Denmark men's national basketball team

Denmark
FIBA ranking59 (25 February 2025)[1]
Joined FIBA1951
FIBA zoneFIBA Europe
National federationDBBF
CoachAllan Foss
Nickname(s)De rød-hvide
(The Red and White)
Olympic Games
AppearancesNone
FIBA World Cup
AppearancesNone
EuroBasket
Appearances3
MedalsNone
Championship for Small Countries
Appearances1
Medals Gold: (2010)
First international
  13–109 Soviet Union 
(Paris, France; 3 May 1951)
Biggest win
  99–51 Cyprus 
(Copenhagen, Denmark; 26 April 1986)
Biggest defeat
 Soviet Union 118–14  
(Moscow, Soviet Union; 25 May 1953)

The Denmark men's national basketball team (Danish: Danmarks landsbasketballhold) represents Denmark in international basketball competition. The national team is controlled by the Danish Basketball Association.

The Denmark national team competed regularly at the EuroBasket in the 1950s, the top European tournament. Their best appearance came in 1951. Although since then, the team has struggled to maintain consistency to challenge the international elites. Denmark also has yet to reach qualification to play on the global stage at the FIBA World Cup.

History

EuroBasket 1951

Denmark debuted in the European championships at the EuroBasket 1951 in Paris. They were defeated in all of their preliminary round games, going 0–4. They ended up in last place in their group. In a direct elimination match against Luxembourg, Denmark took a 46–45 lead with 5 seconds left. A final half-court shot by Luxembourg bounced off the rim, giving Denmark its first ever win at the EuroBasket tournament and advancing the team to the first classification round. They picked up another win there, against Scotland, finishing in third place in the group at 1–2. Their third win of the tournament came against Portugal in the 13th–16th place classification semifinal. Denmark then lost to Switzerland in the 13th/14th place match to finish 14th of the 18 teams with a record of 3–7.

EuroBasket 1953

Two years later, at the EuroBasket 1953 in Moscow, Denmark did not fare as well. They dropped eight of their matches (three in the preliminary round, three in the first classification round, and the two-second-round classification games) on their way to a 16th-place finish out of the 17 teams in the tournament.

EuroBasket 1955

At the EuroBasket 1955 in Budapest, the national team struggled there as well just as they did at the prior EuroBasket. Losing all eight of their matches in non competitive fashion, this time they finished in last place of the 18 teams at the event.

Later years

After the EuroBasket 1955, the Danish national team regressed and never qualified for a major tournament again. Though, they did achieve some success on a lower level, at the European Championship for Small Countries, where they won Gold in 2010.

Competitive record

Results and fixtures

  Win   Loss

2024

23 February 2024   75–69  Georgia Næstved, Denmark
18:30 (UTC+1) Scoring by quarter: 12–23, 16–14, 22–16, 25–16
Pts: Lundberg 19
Rebs: Knudsen 6
Asts: Lundberg 7
Boxscore Pts: Shengelia 27
Rebs: Shermadini 8
Asts: Thomasson,
Tsintsadze 4
Arena: Næstved Arena
Attendance: 2,153
Referees: Zafer Yılmaz (TUR), Yener Yılmaz (TUR), Juozas Barkauskas (LTU)
26 February 2024 Finland  89–85   Espoo, Finland
18:30 (UTC+2) Scoring by quarter: 23–27, 19–31, 30–14, 17–13
Pts: Jantunen 19
Rebs: Jantunen 7
Asts: Maxhuni 6
Boxscore Pts: Lundberg 26
Rebs: Dibba 7
Asts: Larsen, Lundberg 6
Arena: Espoo Metro Areena
Attendance: 5,339
Referees: Fernando Calatrava (ESP), Gintaras Vitkauskas (LTU), Blaž Zupančič (SVN)
21 November 2024   52–72  Serbia Copenhagen, Denmark
18:00 (UTC+1) Scoring by quarter: 6–29, 13–14, 16–19, 17–10
Pts: Engelhardt 13
Rebs: Knudsen, Sorensen 5
Asts: four players 3
Boxscore Pts: Koprivica 13
Rebs: Ristić 6
Asts: Avramović, Jović 6
Arena: Farum Arena
Attendance: 2,993
Referees: Wojciech Liszka (POL), Nicolás Maestre (FRA), Ilias Kounelles (CYP)
24 November 2024 Serbia  98–51   Belgrade, Serbia
20:00 (UTC+1) Scoring by quarter: 25–17, 25–11, 20–11, 28–12
Pts: Avramović 18
Rebs: Dobrić 8
Asts: Avramović 8
Boxscore Pts: Lundberg 15
Rebs: Lundberg 6
Asts: Lundberg 6
Arena: Aleksandar Nikolić Hall
Attendance: 6,300
Referees: Paulo Marques (POR), Mihkel Männiste (EST), Orhan Hekimoğlu (TUR)

2025

21 February 2025 Georgia  62–60   Tbilisi, Georgia
21:00 (UTC+4) Scoring by quarter: 19–21, 18–4, 11–20, 14–15
Pts: Shengelia 19
Rebs: Shengelia 13
Asts: Andronikashvili, Shengelia 4
Boxscore Pts: Larsen 14
Rebs: Berg 8
Asts: Berg 3
Arena: Tbilisi Arena
Attendance: 9,000
Referees: Luis Castillo (ESP), Ventsislav Velikov (BUL), Ilias Kounelles (CYP)
24 February 2025   77–83  Finland Copenhagen, Denmark
20:00 (UTC+1) Scoring by quarter: 25–24, 22–17, 23–18, 7–24
Pts: Larsen 22
Rebs: Larsen 11
Asts: Lundberg 6
Boxscore Pts: Nkamhoua 26
Rebs: Nkamhoua 8
Asts: Salin 6
Arena: Farum Arena
Attendance: 2,391
Referees: Ariadna Chueca (ESP), Igor Mitrovski (MKD), Péter Praksch (HUN)
2 August 2025   vs.  Norway Denmark
--:-- (UTC+2)
Boxscore
9 August 2025 Croatia  vs.   Croatia
--:-- (UTC+2)
Boxscore
13 August 2025 Norway  vs.   Norway
--:-- (UTC+2)
Boxscore
20 August 2025   vs.  Croatia Denmark
--:-- (UTC+2)
Boxscore

Team

Current roster

Roster for the EuroBasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers matches on 21 and 24 February 2025 against Georgia and Finland.[2]

Denmark men's national basketball team roster
Players Coaches
Pos. No. Name Age – Date of birth Height Club Ctr.
PF 0 Bakary Dibba 23 – (2001-10-23)23 October 2001 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Heidelberg
G 1 Iffe Lundberg 30 – (1994-12-04)4 December 1994 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) Partizan
C 2 Marcus Engelhardt 18 – (2006-12-01)1 December 2006 2.16 m (7 ft 1 in) Unicaja
SF 3 Sylvester Berg 26 – (1998-05-27)27 May 1998 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Bakken Bears
C 6 Jonas Zohore 33 – (1991-07-06)6 July 1991 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) Balkan
SG 7 Liam Sørensen 24 – (2000-11-15)15 November 2000 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) Horsens
SF 8 Darko Jukić 34 – (1990-08-23)23 August 1990 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Bakken Bears
G/F 11 Mads Stürup 27 – (1997-05-24)24 May 1997 1.99 m (6 ft 6 in) Gipuzkoa
C 13 Kevin Larsen 31 – (1993-07-17)17 July 1993 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) Lucentum
PF 17 Frederik Drejer 18 – (2006-08-07)7 August 2006 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) Ulm
SF 18 Gustav Knudsen 21 – (2003-04-16)16 April 2003 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) Spirou
F 31 Shavon Shields 30 – (1994-06-05)5 June 1994 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) Olimpia Milano
G/F 77 Tobias Jensen 20 – (2004-05-08)8 May 2004 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Ulm
Head coach
  • Allan Foss
Assistant coach(es)
  • Michael Bree
  • Jeffrey Jensen
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • Club – describes last
    club before the competition
  • Age – describes age
    on 21 February 2025

Depth chart

Pos. Starting 5 Bench 1 Bench 2 Bench 3
C Jonas Zohore Asbjørn Midtgaard Sami Eleraky Jacob Jensen
PF Kevin Larsen Daniel Mortensen Zarko Jukić Sylvester Berg
SF Darko Jukic Jonathan Gilling Chris Nielsen Morten Sahlertz
SG Shavon Shields Philip Hertz Thomas Laerke David Knudsen
PG Iffe Lundberg Adama Darboe Frederik Nielsen Chanan Colman

Head coach position

Past rosters

1951 EuroBasket: finished 14th among 18 teams

3 Knud Lundberg, 4 Knud Norskov, 5 Erik Korsbjerg, 6 Erik Wilbek, 7 Peter Tantholdt, 8 Belger Can, 9 Bent Sondergaard, 10 Erik Melbye, 11 Sven Thomsen, 12 John Christensen, 13 Ove Nielsen, 14 Kai Sogaard, 15 Erik Carlsen, 16 Niels Mygind (Coach: ?)


1953 EuroBasket: finished 16th among 17 teams

3 Kai Sorensen, 4 Knud Norskov, 5 Knud Lundberg, 6 Peter Tantholdt, 7 John Christensen, 8 Erik Madsen, 10 Torben Starup-Hansen, 11 Ivan Rasmussen, 12 Ove Nielsen, 13 Erik Wilbek, 14 Pierre Meilsej, 15 Willi Mouritsen, 16 John Nielsen (Coach: ?)


1955 EuroBasket: finished 18th among 18 teams

3 Kai Sogaard, 4 Erik Korsbjerg, 5 Peter Tantholdt, 6 Pierre Meilsej, 7 An Lillelund, 8 Ivan Rasmussen, 9 Ove Nielsen, 10 T Storup, 11 P Hintz, 12 T Malmquist, 13 Willi Mouritsen, 14 S Sparre (Coach: ?)

Kit

Manufacturer

See also

References

  1. ^ "FIBA Ranking Presented by Nike". FIBA. 25 February 2025. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
  2. ^ "Denmark during the EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers in February 2025". Retrieved 21 February 2025.

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