Romania men's national basketball team

Romania

FIBA ranking	62 1 (26 November 2024)[1]
Joined FIBA	1932 (co-founders)
FIBA zone	FIBA Europe
National federation	FRB
Coach	Mihai Silvășan
Nickname(s)	Tricolorii (The Tricolours)
Olympic Games
Appearances	1 (1952)
Medals	None
FIBA World Cup
Appearances	None
EuroBasket
Appearances	18
Medals	None
Home Away
First international
Switzerland 42–9 Romania  (Geneva, Switzerland; 2 May 1935)
Biggest win
Wales 50–164 Romania  (Hagen, West Germany; 15 May 1975)
Biggest defeat
Russia 115–45 Romania  (Moscow, Russia; 28 February 1998)

The Romania men's national basketball team (Romanian: Echipa națională de baschet a României) represents Romania in international basketball competition. The team is administered by the Romanian Basketball Federation (FRB).

Romania has qualified for the EuroBasket 18 times throughout their history. Their best tournament results occurred in 1957 and 1967 respectively, where they finished fifth. The national team has also appeared at the Olympic Games once, in 1952. However, Romania has yet to clinch qualification for their first trip to the FIBA World Cup.

At the first European Championship in Geneva, the Romania national team finished in last place in the then ten team tournament. Losing all three of their matches; 42-9 to Switzerland, 66-23 to France, and 24-17 to Hungary.

Romania returned to the European championship twelve years later in Prague, for the EuroBasket 1947. Romania finished with a record of 1-2 after the preliminary round, which eliminated them from championship contention but they earned their first ever EuroBasket victory against the Netherlands. The Romanians added two more in the classification semifinal, as they defeated Austria and Albania. This put them in a classification match against Italy for 9th and 10th place, which Romania lost 55-39. The national team thus placed tenth again, but this time they had outranked four teams to do so, due to the expansion of the tournament to 14.

The Romanian national team entered the EuroBasket 1951 in Paris, but withdrew before any games were played, so official records gave them three preliminary round losses, each with a score of 2-0.

Romania managed to qualify for the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, where the national team finished 23rd. It was the first and only time they qualified for the Olympic Basketball Tournament.

The EuroBasket 1953 in Moscow was the next European tournament in which the Romanians actually played. They finished in 3rd place in their preliminary round group with a 1-2 record and advanced to the classification rounds. They won 3 of their 4 games there, finishing in a three-way tie for the top spot of the group. They lost out on the tiebreaker though and were relegated to the 13th-16th place semifinals. Winning that game and their next, the Romanians finished in 13th place of the 17 teams in the tournament.

Romania was much more successful two years later, at the EuroBasket 1955 in Budapest. A preliminary round loss to the global power house Soviet Union mattered little, as the national team won their other three preliminary matches against Sweden, Switzerland and Luxembourg to take second place in the group behind the Soviets to advance to the final round. There, they won games against Poland and Yugoslavia to finish 2-5 in the final round to take 7th place in the 18-team tournament.

Romania came within a single point of winning their preliminary pool at EuroBasket 1957 in Sofia, losing to Hungary in the narrow match. They beat their other two opponents Belgium and Finland to finish in second place in the pool to advance into the final round. There, they matched up again with Hungary, but the game wasn't as close as the Hungarians cruised to a 76-61 victory. The national team also lost to the other three pool winners, to finish with a 3-4 record to end the tournament in 5th place.

The team repeated its most successful campaign at the EuroBasket 1967 when it finished 5th again. The following years, the team had some successful performances but after 1987, it ceded completely from Europe's elite events. After 30 years of absence, Romania returned to the EuroBasket in 2017 when the country gained hosting rights alongside Finland, Israel and Turkey. However, the national team ended its participation with five losses in its five games played.^[2]

After defeating both Slovakia and Cyprus twice, the Tricolorii advanced to the final qualification round where they came short of their second EuroBasket qualification since 1987. The team was coached by Tudor Costescu.^[3]

FIBA World Cup [edit] World Cup Qualification Year Position Pld W L Pld W L 1950 Did not enter Did not enter 1954 Did not qualify EuroBasket served as qualifiers 1959 1963 1967 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 Did not enter Did not enter 1990 1994 Did not qualify EuroBasket served as qualifiers 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2019 6 2 4 2023 4 0 4 2027 To be determined To be determined Total 0/19 10 2 8 Olympic Games [edit] Olympic Games Qualifying Year Position Pld W L Pld W L 1936 Did not enter 1948 1952 23rd 2 0 2 1956 Did not qualify 1960 Did not enter Did not enter 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 Did not qualify 5 2 3 1996 Did not qualify 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 Total 1/21 2 0 2 5 2 3

EuroBasket [edit] EuroBasket Qualification Year Position Pld W L Pld W L 1935 10th 3 0 3 1937 Did not enter 1939 1946 1947 10th 6 3 3 1949 Did not enter 1951 18th 3 0 3 1953 13th 9 6 3 1955 7th 11 5 6 1957 5th 10 5 5 1959 8th 8 2 6 1961 7th 8 6 2 1963 11th 9 4 5 Direct qualification 1965 13th 9 4 5 1967 5th 9 6 3 1969 9th 7 4 3 4 3 1 1971 8th 7 3 4 4 3 1 1973 9th 7 3 4 Direct qualification 1975 11th 7 1 6 10 9 1 1977 Did not qualify 5 2 3 1979 5 1 4 1981 5 3 2 1983 12 4 8 1985 10th 7 2 5 12 7 5 1987 12th 7 0 7 12 8 4 1989 Did not enter Did not enter 1991 Did not qualify 9 2 7 1993 9 3 6 1995 6 4 2 1997 16 4 12 1999 13 2 11 2001 5 3 2 2003 21 11 10 2005 Division B 4 1 3 2007 Division B 8 6 2 2009 Division B 8 3 5 2011 Division B 8 4 4 2013 Did not qualify 8 1 7 2015 10 5 5 2017 23rd 5 0 5 Qualified as co-host 2022 Did not qualify 14 7 7 2025 14 8 6 Total 18/42 132 54 78 222 104 118

  Win   Loss

Romania  v  Luxembourg

22 February 2024 2027 FIBA World Cup pre-qualifiers – 1st round	Romania	72–760(OT)	Luxembourg	Cluj-Napoca, Romania
19:00 (UTC+2)	Scoring by quarter: 20–17, 19–10, 16–11, 12–29, Overtime: 5–9
	Pts: Cățe 25 Rebs: Girbea 11 Asts: Tohătan 5	Boxscore	Pts: Kovac, Logelin 15 Rebs: Rugg, Vujaković 9 Asts: Kreps 3	Arena: BTarena Attendance: 3,006 Referees: Mehmet Şahin (TUR), Nemanja Ninković (SRB), Josip Mikulić (CRO)

Norway  v  Romania

21 November 2024 2027 FIBA World Cup pre-qualifiers – 1st round	Norway	62–75	Romania	Oslo, Norway
19:00 (UTC+1)	Scoring by quarter: 20–26, 18–17, 12–12, 12–20
	Pts: Frey 21 Rebs: Ndow 11 Asts: Frey 5	Boxscore	Pts: Olah 16 Rebs: Cățe 13 Asts: Tohătan 5	Arena: Nordstrand Arena Attendance: 2,200 Referees: Elvis Binders-Čoders (LAT), Jan Baloun (CZE), Karol Kowalski (POL)

Luxembourg  v  Romania

24 November 2024 2027 FIBA World Cup pre-qualifiers – 1st round	Luxembourg	78–84	Romania	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
17:00 (UTC+1)	Scoring by quarter: 12–23, 19–23, 18–19, 29–19
	Pts: Kovac 23 Rebs: Rugg 6 Asts: Kovac 4	Boxscore	Pts: K. Richard Rebs: Cățe 16 Asts: Tohătan 4	Arena: d'Coque Attendance: 1,500 Referees: Edgard Ceccarelli (FRA), Tijmen Last (NED), Hrvoje Čavar (BIH)

Romania  v  Norway

23 February 2025 2027 FIBA World Cup pre-qualifiers – 1st round	Romania	vs.	Norway	Romania
		Boxscore

Roster for the 2027 FIBA World Cup Pre-Qualifiers matches on 21 and 24 November 2024 against Norway and Luxembourg.^[4]

Romania men's national basketball team roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr. G 0 Kris Richard 35 – (1989-03-01)1 March 1989 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) Oradea PG 1 Lucas Tohătan 25 – (1999-03-15)15 March 1999 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) Voluntari G 2 Tudor Șomăcescu 19 – (2005-06-15)15 June 2005 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) Cluj-Napoca G/F 3 Dragoș Diculescu 25 – (1999-08-25)25 August 1999 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Hamar SG 5 Tudor Fometescu 25 – (1999-03-09)9 March 1999 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) Argeș Pitești PG 7 Mirel Dragoste 29 – (1995-01-24)24 January 1995 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) Sibiu G/F 8 Nandor Kuti 27 – (1997-01-10)10 January 1997 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Dinamo SF 10 Bogdan Nicolescu 27 – (1997-01-03)3 January 1997 1.99 m (6 ft 6 in) Oradea PF 11 Ștefan Grasu 21 – (2003-02-16)16 February 2003 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) Dinamo PF 14 Andrei Oinaru 19 – (2005-07-01)1 July 2005 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) CSM Corona Brașov F/C 15 Emanuel Cățe 27 – (1997-07-30)30 July 1997 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) Manresa C 22 Alexandru Olah 31 – (1993-10-15)15 October 1993 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in) Voluntari C 44 Rares Uta 26 – (1997-12-24)24 December 1997 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) CS Vâlcea 1924 SF 77 Mihai Măciucă 24 – (2000-05-25)25 May 2000 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Cluj-Napoca	Head coach Mihai Silvășan Assistant coach(es) Ionut Bâscoveanu Razvan Munteanu Legend (C) Team captain Club – describes last club before the competition Age – describes age on 21 November 2024

• Andrei Folbert – First Romanian Basketball "Maestru Emerit Al Sportului"
• Gheorghe Mureșan – First Romanian to play in the NBA
• Constantin Popa
• Horia Demian
• Ernie Grunfeld

1935 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 10 teams

3 Nae Alexandrescu, 4 Balteanu, 5 O.Belitoreanu, 6 M.Bercus, 7 E.Dumitrescu, 8 Nicu Grozavescu, 9 Samy Grunstein, 10 C.Riegler (Coach: C. O. Lecca)

1947 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 14 teams

3 Constantin Herold, 4 N.Badulescu, 5 H.Dlugos, 6 S.Ferencz, 7 H.Kevorkian, 8 P.Marossi, 9 Alexandru Popescu, 10 S.Sadeanu, 11 Gh.Teodorescu, 12 I.Vulescu, 13 Vasile Popescu, 14 A.Neagu, 21 C.Babaliescu (Coach: C.Virgolici)

1952 Olympic Games: finished 23rd among 23 teams

3 Cornel Călugăreanu, 5 Grigore Costescu, 6 Emanoil Răducanu, 7 Andrei Folbert, 8 Ladislau Mokos, 9 Liviu Naghy, 10 Mihai Nedef, 11 Cezar Niculescu, 12 Dan Niculescu, 13 Adrian Petroșanu, 15 Vasile Popescu, 16 Gheorghe Constantinide (Coach: Alexandru Popescu)

1953 EuroBasket: finished 13th among 17 teams

3 Mihai Nedef, 4 Cezar Niculescu, 5 Trajan Lita, 6 Andrei Folbert, 7 Emanoil Răducanu, 8 Dan Niculescu, 9 Adrian Petroșanu, 10 Alexandru Fodor, 11 Corneliu Calugareanu, 12 Mihai Erdogh, 13 Liviu Naghy, 14 Vasile Kadar (Coach: Alexandru Popescu)

1955 EuroBasket: finished 7th among 18 teams

3 E.Ganea, 4 R.Popovici, 5 Mihai Nedef, 6 Andrei Folbert, 7 Emanoil Răducanu, 8 Dan Niculescu, 9 Emil Niculescu, 10 Alexandru Fodor, 11 Mihai Erdogh, 12 Marian Spiridon, 13 Liviu Naghy, 14 Vasile Kadar, 15 Corneliu Calugareanu (Coach: Vasile Popescu)

1957 EuroBasket: finished 5th among 16 teams

3 Grigore Costescu, 4 A.Borbely, 5 Mihai Nedef, 6 Andrei Folbert, 7 Emanoil Răducanu, 8 Alexandru Berecky, 9 Emil Niculescu, 10 Alexandru Fodor, 11 Mihai Erdogh, 12 Armand Nováček, 13 Liviu Naghy, 14 A Koukouch (Coach: Alexandru Popescu)

1959 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 17 teams

3 Feodor Nedelea, 4 Armand Nováček, 5 Grigore Costescu, 6 Andrei Folbert, 7 Mihai Nedef, 8 Emeric Vizi, 9 Emil Niculescu, 10 Alexandru Fodor, 11 Dragos Nosievici, 12 Cristian Popescu, 13 Ludovic Toth, 14 Jzidor Milelman (Coach: Constantin Herold)

1961 EuroBasket: finished 7th among 19 teams

4 Aurel Popovici, 5 Emil Niculescu, 6 Horatiu Giurgiu, 7 Mihai Nedef, 8 Nicolae Viciu, 9 Mihai Albu, 10 Pavel Visner, 11 Dragos Nosievici, 12 Cristian Popescu, 13 Armand Nováček, 14 Horia Demian, 15 Gheorghe Valeriu (Coach: Constantin Herold)

1963 EuroBasket: finished 11th among 16 teams

4 Horia Demian, 5 Emil Niculescu, 6 Marian Spiridon, 7 Mihai Nedef, 8 Mihai Kiss, 9 Mihai Albu, 10 Horatiu Giurgiu, 11 Dragos Nosievici, 12 Cristian Popescu, 13 Pavel Visner, 14 Mircea Cimpeanu, 15 Gheorghe Valeriu (Coach: Vasile Popescu)

1965 EuroBasket: finished 13th among 16 teams

4 Horia Demian, 5 Gheorghe Novac, 6 Marian Spiridon, 7 Mihai Nedef, 8 Nicolae Ionescu, 9 Mihai Albu, 10 Alin Savu, 11 Dragos Nosievici, 12 Cristian Popescu, 13 Armand Nováček, 14 Ekehardt Jekely, 15 Aurel Popovici (Coach: Vasile Popescu)

1967 EuroBasket: finished 5th among 16 teams

4 Adolf Cernea, 5 Gheorghe Novac, 6 Dragos Nosievici, 7 Alin Savu, 8 Ekehardt Jekely, 9 Mihai Albu, 10 Gheorghe Barau, 11 Nicolae Birsan, 12 Cristian Popescu, 13 Titus Tarau, 14 Radu Diaconescu, 15 Horia Demian (Coach: Alexandru Popescu)

1969 EuroBasket: finished 9th among 12 teams

4 Francisc Dikay, 5 Matei Ruhring, 6 Dragos Nosievici, 7 Constantin Dragomirescu, 8 Ekehardt Jekely, 9 Mihai Albu, 10 Petru Czmor, 11 Radu Diaconescu, 12 Gheorghe Novac, 13 Titus Tarau, 14 Mihai Dimancea, 15 Adolf Cernea (Coach: Alexandru Popescu)

1971 EuroBasket: finished 8th among 12 teams

4 Dan Georgescu, 5 Mircea Chivulescu, 6 Nicolae Pirsu, 7 Alin Savu, 8 Dan Niculescu, 9 Mihai Albu, 10 Constantin Dragomirescu, 11 Radu Diaconescu, 12 Gheorghe Cimpeanu, 13 Titus Tarau, 14 Gheorghe Oczelak, 15 Vasile Popa (Coach: Alexandru Popescu)

1973 EuroBasket: finished 9th among 12 teams

4 Gheorghe Cimpeanu, 5 Mircea Chivulescu, 6 Nicolae Pirsu, 7 Nicolae Manaila, 8 Dan Niculescu, 9 Dan Georgescu, 10 Costel Cernat, 11 Radu Diaconescu, 12 Gheorghe Novac, 13 Titus Tarau, 14 Gheorghe Oczelak, 15 Vasile Popa (Coach: Alexandru Popescu)

1975 EuroBasket: finished 11th among 12 teams

4 Dan Georgescu, 5 Georghe Mihuta, 6 Vasile Zdrenghea, 7 Dan Moisescu, 8 Nicolae Pirsu, 9 Dan Niculescu, 10 Costel Cernat, 11 Radu Diaconescu, 12 Gheorghe Novac, 13 Titus Tarau, 14 Gheorghe Oczelak, 15 Vasile Popa (Coach: Mihai Nedef)

1985 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 12 teams

4 Florentin Ermurache, 5 Attila Szabó, 6 Viorel Constantin, 7 Ioan Ionescu, 8 Doru Rădulescu, 9 Dan Niculescu, 10 Costel Cernat, 11 Roman Opsitaru, 12 Anton Netolitzchi, 13 Victor Jacob, 14 Marian Marinache, 15 Alexandru Vinereanu (Coach: Gheorghe Novac)

1987 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 12 teams

4 Florentin Ermurache, 5 Sorin Ardeleanu, 6 Robert Reisenbuchler, 7 Ioan Ionescu, 8 Petre Brănișteanu, 9 Dan Niculescu, 10 Costel Cernat, 11 Andrei Constantin, 12 Anton Netolitzchi, 13 Constantin Popa, 14 Gabriel David, 15 Alexandru Vinereanu (Coach: Gheorghe Novac)

2017 EuroBasket: finished 23rd among 24 teams

4 Andrei Mandache, 6 Catalin Petrisor, 8 Radu Paliciuc, 9 Vlad Moldoveanu, 10 Bogdan Nicolescu, 11 Octavian Calota, 13 Alexandru Olah, 14 Titus Nicoara, 15 Emanuel Cățe, 25 Rolland Torok, 26 Catalin Baciu, 32 Nandor Kuti (Coach: Marcel Tenter)

• 2014: Ancada^[5]
• 2015–2017: Peak
• 2019–present: Spalding

• 2020–present: Banca Transilvania

• Sport in Romania
• Romania women's national basketball team
• Romania men's national under-20 basketball team
• Romania men's national under-18 basketball team
• Romania men's national under-16 basketball team
• Romania men's national 3x3 team

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Romania national basketball team.

• Official website (in Romanian)
• Romania FIBA profile
• Romanian National Team – Men at Eurobasket.com
• Romania Basketball Records at FIBA Archive

• Romania v Spain - Highlights - FIBA EuroBasket 2022 - Qualifiers