EuroBasket 2005

FIBA EuroBasket 2005

34th FIBA European Basketball Championship
Official logo of the EuroBasket 2005
Tournament details
Host country	FR Yugoslavia
Dates	September 16 – September 25
Teams	16
Venue(s)	5 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Greece (2nd title)
Tournament statistics
MVP	Dirk Nowitzki
Top scorer	Nowitzki (26.1)
Top rebounds	Kirilenko (11.8)
Top assists	Diamantidis (5.0)
PPG (Team)	Spain (87.0)
RPG (Team)	Russia (41.2)
APG (Team)	Israel (14.3)
Official website
EuroBasket 2005

The FIBA EuroBasket 2005 (the 34th edition of FIBA's European Basketball Championship) was held in Yugoslavia between 16 September and 25 September 2005. Greece won the gold medal by defeating Germany, while France won the bronze medal over Spain. Germany's Dirk Nowitzki was named the tournament MVP.

The EuroBasket is a biennial basketball competition between national teams organized by FIBA Europe, the sport's governing body in Europe. This was the third time that the championship was hosted by the city of Belgrade (previous times in 1961 and 1975).

Venues

Belgrade

Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia, was the main stage of the Eurobasket 2005 action. The Pionir Hall hosted Group C's six preliminary round games, while the Belgrade Arena hosted the competition following the preliminary round.

This was the third time that championship was hosted by the city of Belgrade. Belgrade has previously hosted the European basketball championships in 1961 and 1975.

Podgorica

Podgorica's Morača Sports Center hosted Group B, where six games were played. Being in Montenegro, it is the farthest locale from the central venue.

Novi Sad

Novi Sad, nicknamed "The City of Sports", is the capital of province of Vojvodina and home to the Spens Sports Center. The six Group D games were played there.

Vršac

Vršac was home to Group A during the tournament, and also had a total of six games played in the 5,000 person capacity Millennium Center.

Belgrade		Podgorica	Novi Sad	Vršac
Belgrade Arena Capacity: 23,000	Pionir Hall Capacity: 8,150	Morača Sports Center Capacity: 5,000	Spens Sports Center Capacity: 11,000	Millennium Center Capacity: 5,000
		File:Morača Sports Center.jpg

Qualification

For details on qualification, see FIBA EuroBasket 2005 qualification.

First round

Group A – Millennium Center, Vršac

Team	Pts	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1. Russia	5	2	1	223	186	+37
2. Germany	5	2	1	217	192	+25
3. Italy	5	2	1	244	231	+13
4. Ukraine	3	0	3	194	269	-75

September 16, 2005
Germany	82 - 84 (OT)	Italy	18:00
Russia	86 - 74	Ukraine	21:00
September 17, 2005
Italy	61 - 87	Russia	18:00
Ukraine	58 - 84	Germany	21:00
September 18, 2005
Italy	99 - 62	Ukraine	18:00
Russia	50 - 51	Germany	21:00

Group B – Morača Sports Center, Podgorica

Team	Pts	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1. Lithuania	6	3	0	264	221	+43
2. Croatia	5	2	1	235	234	+1
3. Turkey	4	1	2	236	256	-20
4. Bulgaria	3	0	3	250	274	-24

September 16, 2005
Bulgaria	82 - 88	Croatia	18:00
Lithuania	87 - 75	Turkey	21:00
September 17, 2005
Croatia	67 - 85	Lithuania	18:00
Turkey	94 - 89 (OT)	Bulgaria	21:00
September 18, 2005
Lithuania	92 - 79	Bulgaria	18:00
Croatia	80 - 67	Turkey	21:00

Group C – Pionir Hall, Belgrade

Team	Pts	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1. Slovenia	6	3	0	210	179	+31
2. Greece	5	2	1	187	168	+19
3. France	4	1	2	187	194	-7
4. Bosnia and Herzegovina	3	0	3	177	220	-43

September 16, 2005
Slovenia	74 - 65	Bosnia and Herzegovina	17:30
France	50 - 64	Greece	20:30
September 17, 2005
Bosnia and Herzegovina	62 - 79	France	17:30
Greece	56 - 68	Slovenia	20:30
September 18, 2005
France	58 - 68	Slovenia	17:30
Greece	67 - 50	Bosnia and Herzegovina	20:30

Group D – Spens Sports Center, Novi Sad

Team	Pts	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1. Spain	5	2	1	280	264	+16
2. Yugoslavia	5	2	1	245	233	+12
3. Israel	5	2	1	236	235	+1
4. Latvia	3	0	3	241	270	-29

September 16, 2005
Latvia	65 - 74	Israel	17:30
Spain	89 - 70	Yugoslavia	20:30
September 17, 2005
Spain	114–109 (OT)	Latvia	17:30
Yugoslavia	93 - 77	Israel	20:30
September 18, 2005
Israel	85 - 77	Spain	17:30
Yugoslavia	82 -67	Latvia	20:30

Knockout stage

Play-offs

September 20, 2005
Germany	66 - 57	Turkey	Vršac	18:00
Croatia	74 - 66	Italy	Podgorica	18:00
Greece	67 - 61	Israel	Belgrade (Pionir)	20:30
Yugoslavia	71 - 74	France	Novi Sad	20:30

Quarter-finals

September 22, 2005
Russia	61 - 66	Greece	Belgrade Arena	17:30
Lithuania	47 - 63	France	Belgrade Arena	20:30
September 23, 2005
Slovenia	62 - 76	Germany	Belgrade Arena	18:00
Spain	101 - 85 (OT)	Croatia	Belgrade Arena	21:00

Classification 5-8

September 23, 2005
Russia	78 - 89	Lithuania	Belgrade Arena	15:30
September 24, 2005
Slovenia	89 - 80	Croatia	Belgrade Arena	15:30

Semi-finals

September 24, 2005
Greece	67 - 66	France	Belgrade Arena	18:00
Germany	74 - 73	Spain	Belgrade Arena	21:00

Finals

September 25, 2005
7th Place Match
Russia	74 - 92	Croatia	Belgrade Arena	12:00
5th Place Match
Lithuania	79 - 70	Slovenia	Belgrade Arena	14:15
3rd Place Match
France	98 - 68	Spain	Belgrade Arena	18:00
Championship Match
Greece	78 - 62	Germany	Belgrade Arena	21:00

View of Belgrade Arena from the upper bowl before the start of the Greece vs. Germany final

Eurobasket 2005 Champions
Greece Second title

Eurobasket 2005 MVP: Dirk Nowitzki ( Germany)

All-Tournament Team

• Theodoros Papaloukas
• Juan Carlos Navarro
• Dimitris Diamantidis
• Dirk Nowitzki
• Boris Diaw

Conclusion

Final standings

Place	Team
1	Greece
2	Germany
3	France
4	Spain
5	Lithuania
6	Slovenia
7	Croatia
8	Russia
9-12	Yugoslavia
	Israel
	Italy
	Turkey
13-16	Bulgaria
	Latvia
	Bosnia and Herzegovina
	Ukraine

Team Rosters

1. Greece: Dimitris Diamantidis, Theodoros Papaloukas, Nikos Zisis, Lazaros Papadopoulos, Michalis Kakiouzis, Dimos Dikoudis, Antonis Fotsis, Nikos Hatzivrettas, Kostas Tsartsaris, Vassilis Spanoulis, Yiannis Bourousis, Panagiotis Vasilopoulos (Coach: Panagiotis Giannakis)

2. Germany: Dirk Nowitzki, Patrick Femerling, Pascal Roller, Demond Greene, Marko Pesic, Mithat Demirel, Robert Garrett, Sven Schultze, Misan Nikagbatse, Robert Maras, Denis Wucherer, Stephen Arigbabu (Coach: Dirk Bauermann)

3. France: Tony Parker, Antoine Rigaudeau, Boris Diaw, Mickaël Piétrus, Mickaël Gelabale, Florent Piétrus, Cyril Julian, Frédéric Weis, Frédéric Fauthoux, Mamoutou Diarra, Sacha Giffa, Jérôme Schmitt (Coach: Claude Bergeaud)

4. Spain: Juan Carlos Navarro, José Calderón, Rodolfo "Rudy" Fernández, Jorge Garbajosa, Francisco "Fran" Vázquez, Carlos Jiménez, Carlos Cabezas, Felipe Reyes, Ignacio de Miguel, Sergi Vidal, Iker Iturbe, Sergio Rodríguez (Coach: Mario Pesquera)

5. Lithuania: Vidas Ginevičius, Simas Jasaitis, Mindaugas Žukauskas, Kšyštof Lavrinovič, Robertas Javtokas, Giedrius Gustas, Simonas Serapinas, Ramūnas Šiškauskas, Darjuš Lavrinovič, Darius Šilinskis, Paulius Jankūnas, Mindaugas Lukauskis (Coach: Antanas Sireika)

World championship qualification

• Teams ranked 1-6 (Greece, Germany, France, Spain, Lithuania, Slovenia) have qualified as European representatives for Basketball World Championship 2006 in Japan.
• Four wild cards were additionally awarded by FIBA: Italy, Puerto Rico, Yugoslavia and Turkey

Statistics

The top ten scorers were:

1. Dirk Nowitzki (GER) - 26.1 ppg
2. Juan Carlos Navarro (ESP) - 25.2 ppg
3. Andrei Kirilenko (RUS) - 17.5 ppg
4. Igor Rakočević (YUG) - 16.3 ppg
5. Gordan Giriček (CRO) - 15.7 ppg
6. Jorge Garbajosa (ESP) - 14.5 ppg
7. Ramūnas Šiškauskas (LTU) - 14.0 ppg
8. Boris Diaw (FRA) - 13.7 ppg
9. Jaka Lakovič (SLO) - 12.8 ppg
10. J.R.Holden (RUS) - 12.5 ppg

• Spain scored a total of 522 points, with 87 points per game, even though they were only eighth in the field goal percentage, which was 42.7% in their six games at the tournament. Although their quarter-final match against Croatia, in which their scored 102 pts. spanned many controversies. (In Serbian and Croatian)

• Lithuania led the scoreboard in 2-pointers per game at 55.0%, followed by Serbia and Montenegro at 53.6%. With three-point field goals made per game, Croatia and Israel were tied at the top with 39.5%, although they were closely followed by Lithuania at 38.8%.

• Of the top ten games with the most free throws made, Spain held the first, second, third, seventh and eighth place, averaging 31.3 free throws per game. In their game against Latvia, they made 51 out of a total of 63 attempted free throws; a distant second although nonetheless impressive was the 38 free throws they made out of 49 attempts against Croatia. Their free throw percentage was 76.7%, just behind the leading Germany with 77.9%.

• The teams with the most rebounds per game were France, Russia and Slovenia. France played the two games with the most offensive rebounds, although the latter two offset it in the defensive rebound percentages.

• Lithuania and Israel topped the charts in both steals and assists, although Turkey snatched the title of the team with the most steals per game.

• The Croatia v. Turkey group-stage game (which ended with the score 80-67) was the game with the most turnovers for both teams, 27 each. In the same game, Croatia at one point had a 32-0 scoring streak that lasted over ten minutes.

External links

• Eurobasket 2005 Official site
• www.fibaeurope.com
• www.fiba.com