Ivory Coast men's national basketball team explained

Country:Côte d'Ivoire
Coach:Natxo Lezkano
Nickname:Les Éléphants
(The Elephants)
Joined Fiba:1961
Fiba Zone:FIBA Africa
National Fed:Fédération Ivoirienne de Basket-Ball
Wc Appearances:5
Zone Championship:AfroBasket
Zone Appearances:24
Zone Medals: Gold (1981, 1985)
Silver (1978, 1980, 2009, 2021)
Zone2 Championship:AfroCan
Zone2 Appearances:2
Zone2 Medals: Silver (2023)
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The Ivory Coast men's national basketball team is the men's basketball side that represents Ivory Coast in international competition. The team competes regularly in the African Championship and is administered by the Fédération Ivoirienne de Basket-Ball.[1]

With two AfroBasket titles and six overall finals appearances, the country is traditionally home to one of the continent's finest basketball national teams. The Elephants have played at the FIBA Basketball World Cup four times and also played in the 2023 edition.

History

Ivory Coast reached the final of the FIBA Africa Championship for the first time in 1978, but they were defeated by Senegal in the final. They reached the final again in the following tournament, in 1980, but again had to settle for silver, as Senegal took the gold. Another run the following year, in 1981, saw Côte d'Ivoire finally break through and win their first title, as they defeated Egypt for the championship. Four years later, Côte d'Ivoire won their second championship, as they hosted the tournament in 1985, and beat Angola, to win the championship. Côte d'Ivoire finished second at the 2009 FIBA Africa Championship, for their first podium finish since their victory in 1985. They participated in the 2010 FIBA World Championship, which was their first FIBA World Cup appearance since 1986. The team went 1–4 at the tournament, finishing last in Group C. On 2 September 2010, In their final group game, the Ivorians defeated Puerto Rico 88–76, for their first ever FIBA World Cup win, but they came up just short in the tiebreaker to see which team would advance to the knockout stage.[2]

Ivory Coast qualified for the 2019 FIBA World Championship in dramatic and extraordinary circumstances. After only narrowly avoiding elimination in the first qualifying round (they finished 3rd in their group and only qualified because they held the tiebreaker to Mozambique), they needed to win their last three games in the final group by a combined margin of 66 points in order to qualify as the best-ranked third-placed team. They remarkably did so (actually, they won by a combined 73 points), dispatching even African powerhouses and already-qualified Nigeria by a score of 72–46 in the process. Combined with a loss for the Central African Republic against Nigeria, Ivory Coast finished third in the group and qualified for the World Championship by virtue of a better total points difference than Cameroon.

Competitive record

FIBA World Cup

FIBA World Cup recordQualification record
YearRoundPosition
1963did not qualifyAfroBasket served as qualification
1967
1970
1974
1978
1982Classification round13th505
1986Preliminary round23rd505
1990did not qualify
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010Preliminary round21st514
2014did not qualify
2019Classification round29th5051275
2023Classification round27th51412102
2027To be determinedTo be determined
5/172522324177

FIBA Africa Championship

Champions   Runners-up   Third place   Fourth place  

YearRoundPosition
did not enter
1964
1965
Seventh place 7th 7 4 3
did not qualify
Tenth place 10th 6 1 5
did not qualify
1975
Runners-up 2nd 6 4 2
Runners-up 2nd 7 5 2
Champions 1st 7 6 1
Fourth place 4th 6 3 3
Champions 1st 7 6 1
Classification stage 7th 5 2 3
Classification stage 5th 7 4 3
Preliminary round 11th 5 1 4
Classification stage 6th 5 2 3
Classification stage 7th 5 3 2
Classification stage 8th 5 1 4
Eight place 8th 6 2 4
Classification stage 8th 6 2 4
Eleventh place 11th 6 2 4
Classification stage 10th 7 3 4
Quarterfinals 8th 6 2 4
Runners-up 2nd 9 5 4
Fourth place 4th 8 3 5
Fourth place 4th 7 5 2
Round of 16 12th 5 2 3
Preliminary round 14th 3 0 3
Runners-up 2nd 6 5 1
to be determined
Total1477374

FIBA AfroCan

Runners-up

YearRoundPosition
Tenth place 10th 3 0 3
Runners-up 2nd 6 5 1
Total954

African Games

See also: Basketball at the African Games.

Team

Current roster

Roster for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.[3] [4]

Notable players

Other current notable players from Ivory Coast:

Past rosters

Team for the 2013 FIBA Africa Championship.

Head coaches

Kit

Manufacturer

Peak[7]

See also

External links

Videos

Notes and References

  1. https://archive.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/FIBA/fibaStru/nfLeag/nfProf.asp?nationalFederationNumber=267 FIBA National Federations – Cote d'Ivoire
  2. Web site: PUR/CIV– Ivory Coast claim first win but just miss out on place in second round . 30 August 2022 . FIBA.basketball . en.
  3. Web site: Mondial basket-ball 2023 : la liste des 12 éléphants sélectionnés dévoilée avec Zouzoua et Souleymane Diabaté. 20 August 2023. linfodrome.com. 20 August 2023.
  4. Web site: Team roster: Ivory Coast. 25 August 2023. FIBA.
  5. https://web.archive.org/web/20130502000231/http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/colu/p/newsid/55390/arti.html Head coaches
  6. Web site: 30 August 2022 . Basketball-Ivory Coast: the birth of a golden generation? . 30 August 2022 . African News Paper . en-US.
  7. https://web.archive.org/web/20150612114111/http://www.fiba.com/afrobasket/2015/Cote-d-Ivoire#iset=0c0a06f4-4ffc-4e3c-bb42-4d4cf84da68c&iid=cc1b8179-2dd3-4667-abef-b8ac1829d94e 2015 FIBA Africa Championship – Cote d'Ivoire