Anton Bonke is getting another opportunity to work on his game this offseason in one of the biggest basketball tournaments in the world.
We just saw the World Cup for “football” come to an end in July with Spain holding the trophy at the end, but now Bonke and the Netherlands will attempt to take the crown on the hardwood.
The European FIBA World Cup Qualifiers are entering the second round this week after 24 teams advanced in the first round, and the Netherlands is one of them. Bonke, born in the Netherlands and was officially named to the Dutch national team on Tuesday, just two days before the first second-round game in the qualifiers.
Anton Bonke -born in the Netherlands- officially joins the Dutch National Team before the World Cup Qualifiers. Should be some great experience before the NCAA season gets underway. #GoGreen pic.twitter.com/b3X4zamkXo
— Loomin Kn🏀tty (@Loomin_Knotty) August 25, 2026
Bonke will represent the Netherlands on Aug. 27 in the team’s first game against Germany. Netherlands is in the same group (there are four groups of six in the European qualifiers) as Latvia, Israel, Poland, and Croatia.
This second qualifier round will take place in windows during August, November, and February as the field will be trimmed to 12 teams from Europe. So the 24 will be cut in half by February ahead of the World Cup 2027 which will take place next August and September in Qatar. This is still the early stage of qualifying but the Netherlands could use a 7-foot-2 big man like Bonke clearly.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Bonke during the other qualifier windows in November and February. Tom Izzo hasn’t faced a situation where a player left to go represent his country overseas for the World Cup qualifiers, and that probably won’t happen in this case either.
Before the season starts, however, Bonke is getting a chance to represent his country.
Really cool stuff.
Several Spartans have represented their countries this summer
Bonke now becomes the third Spartan basketball player on the 2026-27 roster to represent their country this summer, joining Jasiah Jervis and Ethan Taylor who were on Team USA for the U18 FIBA AmeriCup tournament. They unfortunately finished with the silver medal in that event.
Jervis and Taylor actually arrived to campus later than the other freshmen in the 2026 recruiting class because they were on their way back from the tournament in Mexico.
It’s a cool gesture that Izzo is allowing his guys to represent their country in these events even though it’s risking a potential injury. This is a dream come true for a lot of basketball players so it’s really cool to see them live it out in real time.
We’ll also get more Bonke highlights (hopefully) before the 2026-27 season. Win-win.
Add us as a preferred source on Google