North Macedonia men's national basketball team

The North Macedonia national basketball team (Macedonian: Кошаркарска репрезентација на Северна Македонија / Košarkaška reprezentacija na Severna Makedonija, formerly known officially as the Macedonia national basketball team) represents North Macedonia in international basketball and is controlled by the Basketball Federation of North Macedonia, which was created in 1992. They joined FIBA in 1993, after they gained independence from Yugoslavia. That same year the national team played their first official match against Estonia. Prior to 1993, Macedonian players took part on the Yugoslavia national team.

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

North Macedonia
FIBA ranking53 (3 March 2020)[1]
Joined FIBA1993
(1936 as Yugoslavia)
FIBA zoneFIBA Europe
National federationKфCM
CoachAleksandar Todorov
Nickname(s)Лавови (The Lions)
Црвено-Жолти
(The Red and Yellow)
Фаланга (Phalanx)
Olympic Games
AppearancesNone
FIBA World Cup
AppearancesNone
EuroBasket
Appearances5
MedalsNone
First international
 Estonia 74–60 Macedonia
(Wrocław, Poland; 30 May 1993)[2]
Biggest win
Macedonia 105–66 Luxembourg 
(Skopje, Macedonia; 3 September 2005)
Biggest defeat
 Croatia 128–72 Macedonia
(Wrocław, Poland; 1 June 1993)

Macedonia debuted in their first international tournament at the EuroBasket in 1999. They have appeared five times at the event overall, with their top performance coming in 2011.

History
Macedonia basketball team prior to a match at Boris Trajkovski Sports Center
Main article: Yugoslavia national basketball team

Before 1991, Macedonia was a Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with players from Macedonia being part of the Yugoslavia national team.

EuroBasket 1999
Macedonia basketball team at a time out during a match with Latvia.

After qualifying for EuroBasket 1999, the national team was placed in Group A, along with FR Yugoslavia, France and Israel. The 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. Even though Macedonia lost all 3 of their matches to be eliminated, 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

EuroBasket 2009 was the first EuroBasket tournament that Macedonia qualified for in a decade. The Macedonian national team was placed in Group A, along with Greece, Croatia and Israel. Macedonia began the tournament with a brutal 54–86 loss to rivals Greece, but rebounded with an 82–79 victory over Israel. Despite dropping their last match 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 to the knockout round. Nevertheless, Macedonia considers this as a historic success for the national team, since it was only the country's second appearance at the 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 phase. The national team lost their first match 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 in to 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 national team's history, it reached the knockout stage where it defeated host country Lithuania 67–65 by 2 points in the quarterfinals. Macedonia then lost to the eventual champion Spain 92–80 in the semifinals. They then lost again in the third place game to Russia 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. They were 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 Pero Antic with 17, and Bo McCalebb with 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 with an Final score of 84–62. Leading scorers for the game were Todor Gecevski with 16, Antic with 17, and McCalebb with 23.

The Macedonian players got much needed rest before the quarterfinals, which would begin two days later on 6 July 2012. 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. The lost eliminated the national team from qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games

EuroBasket 2013

By participating at the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Macedonia 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 their preliminary 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 controversial fashion, after the referees didn't call interference on the basket during Gjorgji Čekovski's last second game winning attempt, despite the fact that one of the Montenegrin players got 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 Pero Antić, announced their retirement from the national team.

EuroBasket 2015

At the EuroBasket 2015 there were not high expectations for Macedonia, due to their poor performance at their last EuroBasket appearance in 2013. In their first match against Greece they were thoroughly manhandled throughout as they were defeated 65-85. Looking for their first victory heading in to their second match of the tournament they went up against the Netherlands. The outcome was different this time, as the national team played with more energy and heart and pulled out an 78-71 win. Unfortunately, that would wind up being the only win for Macedonia, as they finished with an 1-4 record and a lousy 19th place at the event.

Country's name change and recent years

Macedonia was renamed North Macedonia after the Prespa agreement that came into effect on 12 February 2019. North Macedonia took part in the 2019 World Cup Pre-Qualifiers, but were eliminated after posting an 1-3 record in their group. They will now go through EuroBasket 2021 qualifiers for the chance to qualify to the next EuroBasket.

Competitive record

Team

Current roster

Players called up for the EuroBasket 2021 qualifiers vs Estonia and Russia in February 2020.

North Macedonia national basketball team roster
PlayersCoaches
Pos.No.NameAge – Date of birthHeightClubCtr.
C 0 Bojan Krstevski 30 – (1989-06-04)4 June 1989 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) MZT Skopje
G 5 Kristijan Nikolov 23 – (1996-10-15)15 October 1996 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) MZT Skopje
PG 7 Nenad Dimitrijević 21 – (1998-02-23)23 February 1998 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) Joventut
SG 8 Vojdan Stojanovski (C) 32 – (1987-12-09)9 December 1987 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) BCM Gravelines
PG 9 Andrej Magdevski 24 – (1996-01-14)14 January 1996 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) MZT Skopje
G 10 Marko Simonovski 30 – (1989-06-28)28 June 1989 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) Kožuv
F 11 Stojan Gjuroski 28 – (1991-11-06)6 November 1991 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) HLA Alicante
C 13 Ljubomir Mladenovski 24 – (1995-05-02)2 May 1995 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) Rabotnički
SF 19 Damjan Stojanovski 32 – (1987-12-09)9 December 1987 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) MZT Skopje
PF 22 Andrej Maslinko 22 – (1997-05-20)20 May 1997 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) MZT Skopje
SF 23 Andrej Jakimovski 18 – (2001-03-18)18 March 2001 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) Washington State
SG 25 Viktor Efremovski 21 – (1998-10-21)21 October 1998 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) Rabotnički
C 32 Shayne Whittington 28 – (1991-03-27)27 March 1991 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in) SeaHorses Mikawa
Head Coach
Assistant Coaches
Legend
  • Club – describes last
    team before the competition
  • Age – describes age
    on 20 February 2020

Following list is of active players who have been called up by the national team in the last 3 years

Players previously called up roster
PlayersCoaches
Pos.No.NameAge – Date of birthHeightClubCtr.
SF 10 Dime Tasovski 39 – (1980-11-02)2 November 1980 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Gostivar
G 25 Dimitar Karadžovski 35 – (1984-10-07)7 October 1984 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Kožuv
PG 7 Bo McCalebb 34 – (1985-05-04)4 May 1985 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) Free agent
C 15 Predrag Samardziski 33 – (1986-04-11)11 April 1986 2.15 m (7 ft 1 in) Samsunspor
G 6 Darko Sokolov 33 – (1986-05-08)8 May 1986 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) EuroNickel 2005
C 5 Aleksandar Šterjov 33 – (1986-05-15)15 May 1986 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Gostivar
PF 12 Bojan Trajkovski 33 – (1986-09-11)11 September 1986 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) Pelister
PF 1 Richard Hendrix 33 – (1986-11-15)15 November 1986 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) Niigata Albirex BB
PG Marjan Mladenović 32 – (1987-08-27)27 August 1987 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) Rabotnički
PF 5 Marjan Janeski 31 – (1988-02-26)26 February 1988 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) Gostivar
PG 7 Aleksandar Kostoski 31 – (1988-03-05)5 March 1988 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) Gostivar
C 1 Kiril Nikolovski 31 – (1988-06-09)9 June 1988 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) Rabotnički
PG 25 Jordan Theodore 30 – (1989-12-11)11 December 1989 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) UNICS Kazan
C 10 Marko Dujković 29 – (1990-03-21)21 March 1990 2.26 m (7 ft 5 in) WA Boufarik
SG Predrag Pajić 27 – (1993-01-20)20 January 1993 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Kožuv
PG 4 Boban Stajić 26 – (1993-10-06)6 October 1993 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) Pelister
SG 6 Adem Mekić 24 – (1995-12-28)28 December 1995 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) MZT Skopje
PF 1 Filip Bakoč 23 – (1996-05-02)2 May 1996 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) MZT Skopje
SF Jetmir Zekiri 23 – (1996-08-18)18 August 1996 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) Pelister
SG 34 Marko Milovanović 18 – (2002-01-18)18 January 2002 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) Juvi Cremona
PG Luka Savićević 17 – (2002-02-19)19 February 2002 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) MZT Skopje Uni Banka
G Andrej Mitrevski 16 – (2003-09-17)17 September 2003 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Feniks 2010
C Teodor Simić 15 – (2004-02-04)4 February 2004 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) Barcelona U18

Depth chart
Pos. Starting 5 Bench 1 Bench 2
C Shayne Whittington Ljubomir Mladenovski
PF Bojan Krstevski Stojan Gjuroski Andrej Maslinko
SF Damjan Stojanovski Andrej Jakimovski
SG Vojdan Stojanovski Marko Simonovski Viktor Efremovski
PG Nenad Dimitrijević Andrej Magdevski Kristijan Nikolov

Notable players

Coaching history

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)

Recent results and upcoming fixtures

EuroBasket 2021 Pre-Qualifiers

First round
Group A
Pos Team Pld W L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1  Macedonia 4 3 1 323 293 +30 7 Advance to second round
2   Switzerland 4 2 2 319 330 −11 6 Transfer to third round
3  Slovakia 4 1 3 308 327 −19 5
Source: FIBA
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head results; 3) Points difference; 4) Points scored.

Second round
Group B
Pos Team Pld W L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1  Macedonia 4 3 1 297 282 +15 7[lower-alpha 1] Qualification to EuroBasket qualifiers
2  Romania 4 3 1 308 301 +7 7[lower-alpha 1] Transfer to third round
3  Kosovo 4 0 4 299 321 −22 4
Source: FIBA
Notes:
  1. Macedonia 143–141 Romania

EuroBasket 2021 Qualifiers

Group B

Pos Team Pld W L PF PA PD Pts Qualification
1  Italy 2 2 0 170 145 +25 4 EuroBasket 2021 as host
2  Estonia 2 1 1 162 159 +3 3 EuroBasket 2021
3  Russia 2 1 1 141 150 −9 3
4  North Macedonia 2 0 2 139 158 −19 2
Updated to match(es) played on 23 February 2020. Source: FIBA
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head; 3) Points difference; 4) Points scored.

Statistics

Most games played
Rank Name NT Career Games
1 Todor Gečevski 1996–2013 89
2 Vrbica Stefanov 1995–2009 66
3 Vojdan Stojanovski 2008 – 63
4 Gjorgji Čekovski 1999–2017 60
5 Pero Blaževski 1995–2009 54
6 Predrag Samardžiski 2005–2015 52
7 Damjan Stojanovski 2009 – 51
8 Pero Antić 2002–2013 49
9 Vlado Ilievski 1998–2015 47
10 Darko Sokolov 2006–2019 45

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 Vojdan Stojanovski 2008 – 614 63 9.7
5 Pero Antić 2002–2013 605 49 12.3
6 Bo McCalebb 2010–2013 543 25 21.7
7 Vlado Ilievski 1998–2015 500 47 10.6
8 Dejan Jovanovski 1995–2002 394 38 10.4
9 Gjorgji Čekovski 1999–2017 318 60 5.3
10 Pero Blaževski 1995–2009 314 54 5.8
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 EuroBasket 1997 qualification
Petar Naumoski 30.5 EuroBasket 1999 qualification
Petar Naumoski 15.0 EuroBasket 1999
Vrbica Stefanov 21.2 EuroBasket 2001 qualification
Petar Naumoski 19.3 EuroBasket 2003 qualification
Vrbica Stefanov / Pero Antić 15.2 EuroBasket 2005 Division B*
Vrbica Stefanov 19.0 EuroBasket 2007 qualification
Vrbica Stefanov 15.0 EuroBasket 2009 qualification
Pero Antić 12.5 EuroBasket 2009
Bo McCalebb 23.5 EuroBasket 2011 qualification
Bo McCalebb 21.4 EuroBasket 2011
Bo McCalebb 26.3 2012 Olympic Qualifying
Bo McCalebb 17.6 EuroBasket 2013
Bojan Trajkovski 11.3 EuroBasket 2015 qualification
Aleksandar Kostoski 9.8 EuroBasket 2015
Vojdan Stojanovski 17.2 EuroBasket 2017 qualification
Jordan Theodore 19.5 2019 World Cup Pre-Qualifiers
Bojan Trajkovski 16.5 EuroBasket 2021 qualification Round 1 & 2
  • Only played 2005 season in Division B (won promotion)

See also

References
  1. "FIBA Ranking Presented by Nike". FIBA. 3 March 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  2. "XXVIII European Championship (München 1993) Qualifying stage". Linguasport. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  3. "Montenegro escapes Macedonia". orlandomagicdaily.com. FanSided Inc. 4 September 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  4. "MKD – 2013 EuroBasket". archive.fiba.com. FIBA. 22 September 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
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