Romania men's national basketball team

Romania

FIBA ranking	63 2 (1 March 2024)[1]
Joined FIBA	1932 (co-founders)
FIBA zone	FIBA Europe
National federation	FRB
Coach	Mickey Gorka
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

.

History

EuroBasket 1935

At the first

.

EuroBasket 1947

Romania returned to the European championship twelve years later in

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.

EuroBasket 1951

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.

1952 Summer Olympics

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.

EuroBasket 1953

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.

EuroBasket 1955

Romania was much more successful two years later, at the

to finish 2-5 in the final round to take 7th place in the 18-team tournament.

EuroBasket 1957

Romania came within a single point of winning their preliminary pool at

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.

Later years

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]

EuroBasket 2022 qualification

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]

Competitive record

Results and fixtures

  Win   Loss

2023

2024

2025

Team

Current roster

Roster for the 2027 FIBA World Cup Pre-Qualifiers match on 22 February 2024 against Luxembourg.^[4]

Romania men's national basketball team roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr. PG 1 Lucas Tohătan 24 – (1999-03-15)15 March 1999 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) Voluntari PG 2 Tudor Șomăcescu 18 – (2005-06-15)15 June 2005 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) Rapid G/F 3 Dragoș Diculescu 24 – (1999-08-25)25 August 1999 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Hamar G/F 8 Nandor Kuti 27 – (1997-01-10)10 January 1997 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Sibiu 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 F/C 15 Emanuel Cățe 26 – (1997-07-30)30 July 1997 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) Cluj-Napoca SG 35 Patrick Richard 34 – (1990-01-25)25 January 1990 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Cluj-Napoca PG 41 Codrut-Alexander Dinu 16 – (2007-02-26)26 February 2007 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) CSM Ploiești C 44 Rares Uta 26 – (1997-12-24)24 December 1997 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) Sibiu F 53 Tudor Girbea 25 – (1998-10-16)16 October 1998 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) Rapid SF 77 Mihai Măciucă 23 – (2000-05-25)25 May 2000 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) Cluj-Napoca	Head coach Mihai Silvășan Assistant coach(es) Razvan Munteanu Mihai Popa Legend (C) Team captain Club – describes last club before the competition Age – describes age on 22 February 2024

Depth chart

Pos.	Starting 5	Bench 1	Bench 2
C	Emanuel Cățe	Rares Uta
PF	Tudor Girbea	Ștefan Grasu
SF	Bogdan Nicolescu	Dragoș Diculescu	Mihai Măciucă
SG	Patrick Richard	Nandor Kuti
PG	Lucas Tohătan	Tudor Șomăcescu	Codrut-Alexander Dinu

Head coach position

Notable players

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

Past rosters

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: 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)

---

: finished 23rd among 24 teams

4

)

Kit

Manufacturer

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

Sponsor

• 2020–present: Banca Transilvania

See also

• 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

References

External links

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

Videos

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