All you need to know: FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers

Ireland will play Croatia and Luxembourg in the third phase of FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers, which take place over four games in July and August. 

You can get tickets for both home fixtures here

THE STORY SO FAR

Ireland's foray into FIBA EuroBasket 2025 qualification began in November 2021,  when they defeated a strong Cypriot side 81-73 in Nicosia. Jordan Blount, John Carroll and Taiwo Badmus combined for 49 points, as Ireland put a marker down to the more established Switzerland and Austria. 

Three days later Austria made the journey to the National Basketball Arena in Dublin, coming away with the spoils in a 97-70 win that still left Mark Keenan's team in good stead for the second window, which took place in February 2022. Another strong display, this time against Switzerland saw Ireland fall to a valiant 11-point defeat. Badmus, Blount and Sean Flood leading the way in the box score. The second game turned into double delight for Ireland as they outlasted Cyprus 83-75 in overtime, moving them to 2-2 overall. 

The final two games of phase one were the reverse fixtures against Austria and Switzerland. Ireland began brightly in Salzburg, leading throughout the first before ultimately going down 92-66 to their group-leading Austrian opponents. A sold-out National Basketball Arena was the setting for Ireland's final game of the group and Mark Keenan's team did not disappoint the home fans, even without the services of captain John Carroll. Shooting just under 50% from the field, Ireland gave the Swiss all they could handle, as they escaped with an 88-82 success following a couple of hairy moments down the stretch. 

Taiwo Badmus has been Ireland's most efficient player in qualification thus far, averaging 17.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists in six games. John Carroll and Jordan Blount have also been impressive. Carroll is averaging 15.3 points, 9 rebounds and 1.8 assists, with Blount ticking over at 15.2 points per game, 6.2 rebounds per game and 2.2 steals. 

𝙁𝙄𝘽𝘼 𝙀𝙐𝙍𝙊𝘽𝘼𝙎𝙆𝙀𝙏 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓 𝙋𝙍𝙀-𝙌𝙐𝘼𝙇𝙄𝙁𝙄𝙀𝙍𝙎 🏆

Tickets are now on general sale for our games against Luxembourg and Croatia at the National Basketball Arena.

🎟️➡️ https://t.co/FKsvfqtj38#Greenmeansgo ☘️ | #EuroBasket pic.twitter.com/a7RjSxV6ch

— Basketball Ireland (@BballIrl) May 31, 2023

PERMUTATIONS

The 12 teams who qualified for phase three of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers were seeded based on their FIBA World Ranking and subsequently drawn into four groups of three. Ireland have been placed in Group G along with the top seeded Croatia and Luxembourg. Games in this phase will take place between July 19th and August 5th 2023. 

The teams will play one another home and away in a round robin format, with the top team from each of the four groups advancing to FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualification alongside the other 28 teams, who are already qualified. 

WATCH

All four games will be broadcast live on TG4. 

Croatia v Ireland

• Wednesday, July 19th, Time: 1900, Venue: Centar Zamet, Rijeka (CRO), TV: TG4

Luxembourg v Ireland

• Wednesday, July 26th, Time: 19:15, Venue: Centre National Sportif & Culturel d'Coque, Luxembourg (LUX), TV: TG4

Ireland v Croatia

• Saturday, July 29th, Time: 14:30, Venue: National Basketball Arena, Dublin, TV: TG4

GET TICKETS 

Ireland v Luxembourg

• Saturday, August 5th, Time: 19:30, Venue: National Basketball Arena, Dublin, TV: TG4

GET TICKETS

SQUAD NEWS

Head coach Mark Keenan will announce his squad for the forthcoming window in July.

OPPOSITION VIEW

Croatia missed out on advancing to the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers after finishing second to Poland in a group that also featured Ireland's previous opponents Austria and Switzerland. The Croats went 5-1 in that second phase of qualifiers. They are currently ranked 25th in the FIBA World Rankings and boast NBA talent such as Ivica Zubac and Bojan Bogdanovic in their ranks. 

Luxembourg are ranked 77th in the latest FIBA World Rankings, finishing second to Romania in the inital FIBA EuroBAsket 2025 Pre-Qualifer phase, going 1-3 in their group that also contained Albania. Their roster is heavily stacked with domestic players, the majority of whom play for Basket Esch, who lifted their National Cup in 2023. Centre Clancy Rugg is their biggest scoring threat, averaging over 24 points per game. Germany based Alex Laurent is another potent threat, averaging 19.3 points and 6 rebounds in four games.