Slovenia's men's national basketball team on Monday lost to Turkey 77-86 on their home turf in the second round of the European qualifiers of the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. With only two wins and six losses, they rank last in all six teams of Group I and are one step away from missing the World Cup in China.
This is rather bizarre because a year ago Slovenia snatched the crown at the 2017 EuroBasket with nine straight wins. With their performance, the team seemed like a game changer in European basketball at the time.
How did they end up as a team who might not even earn a spot at the 2019 World Cup?
Goran Dragic #3 and Luka Doncic #77 are why Slovenia take the 2017 EuroBasket champions with nine straight wins. /VCG Photo
Two names are important – Goran Dragic and Luka Doncic.
Dragic, 32, has been seeing his best years, scoring 17.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game for NBA's Miami Heat and making his All-Star debut in the past season. Before being selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the third pick in the 2018 NBA Draft and sent to the Dallas Mavericks, Doncic was already dual MVP of both Liga ACB and the EuroLeague at the age of 19. With these two stars and Anthony Randolph, a naturalized 2.11-meter inside man from the US, Slovenia became unstoppable at the 2017 EuroBasket.
However, neither Dragic nor Doncic came along with the team during the European qualifiers. Meanwhile, it was hard to find an absolute "weak" team in the second round of the qualifiers, especially in Europe. As a result, Slovenia had to suffer one defeat after another against Spain, Latvia and Turkey.
Slovenia may become the first team to win the EuroBasket title but fail to make it to the following FIBA World Cup/World Championship. /VCG Photo
Though it's not completely hopeless, Slovenia cannot afford as little as one mistake if they want to go to China in 2019. They have four games left and trail by three wins after Latvia which rank third in the group. They will need to win all the four games while Montenegro and Ukraine need to lose at least three of their four games before they may be able to make it out of Group I.
Considering that when the four games take place, the 2018-19 NBA season would have already begun, Slovenia can give up on hoping to have Dragic and Doncic back. It's also really difficult to predict which has a better chance to happen: Slovenia taking four consecutive wins or Montenegro and Ukraine both losing three of their four games?
If Slovenia fail to enter the 2019 World Cup, they will become the first team to be EuroBasket champions but end up staying out of the following FIBA World Cup/World Championship.
(Top picture: Slovenia lost to Turkey 77-86 on September 17, 2018. /VCG Photo)