26 years ago, youth men’s national team of the Republic of Belarus made one of the greatest victories in the history of men's national basketball. At the 1994 European Championship in Slovenia, it became the strongest team, beating Italy in the final. Let's start with the beginning:
Preparations for EuroBasket
Few people know, but the youth national team of Belarus might not have made it to EuroBasket at all. A year before the tournament, the team had to go to Turkey for qualification. But members of the Federation Council, in particular, the head coach of the national team Alexei Shukshin, were against this idea. He believed that it was not worth spending money on the youth team and did not see any prospects in it.
Fortunately, the leadership of the federation did not agree with the trainer, and then he announced his resignation. However, funding problems did not disappear, so the youth team led by Aliaksandr Barysau and Mikhail Taits was forced not to fly to Bursa, Turkey, but to travel across Europe by bus.
After 3 days in the heat without overnight stays in the hotel and adequate food, the team arrived in Turkey, where it began to amaze. In the first meeting Belarus defeated the Czech Republic with a score of 86:62, and then Romania - 86:66. The subsequent defeat from the hosts (66:72) became the only one in the tournament for the team of Barysau and Taits. Having knocked out the national team of Poland - 87:71 - our national team took second place in the group and qualified for the main round of the European Championship.
Group stage
According to the results of the draw, Belarus got into group "A", which was immediately dubbed the “Group of death”. There were 3 semifinalists of the previous Eurobasket (Greece, Israel, and France), as well as the host of the tournament - Slovenia. Finland and Belarus were considered outsiders and, in the opinion of the majority, could not take one of the first two places that guaranteed to reach the semifinals.
Besides, the leader of the national team Ruslan Baidakou broke his throwing arm before leaving for Slovenia - his participation in the Eurobasket was in question.
Perhaps the underestimation of the opponents helped our team. In the debut game of the European Championship, Slovenia led the score for almost all 40 minutes but missed the victory in the end. Then Ruslan Baidakou scored 40 points for the hosts, despite his injury.
The leaders of the national team - Baidakou and Koul - were sent off in overtime, but even without them, the youth team got a resounding victory: Aliaksandr Radzionau made a long-range shot 3 seconds before the end of the match, putting Belarus ahead almost for the first time in the game. Thus, Slovenia did not have time to recoup.
There was instability in Group A, so the fight for the playoffs continued until the last matches. For example, after a confident game with Slovenia, Belarus lost to Greece (87:98), but then defeated Finland (84:47) and lost to Israel (65:81).
It seemed that the failure with Israel put an end to our team's chances of fighting for medals. However, thanks to the fortune and the match schedule, it was the match of Belarus and France that decided the fate of the second ticket to the semifinals. To pass to the next stage, the youth team needed not just a victory, but a victory with a difference of at least 18 points.
Our guys made themselves an advantage of "12"points in the first half of the game, and by the end, they increased the advantage to 22 points - 79:57! Leaving behind three dangerous rivals, the Belarusian national team stepped into its first youth Eurobasket playoffs.
Play-off
In the semifinals, Belarus met with the formidable team of Spain. They secured first place long before the end of the group stage, beating everyone in the tournament with a 20-point difference. By the long break, the score on the scoreboard was not in favor of Belarus - 24:44.
We do not know exactly what words the coaching staff said to the players in the 15-minute pause. But in the second half, the situation changed dramatically: Belarusian team made a great comeback, and thanks to two precise free throws by Ruslan Baidakou in the end, the Spanish national team remained out of the final - 69:67!
In comparison with the matches with Slovenia and Spain, the match for the championship title against Italy turned out to be not so impressive. Both teams showed productive basketball, but our youth team, which overcame a lot of problems on the way to Euro, showed character in the end and did not allow the southerners to take away the gold they deserved - 96:91!
Leaders
Ruslan Baidakou became the most productive basketball player of the Belarusian national team at the youth Eurobasket-1994: the forward, who played with a broken hand, got 22.6 points per match on average! And his 40 points in the game with Slovenia became the record of the tournament. Suffice it to say that after this case, only 6 basketball players managed to score 40 or more points in one match of the European Youth Championship.
Alexander Koul became the second leader: it was extremely difficult to stop the young center from the opponent's ring. It was Alexander who became the hero of the last “regular” season game against France, gaining 23 points.
Team roaster
This is how the Belarusian winning team at Eurobasket 1994 U-22 looked like:
Players: Ruslan Baidakou, Andrei Svirydau, Aliaksei Pyntsikau, Dzmitry Kuzmin, Alexander Lobazhevich, Alexander Koul, Andrei Krivonos, Yegor Meshcharakou, Gennadiy Kuznetsov, Aliaksandr Radzionau, Aleksy Olszewski, Oleg Yushkin;
Coaching staff: head coach Alexander Barysau, coach Mikhail Taits.
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