Spain will be defending 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.

France, who feature the biggest star of the tournament, point guard Tony Parker, will be defending their silver from Lithuania, while the Russians will be defending bronze. The host nation Slovenia will try to improve on their seventh place at the EuroBasket two years ago.

This year's EuroBasket has been hit by numerous snubs from NBA players, which makes it unpredictable, but there will still be a plenty of star power at the tournament.

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 Ljubljana's 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. Semi-finals will be played on 20 September and finals on 22 September.

EuroBasket in Slovenia also serves as a qualification tournament for the World Championships in 2014 in Spain. Top six teams will make it to the World Championships, or top seven teams in case Spain 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.