Ukraine men's national basketball team


The Ukraine national basketball team represents Ukraine in international basketball matches. They are controlled by the Basketball Federation of Ukraine.
After Ukrainian Independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and joining FIBA in 1992, the national team played their first official match against England on 30 May 1997. Their biggest success so far on the international stage has been competing at the EuroBasket 8 times, and reaching the FIBA World Cup for the first time in 2014.

History

Gaining Independence

Upon Ukraine becoming independent from the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukrainian players took part on the Soviet national team during international competition. The Soviets were one of the strongest national teams in the world during this period.

EuroBasket 1997

Ukraine made their EuroBasket debut in 1997. Their first official match at the tournament was not a warm welcome for the national team, as they were demolished by Spain 82-54. With less than 24 hours to regroup for their next tilt, Ukraine faced Germany where they lost again, this time by the score of 81-60. In their final match in group play, they defeated Croatia 95-88, to earn their first ever win at the European Basketball Championship. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for the team to advance to the knockout stage, so they were relegated to the classification rounds for 13th-16th place. There, they beat Latvia, and Slovenia to finish the tournament 13th overall.

EuroBasket 2013

At EuroBasket 2013, Ukraine were victorious in their first three matches of the tournament, against Belgium, Israel, and Germany. Heading into their 4th match versus the heavily favored France, the national team displayed genuine toughness in an losing effort to the eventual tournament champions 77-71. In their final game of the preliminary round, the team showed resilience in blowing out Great Britain 87-68, to advance to the second group phase. There, they were blasted in their first match in group play against Latvia, but redeemed themselves with an quality victory over Serbia a few days later. They went on to lose their final game in the group to Lithuania, but it was enough to clinch an spot in the knockout phase. In the quarterfinals Ukraine was paired up against Croatia, but the national team came up short, 84-72. With the lost, Ukraine went on to play in classification matches to determine 5th-8th place. The team defeated Italy, before falling to Slovenia to finish up at 6th place. It was the best result for the national team at the EuroBasket to that point.

2014 World Cup

Ukraine made their first appearance on the global stage at the 2014 FIBA World Cup. Led by coach Mike Fratello, the national team won their first ever match in the World Cup, defeating the Dominican Republic 72-62. With their historic win under their belt, the team went into their second match of the tournament confident. Although, Finland unfortunately would come out with an narrow 81-76 victory, to drop Ukraine to an record of. Entering their third match, Ukraine went up against Turkey and the national team didn't disappoint. They eventually pulled out an hard fought 64-58 victory, before their pivotal match versus New Zealand.
With an berth to the Round of 16 on the line, Ukraine needed one more victory to advance. But they were unsuccessful in the crucial match, as they lost 73-61 to head into the do-or-die tilt against the tournament favorite United States in a dire position. In the must win game for Ukraine, the national team got off to a strong start, to even possess the lead after the 1st period. But the Americans flexed their dominance thereafter, and ultimately led to the team being eliminated from the tournament all together by the score of 95-71.

2019 World Cup qualification

For qualification to the 2019 FIBA World Cup, Ukraine opened their first-round qualifying campaign with a win over Sweden. They eventually attained a 3–3 record in their group to advance to the second and final phase of qualifying. In the second group phase of qualifiers, Ukraine started with a home win against Spain, although they dropped their second match of group play to Montenegro to fall to 1–1. After that loss the national team finished the rest of the qualifiers with a 5–7 overall record, and were eliminated from World Cup contention.

Competitive record

EuroBasket

FIBA World Cup

Olympic Games

Team

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2021 qualification.

Depth Chart

Head coach position

Other current players from Ukraine:

Past rosters

1997 EuroBasket: finished 13th among 16 teams
4 Oleksandr Okunsky, 5 Grihoriy Khyzhniak, 6 Leonid Yaylo, 7 Ihor Molchanov, 8 Victor Savchenko, 9 Alexander Lokhmanchuk, 10 Denis Zhuravlov, 11 Roman Rubchenko, 12 Vadym Pudzyrey, 13 Yevheniy Murzin, 14 Dmytro Bazelevsky, 15 Ihor Kharchenko
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2001 EuroBasket: finished 14th among 16 teams
4 Andriy Lebedev, 5 Vadym Pudzyrey, 6 Viktor Kobzystyy, 7 Stanislav Balashov, 8 Viacheslav Ievstratenko, 9 Serhiy Lishchuk, 10 Nikolay Khryapa, 11 Oleksandr Okunsky, 12 Dmytro Markov, 13 Dmytro Korablov, 14 Oleksandr Rayevskyy, 15 Volodymyr Ryzhov
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2003 EuroBasket: finished 14th among 16 teams
4 Andrii Lebediev, 5 Oleksandr Rayevskyy, 6 Oleksandr Skutelnyk, 7 Stanislav Balashov, 8 Artur Drozdov, 9 Sergiy Moskalenko, 10 Nikolay Khryapa, 11 Oleksandr Okunsky, 12 Viacheslav Ievstratenko, 13 Alexander Lokhmanchuk, 14 Andriy Botichev, 15 Grigorij Khizhnyak
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2005 EuroBasket: finished 16th among 16 teams
4 Andrii Lebediev, 5 Artem Butskyy, 6 Viktor Kobzystyy, 7 Stanislav Balashov, 8 Igor Kryvych, 9 Volodymyr Koval, 10 Oleksandr Rayevskyy, 11 Rostyslav Kryvych, 12 Serhiy Lishchuk, 13 Oleksiy Pecherov, 14 Volodymyr Gurtovyy, 15 Slava Medvedenko
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2011 EuroBasket: finished 17th among 24 teams
4 Maksym Pustozvonov, 5 Denys Lukashov, 6 Steve Burtt Jr., 7 Oleksandr Kolchenko, 8 Oleksandr Lypovyy, 9 Dmytro Zabirchenko, 10 Oleg Saltovets, 11 Oleksiy Pecherov, 12 Serhiy Lishchuk, 13 Danylo Kozlov, 14 Kyrylo Fesenko, 15 Viacheslav Kravtsov
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2013 EuroBasket: finished 6th among 24 teams
4 Maksym Pustozvonov, 5 Eugene Jeter, 6 Olexandr Mishula, 7 Dmytro Gliebov, 8 Sergiy Gladyr, 9 Oleksandr Lypovyy, 10 Kyrylo Natyazhko, 11 Dmytro Zabirchenko, 12 Maxym Korniyenko, 13 Ihor Zaytsev, 14 Artem Pustovyi, 15 Viacheslav Kravtsov
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2014 FIBA World Cup: finished 18th among 24 teams
4 Maksym Pustozvonov, 5 Eugene Jeter, 6 Olexandr Mishula, 7 Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, 8 Sergiy Gladyr, 9 Oleksandr Lypovyy, 10 Kyrylo Natyazhko, 11 Dmytro Zabirchenko, 12 Maksym Korniyenko, 13 Ihor Zaytsev, 14 Artem Pustovyi, 15 Viacheslav Kravtsov
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2015 EuroBasket: finished 22nd among 24 teams
4 Maksym Pustozvonov, 5 Jerome Randle, 6 Olexandr Mishula, 7 Denys Lukashov, 8 Kyrylo Fesenko , 9 Oleksandr Sizov, 10 Stanislav Tymofeyenko, 11 Oleksandr Lypovyy, 12 Maksym Korniyenko, 13 Ihor Zaytsev, 14 Artem Pustovyi, 15 Pavlo Krutous
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2017 EuroBasket: finished 15th among 24 teams
4 Maksym Pustozvonov, 5 Oleksandr Kolchenko, 7 Denys Lukashov, 9 Ruslan Otverchenko, 11 Oleksandr Lypovyy, 12 Maksym Korniyenko, 13 Vyacheslav Bobrov, 14 Ihor Zaytsev, 15 Viacheslav Kravtsov, 23 Artem Pustovyi, 24 Vladimir Konev, 31 Olexandr Mishula