Belarus men's national basketball team

The Belarus national basketball team (Belarusian: Нацыянальная зборная Беларусі па баскетболе) represents Belarus in international basketball matches, and are controlled by the Belarusian Basketball Federation. They came into existence in 1992 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

This article is about the men's team. For the women's team, see Belarus women's national basketball team.

Belarus
FIBA ranking52 (3 March 2020)[1]
Joined FIBA1992
FIBA zoneFIBA Europe
National federationBBF
CoachAleksander Krutikov
Nickname(s)Белыя крылы
(The White Wings)
Olympic Games
AppearancesNone
FIBA World Cup
AppearancesNone
EuroBasket
AppearancesNone
Home
Away
First international
Belarus 88–80 Lithuania 
(Wrocław, Poland; 31 May 1993)
Biggest win
Belarus 121–50 Azerbaijan 
(Minsk, Belarus; 2 June 2001)
Biggest defeat
 Spain 101–53 Belarus
(Alcoy, Spain; 3 December 1997)

The national team played in their first official match the following year versus Lithuania. While Belarus doesn't have a long tradition on the international stage, they have competed in the pursuit to qualify for the EuroBasket. Although they have yet to clinch that feat, and are Europe's most populous nation to have never qualified for a major international basketball competition.

History

Prior to independence

Before 1992 Belarus was occupied by the Soviet Union, with Belarusian born players taking part on the Soviet Union national team. They were one of the more prominent teams internationally during this era.

Later years

After Belarus gained independence from the Soviet Union, their first attempt to qualify for the premier European basketball tournament came in 1993. They ultimately came up short in their attempt. For qualification to the 2019 FIBA World Cup, Belarus competed in the 2019 FIBA World Cup Pre-Qualiers. They finished with an 1–3 record in their preliminary group, but it was enough to advance to the first round of the qualifiers. There they were placed in Group A, and right away the national team was overwhelmed in their first two matches by dominant performances from Slovenia and Montenegro respectively. They eventually notched their first win in the group in a rematch against Slovenia, but to no avail. Belarus finished with an 1–5 record and failed to qualify.[2]

Belarus later went on to compete in EuroBasket 2021 Pre-Qualifiers, but were eliminated in a heartbreaking match to Denmark, in the third and final pre-qualifying window 69–66.

Competitive record

Team

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2021 Pre-Qualifiers matches played on 3 to 17 August 2019 against Albania and Denmark.[3]

Belarus national basketball team roster
PlayersCoaches
Pos.No.NameAge – Date of birthHeightClubCtr.
PG 2 Maalik Wayns 28 – (1991-05-02)2 May 1991 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) CB Prat
SF 5 Aliaksei Trastsinetski 33 – (1986-03-02)2 March 1986 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) BC Tsmoki-Minsk
PF 7 Maksim Salash 23 – (1996-05-06)6 May 1996 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) BC Tallinna Kalev
SF 8 Mikita Meshcharakou 31 – (1988-06-16)16 June 1988 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) BC Tsmoki-Minsk
C 9 Artsiom Parakhouski 31 – (1987-10-06)6 October 1987 2.12 m (6 ft 11 in) BC Rytas
SF 12 Aliaksandr Pustahvar 34 – (1985-04-03)3 April 1985 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Kaposvári KK
PG 13 Siarhei Vabishchevich 31 – (1988-06-04)4 June 1988 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) BC Tsmoki-Minsk
C 15 Aliaksandr Semianiuk 25 – (1993-09-14)14 September 1993 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) BC Tsmoki-Minsk
F 16 Yauheni Beliankou 24 – (1995-06-11)11 June 1995 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) BC Tsmoki-Minsk
G 22 Roman Rubinshteyn 23 – (1996-05-22)22 May 1996 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) Legia Warszawa
SG 33 Andrei Stabrouski 21 – (1997-12-29)29 December 1997 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) Free agent
SG 95 Ivan Aladka 24 – (1995-02-09)9 February 1995 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) BC Tsmoki-Minsk
Head coach
  • Aleksander Krutikov
Assistant coach(es)
  • Yahor Meshcharakou
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • Club – describes last
    club before the competition
  • Age – describes age
    on 3 August 2019

Depth chart
Pos. Starting 5 Bench
C
PF
SF
SG
PG

Head coach position
  • Aliaksandr Papkou - (2008 – 2009)
  • Mikhail Feiman - (2010)
  • Andrei Krivonos - (2011 – 2012)
  • Ruslan Baidakov - (2013 – 2014)
  • Dušan Gvozdić - (2014)
  • Aleksander Krutikov - (2015 – present)

Recent results and upcoming fixtures

EuroBasket 2021 Pre-Qualifiers

Second round

Group A
Pos Team Pld W L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1  Sweden 4 2 2 298 282 +16 6 Qualification to EuroBasket qualifiers
2  Denmark 4 2 2 327 329 −2 6 Transfer to third round
3  Belarus 4 2 2 310 324 −14 6
Source: FIBA

Third round

Group E
Pos Team Pld W L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1  Denmark 4 4 0 313 274 +39 8 Qualification to EuroBasket qualifiers
2  Belarus 4 2 2 314 267 +47 6
3  Albania 4 0 4 247 333 −86 4
Source: FIBA
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gollark: Mostly the crawler code, but the rest is hardly great.
gollark: https://github.com/osmarks/myrkheimThis is... kind of inelegant, can someone suggest ways to restructure it?
gollark: Anyway, patching robots.txt support in is proving hard because my code is evil.
gollark: You could write down "human" or "carbon-based biped" or "helicopter".

See also

References
  1. "FIBA Ranking Presented by Nike". FIBA. 3 March 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  2. "Belarus during the 2019 FIBA World Cup European Qualifiers in July 2019". Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  3. "Belarus during the EuroBasket 2021 Pre-Qualifiers in Aug. 2019". Retrieved 3 August 2019.
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