federation

The Belgian national basketball team is the basketball side that represents Belgium in international competitions.

Contents

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.

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.

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.

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2015.

Other notable players

Other current notable players from Belgium:

Head coach position

  • Eddy Casteels – since 2005
  • Manufacturer

    2015: KIPSTA

    2015: Voo

    References

    Belgium national basketball team Wikipedia


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