Macedonia national basketball team

History

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

EuroBasket 1999

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. Macedonia's best performers were once again McCalebb and Antić, with 17.6 and 13.8 points per game, respectively. After the tournament, several of the Macedonian veteran players, led by captain Antić, announced their retirement from the national team.

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2017 qualifiers.

Notable players

Former coaches

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)

All time points scored

Leader in points per game