The 2005 European Basketball Championship, is commonly called Eurobasket 2005.

The FIBA European Basketball Championship is a basketball competition held every 2 years between national teams organised by FIBA Europe, the sports governing body in Europe. This is the third time that championship is hosted by city of Belgrade (previously in 1961 and 1975).

Why we care
Pistons fans are especially anxious to see Darko Milicic make his Serbian National Team (the host squad) and how he performs in the tournament.

Where
Belgrade, is the capital of Serbia since 1404, Serbia and Montenegro (2003–Present) and Yugoslavia (1918–2003). The city lies on the outfall of the Sava river to the Danube river in northern central Serbia, at 44.83° N 20.50° E. The population of the Belgrade region 1,711,800 (2002 census.)

When
Between 16 September and 25 September 2005.

Timezone offset:
All Game Times CEST - Central European Summer Time
Belgrade is currently GMT+2.
Detroit is currently GMT-4 (EDT - Eastern Daylight Time)

All of these games are on six hours ahead of Detroit local time.

17:30 Belgrade gametime is 11:30 in Detroit.

PRELIMINARY ROUND

16.09.2005
Slovenia vs. Bosnia & Herzeg. @ Beograd, SCG - 17:30
Latvia vs. Israel @ Novi Sad, SCG - 17:30
Germany vs. Italy @ Vršac, SCG - 18:00
Croatia vs. Bulgaria @ Podgorica, SCG - 18:00
France vs. Greece @ Beograd, SCG - 20:30
Serbia & Montenegro vs. Spain @ Novi Sad, SCG - 20:30
Russia vs. Ukraine @ Vršac, SCG - 21:00
Turkey vs. Lithuania @ Podgorica, SCG - 21:00

17.09.2005
Bosnia & Herzeg. vs. France @ Beograd, SCG - 17:30
Spain vs. Latvia @ Novi Sad, SCG - 17:30
Italy vs. Russia @ Vršac, SCG - 18:00
Lithuania vs. Croatia @ Podgorica, SCG - 18:00
Greece vs. Slovenia @ Beograd, SCG - 20:30
Israel vs. Serbia & Montenegro @ Novi Sad, SCG - 20:30
Ukraine vs. Germany @ Vršac, SCG - 21:00
Bulgaria vs. Turkey @ Podgorica, SCG - 21:00

18.09.2005
Slovenia vs. France @ Beograd, SCG - 17:30
Spain vs. Israel @ Novi Sad, SCG - 17:30
Italy vs. Ukraine @ Vršac, SCG - 18:00
Lithuania vs. Bulgaria @ Podgorica, SCG - 18:00
Greece vs. Bosnia & Herzeg. @ Beograd, SCG - 20:30
Latvia vs. Serbia & Montenegro @ Novi Sad, SCG - 20:30
Russia vs. Germany @ Vršac, SCG - 21:00
Croatia vs. Turkey @ Podgorica, SCG - 21:00

** UPDATED 9-13-05: Israel qualified as the last team in the tournament. They go into Pool D as the 4th team.

13 September 2005

Serbia & Montenegro head coach Zeljko Obradovic has cut Aleksandar Pavlovic and Bojan Popovic from his 12-man squad as the hosts make their final preparations for the European Championship.

After a final training game, played behind closed doors against Zeleznik, Obradovic confirmed that Cleveland Cavaliers guard Pavlovic and new Dinamo Moscow playmaker Popovic would not be part of the Blues' party.

"I've informed the players after our last preparation game that Pavlovic and Popovic are not on the list any more," Obradovic said.

"Both of them have more then enough quality to be in our national team, but we can have just 12 players in this competition."

Squad: Marko Jaric, Igor Rakocevic, Vule Avdalovic, Dejan Bodiroga, Milan Gurovic, Vlado Scepanovic, Vladimir Radmanovic, Dejan Milojevic, Dejan Tomasevic, Nenad Krstic, Darko Milicic and Zeljko Rebraca.

Serbia vs. Spain recap and box score, play-by-play etc

Serbia vs. Israel recap and box score, play-by-play etc

Serbia vs. Latvia recap and box score, play-by-play etc

9-18-05, Serbia advances from round robin play to the elimination playoffs.

Thanks for pulling that info together Micro.
I'm hoping there will be some news to report on Darko by tomorrow.
(The scouts have their ears to the streets).

It would be great to see him playing in his home town...
There should be at least some internet feeds on these games... with any luck NBATV will pick up a couple (they're usually tape delayed though)

The kid could sure use the confidence. (fingers crossed smiley inserted here)

Happy to inform all Darko fans that young Darko has earned a spot on his national team for the upcomming euro c'ships.Don't know how much court time he will recieve because 2 nba post players are infront in the rotation,those 2 being Zelly Rebraca and Nenad Krstic from the nets.More info to folow.

Darko has made the final cuts,just reported in serbian press.

Nice victory for DMC.

This is from "rosaUpodne" at MLive:

Confirmed... he did indeed make the cut.
Great to hear that he'll be extending his summer.
I'd be surprised if he received many minutes with the depth at center... but it sure beats going home depressed about not making the team.
Way to go Darko!
For the folks in Toronto it looks like RAPTORS TV will show games from the quarter final stage all the way to the finals.
Still checking on local staellite feeds... but someone mentioned that there will be 80 satellite feeds... just gotta find out which ones.

Yea for darko!

I suppose this is a good thing from the standpoint that making the team should boost his confidence and any playing time he gets can only help. But...if he ends up doing nothing more than adding European toothpicks to his American toothpick collection will it end up hurting his china doll confidence?