Spain will defend their gold medals from Lithuania in 2011 and from Poland in 2009. They are considered one of the main favourites despite numerous Spanish stars cancelling their appearance at the tournament.

The French will be defending their silver from Lithuania, and the Russians will be defending bronze. The host nation Slovenia will try to improve on their seventh place at the EuroBasket two years ago.

The European championships in Lithuania featured 24 teams for the first time, as the tournament previously featured 16 teams, and was the opportunity for smaller nations to show what they are capable of at major events.

Macedonia, who played for the first time on the biggest European stage, were the biggest surprise in Lithuania as they made it to the semi-finals and eventually won the fourth place. This year's EuroBasket has been hit by numerous snubs from NBA players, which makes it even more unpredictable.

Things will get exciting already in the preliminary round, as only three teams from each group of six teams will advance to the second round. The second round, which will be played in Stožice Arena, will feature two groups with six teams.

Top four teams from each second round group will make it to the quarter-finals, which will start on 18 September. The eight teams to make it to the knock-out stage will have played 11 games in 16 days by then.

The EuroBasket in Slovenia also serves as a qualification tournament for the World Championships in 2014 in Spain. Top six teams will make it to Spain, or top seven teams in case Spain, which has automatically qualified for the World Championships as host nation, makes it among the first six.

Matches in the preliminary round will be played in three time slots - at 2:30 PM, 5:45 PM and 9 PM. Slovenia will play all of its matches at 9 PM for broadcasting reasons.

Tickets for the first round are still available, including for Slovenia's matches in Celje. Besides Celje, the biggest interest in tickets has been expressed for the matches in the coastal town of Koper, primarily from Finnish and Italian basketball fans.

Podmežakla Arena in the north-western town of Jesenice is also expected to be packed, as four teams from the Western Balkans play there - Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro.