Bulgaria national basketball team

Bulgaria

FIBA ranking	48 8
FIBA zone	FIBA Europe
National federation	Bulgarian Basketball Federation
Coach	Georgi Mladenov
Nickname(s)	The Lions
Olympic Games
Appearances	4 (1952, 1956, 1960, 1968)
Medals	5th
FIBA World Cup
Appearances	1 (1959)
Medals	7th
FIBA EuroBasket
Appearances	24 (1935, 1947, 1951, 1953, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1985, 1989, 1991, 1993, 2005, 2009, 2011)
Medals	Runners-Up (1957) Third Place (1961)
Uniforms
Light Dark

The Bulgarian national basketball team is the basketball side that represents Bulgaria in international competitions.

Competition Results

Balkan Championship

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
1950	Champions	5	5	0
Total		5	5	0

Summer Olympics

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
1956	5th	8	5	3
Total		40	20	20

Euro Basket

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
1951	Semi-Finals	8	5	3
1955	Semi-Finals	10	6	4
1957	Runners-Up	10	9	1
1961	Semi-Finals	8	6	2
1967	Semi-Finals	9	4	5
Total		166	83	83

FIBA World Cup

Year	Position	Pld	W	L
1959	7th	9	5	4
Total		9	5	4

Current Roster

Bulgaria National Basketball Team roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Age – DOB Ht. Club PF 1 Ivanov, Dejan – (1986-03-18)18 March 1986 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) CB Estudiantes PF 2 Ivanov, Kaloyan – (1986-03-18)18 March 1986 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) Air Avellino SF 3 Ivanov, Pavel – (1988-02-26)26 February 1988 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) BC Levski Sofia G 4 Avramov, Bozhidar – (1990-03-08)8 March 1990 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Lukoil Academic SG 5 LIlov, Ivan – (1988-08-06)6 August 1988 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Balkan SF 6 Zahariev, Hristo – (1990-10-27)27 October 1990 1.99 m (6 ft 6 in) BC Levski Sofia C 7 Varbanov, Nikolay – (1985-06-06)6 June 1985 2.09 m (6 ft 10 in) BC Levski Sofia SG 8 Marinov, Pavel – (1988-06-12)12 June 1988 1.99 m (6 ft 6 in) Balkan F 9 Nikolov, Hristo – (1985-10-02)2 October 1985 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) Pau Orthez PG 10 Gruev, Aleksandar – (1983-07-24)24 July 1983 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) Balkan SF 11 Vezenkov, Aleksandar – (1995-08-06)6 August 1995 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) FC Barcelona Bàsquet F 12 Evtimov, Ilian – (1983-04-28)28 April 1983 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Elan Chalon	Head coach Konstantin Papazov

Depth Chart

Pos.	Starter	Bench	Bench
C	Kaloyan Ivanov	Nikolay Varbanov
PF	Dejan Ivanov	Hristo Nikolov	Aleksandar Yanev
SF	Aleksandar Vezenkov	Ilian Evtimov	Hristo Zahariev
SG	Filip Videnov	Bozhidar Avramov	Ivan Lilov
PG	E.J. Rowland	Aleksandar Gruev

Competitions

EuroBasket 1935

The Bulgarian side came in eighth place at the first European basketball championship, the EuroBasket 1935 held by the International Basketball Federation's FIBA Europe continental federation. They lost to Italy in the preliminary round then defeated Hungary. Following this, the Bulgarians lost their classification matches to Belgium and Italy. They finished with a 1–3 record.

EuroBasket 1947

Twelve years later, the Bulgarian team again competed. In EuroBasket 1947 they finished eighth again, this time out of 14 teams. In the preliminary round, the Bulgarians split their two games, advancing to the upper bracket semifinal groups. There, they lost all three of their games, putting them in a 7th/8th classification match with Hungary. This time, the Hungarians were victorious, defeating Bulgaria 59–29.

EuroBasket 1951

The Bulgarian team's third appearance was at EuroBasket 1951 in Paris. They won their two contested preliminary games, outscoring opponents 145–70, and gained a third win by Romania's forfeit. In the semifinal round, the Bulgarians became enmeshed in a three-way tie for first place in the four-team group after losing to France but winning the other two games; they ended up with the second ranking. This pitted them against the Soviet Union in a semifinal matchup, which the Bulgarians lost. Their final game was the bronze medal match against France; France again proved victorious and Bulgaria took 4th place.

EuroBasket 1953

Bulgaria's next appearance was in Moscow for EuroBasket 1953. They found themselves on the unfortunate end of a three-way tiebreaker after finishing 3–1 in the preliminary group, and their 3rd rank in the group sent them to the classification round, a disappointing turn of events for a team which had expected to do at least as well as they had two years previously. They won their next 5 games to take the highest place available to them after the preliminary round. Thus, the 9th place team in the tournament had an 8–1 record.

EuroBasket 1955

Bulgaria's preliminary round loss at EuroBasket 1955 was not as devastating as their preliminary round loss two years earlier had been, and their 2–1 record allowed them to advance to the final round along with preliminary leader Czechoslovakia. After losing to the three eventual medallists in the final round, Bulgaria finished the round with a 4–3 record and 4th place in the tournament.

EuroBasket 1957

Bulgaria hosted the next tournament, EuroBasket 1957, in Sofia. They breezed through their three preliminary round games, and kept their win streak through the first six of the final round games, including an 82–80 victory over Czechoslovakia. In their final game of the tournament, which by chance was against the similarly undefeated Soviet Union squad, Bulgaria led by 4 points at halftime, 23–19. Their lead did not last through the second half, however, as the Soviets powered to a 60–57 final that gave Bulgaria a silver medal, Bulgaria's first European medal.

Past Rosters

1935 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 10 teams

Krum Konstantinov, Pinkas, Etropolski, Rogachev, Tsankov, Kevorkjan, Khaimov (Coach: Krum Konstantinov)

1947 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 14 teams

Bozhidar Takev, Veselin Temkov, Ilija Asenov, Georgi Georgiev, Ljudmil Katerinski, Nikola Kolev, Krhisto Khajtov, Stefan Bankov, Peev, Sharkov, Rajkov (Coach: Georgi Petkov)

1951 EuroBasket: finished 4th among 17 teams

Kiril Semov, Konstantin Totev, Georgi Georgiev, Stefan Bankov, Nejcho Nejchev, Vladimir Slavov, Ilija Asenov, Petar Shishkov, Anton Kuzov, Gencho Rashkov, Ivan Vladimirov, Dimitar Popov, Metodi Tomovski (Coach: Veselin Temkov)

1952 Olympic Games: finished 7th among 23 teams

Georgi Panov, Konstantin Totev, Kiril Semov, Petar Shishkov, Khristo Donev, Ilija Georgiev, Vladimir Slavov, Anton Kuzov, Nejcho Nejchev, Vasil Manchenko, Ivan Nikolov, Veselin Penkov, Konstantin Georgiev, Genczo Hristov

1953 EuroBasket: finished 9th among 17 teams

Georgi Panov, Ljubomir Panov, Ilija Mirchev, Konstantin Totev, Georgi Georgiev, Dimitar Popov, Vladimir Stefanov, Velko Velkov, Khristo Donev, Ilija Georgiev, Vasil Manchenko, Anton Kuzov, Veselin Ivanov, Vladimir Slavov (Coach: Veselin Temkov)

1955 EuroBasket: finished 4th among 18 teams

Viktor Radev, Cvjatko Barchovski, Georgi Panov, Ilija Mirchev, Konstantin Totev, Gencho Rashkov, Metodi Tomovski, Vasil Manchenko, Vladimir Ganchev, Emanuil Gjaurov, Anton Kuzov, Rajkov (Coach: Bozhidar Takev)

1956 Olympic Games: finished 5th among 15 teams

Atanas Atanasov, Viktor Radev, Georgi Panov, Ljubomir Panov, Cvjatko Barchovski, Ilija Mirchev, Georgi Kanev, Konstantin Totev, Vladimir Slavov, Vasil Manchenko, Tsvetko Savov, Nikola Ilov (Coach: Ljudmil Katerinski)

1957 EuroBasket: finished 2nd among 16 teams

Viktor Radev, Georgi Panov, Ljubomir Panov, Mikhail Semov, Petko Lazarov, Cvjatko Barchovski, Vladimir Ganchev, Georgi Kanev, Ilija Mirchev, Konstantin Totev, Atanas Pejchinski, Metodi Tomovski (Coach: Ljudmil Katerinski)

1959 EuroBasket: finished 5th among 17 teams

Georgi Panov, Viktor Radev, Atanas Atanasov, Ilija Mirchev, Petko Lazarov, Georgi Kanev, Mikhail Semov, Nikola Ilov, Khristo Donev, Tsvetko Savov, Angel Shipkov, Gencho Rashkov (Coach: Ljudmil Katerinski)

1959 World Championship: finished 7th among 13 teams

Georgi Panov, Viktor Radev, Atanas Atanasov, Ljubomir Panov, Mikhail Semov, Ilija Mirchev, Georgi Kanev, Petko Lazarov, Tsvetko Savov, Gencho Rashkov, Emanuil Gjaurov, Metodi Tomovski (Coach: Ljudmil Katerinski)

1960 Olympic Games: finished 16th among 16 teams

Viktor Radev, Georgi Panov, Atanas Atanasov, Petko Lazarov, Ljubomir Panov, Ilija Mirchev, Georgi Kanev, Nikola Ilov, Stefan Stojkov, Emanuil Gjaurov, Tsvetko Savov, Khristo Tsvetkov (Coach: Nikola Kolev)

1961 EuroBasket: finished 3rd among 19 teams

Mincho Dimov, Georgi Panov, Atanas Atanasov, Ljubomir Panov, Viktor Radev, Petko Lazarov, Ilija Mirchev, Radko Zlatev, Stefan Stojkov, Khristo Tsvetkov, Tsvetko Savov, Khristo Donev (Coach: Veselin Temkov)

1963 EuroBasket: finished 5th among 16 teams

Mincho Dimov, Georgi Panov, Viktor Radev, Atanas Atanasov, Ljubomir Panov, Ilija Mirchev, Georgi Kanev, Tsvetko Savov, Nikola Atanasov, Kliment Kamenarov, Dimitar Donev, Stefan Filipov (Coach: Kiril Khajtov)

1965 EuroBasket: finished 5th among 16 teams

Mincho Dimov, Atanas Atanasov, Ljubomir Panov, Slavejko Rajchev, Valentin Spasov, Stefan Filipov, Emil Mikhajlov, Radko Zlatev, Georgi Barzakov, Paspalanov, Kolev, Ilchev (Coach: Kiril Semov)

1967 EuroBasket: finished 4th among 16 teams

Mincho Dimov, Cvjatko Barchovski, Ivan Vodenicharski, Georgi Khristov, Emil Mikhajlov, Khristo Dojchinov, Georgi Genev, Boris Krastev, Pando Pandov, Bojcho Branzov, Temelaki Dimitrov, Slavejko Rajchev (Coach: Kiril Khajtov)

1968 Olympic Games: finished 10th among 16 teams

Mincho Dimov, Georgi Khristov, Bojcho Branzov, Stefan Filipov, Emil Mikhajlov, Pando Pandov, Khristo Dojchinov, Valentin Spasov, Ivajlo Kirov, Dimitar Sakhanikov, Stanislav Bojadzhiev, Slavejko Rajchev (Coach: Kiril Khajtov)

1969 EuroBasket: finished 7th among 12 teams

Atanas Golomeev, Mincho Dimov, Georgi Khristov, Bojcho Branzov, Khristo Dojchinov, Rumen Pejchev, Dimitar Galabov, Ivan Rusinov, Bogomil Chanev, Georgi Barzakov, Stancho Kostov, Temelaki Dimitrov (Coach: Dimitar Mitev)

1971 EuroBasket: finished 6th among 12 teams

Atanas Golomeev, Georgi Khristov, Stefan Filipov, Pando Pandov, Khristo Dojchinov, Bogomil Chanev, llija Yankov, Docho Petrov, Ivajlo Kirov, Rumen Pejchev, Slavejko Rajchev, Paspalanov (Coach: Dimitar Mitev)

1973 EuroBasket: finished 6th among 12 teams

Atanas Golomeev, Georgi Khristov, Bojcho Branzov, Bogomil Chanev, Pando Pandov, Rumen Pejchev, Khristo Borisov, Georgi Stojanov, Ivajlo Kirov, Marin Romanski, Khristo Dojchinov, Boris Krastev (Coach: Nejcho Nejchev)

1975 EuroBasket: finished 5th among 12 teams

Atanas Golomeev, Georgi Khristov, Valentin Petkov, Bojcho Branzov, Temelaki Dimitrov, Marin Romanski, Mikhail Dukov, Khristo Dojchinov, Atanas Stojanov, Docho Petrov, Mikhail Mikhajlov, Valentin Sharkov (Coach: Ivan Kolev)

1977 EuroBasket: finished 6th among 12 teams

Atanas Golomeev, Ilija Evtimov, Petko Marinov, Milko Arabadzhijski, Todor Bogdanov, Atanas Kolev, Rumen Pejchev, Plamen Takev, Valentin Sharkov, Smochevski, Shantov, Yosifov (Coach: Nejcho Nejchev)

1979 EuroBasket: finished 11th among 12 teams

Georgi Glouchkov, Ilija Evtimov, Rumen Pejchev, Dimitar Marchin, Atanas Kolev, Milko Arabadzhijski, Todor Bogdanov, Valentin Sharkov, Mikhail Manolov, Ognjan Rusev, Dimitar Donov (Coach: Ivan Todorov)

1985 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 12 teams

Georgi Glouchkov, Georgi Mladenov, Ilija Evtimov, Atanas Kolev, Yordan Kolev, Rosen Barchovski, Ljubomir Amiorkov, Tsvetan Antov, Emil Yonov, Kojo Koev, Sashko Vezenkov, Ivan Tsenov (Coach: Cvjatko Barchovski)

1989 EuroBasket: finished 7th among 8 teams

Georgi Glouchkov, Georgi Mladenov, Robert Gergov, Ivan Tsenov, Sashko Vezenkov, Eduard Valchev, Yordan Kolev, Kojo Koev, Tsvetan Antov, Ljubomir Amiorkov, Ventsislav Slavov, Emil Yonov (Coach: Kiril Semov)

1991 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 8 teams

Georgi Glouchkov, Georgi Mladenov, Spas Natov, Robert Gergov, Yordan Kolev, Ljubomir Amiorkov, Ivan Tsenov, Daniel Dimitrov, Sashko Vezenkov, Ivajlo Ravutsov, Tsvetan Nedelchev, Plamen Petrov (Coach: Simeon Varchev)

1993 EuroBasket: finished 16th among 16 teams

Georgi Mladenov, Spas Natov, Ljubomir Amiorkov, Robert Gergov, Daniel Dimitrov, Vasil Stojanov, Dimo Kostov, Ivajlo Ravutsov, Vladimir Dimitrov, Anton Kharalanov, Stanislav Stankov, Ventsislav Slavov (Coach: Simeon Varchev)

2005 EuroBasket: finished 13th among 16 teams

Todor Stoykov, Filip Videnov, Dimitar Angelov, Yordan Bozov, Georgi Davidov, Stefan Georgiev, Boyko Mladenov, Kaloyan Ivanov, Tencho Banev, Dejan Ivanov, Yuliyan Radionov, Khrisimir Dimitrov (Coach: Rosen Barchovski)

2009 EuroBasket: finished 16th among 16 teams

Dejan Ivanov, Kaloyan Ivanov, Chavdar Kostov, Earl Rowland, Filip Videnov, Stanislav Slaveykov, Stefan Georgiev, Dimitar Angelov, Vassil Evtimov, Boyko Mladenov, Bozhidar Avramov, Todor Stoykov (Coach:Pini Gershon)

2011 EuroBasket: finished 13th among 24 teams

Dejan Ivanov, Kaloyan Ivanov, Chavdar Kostov, Earl Rowland, Filip Videnov, Pavel Marinov, Bozhidar Avramov, Zlatin Georgiev, Aleksandar Yanev, Asen Velikov, Tencho Banev, Nikolay Varbanov (Coach: Rosen Barchovski)