Croatia: Back to the winning days?
Croatia are trying to end a 12-year absence at the top level by qualifying for the Beijing Games. Coach Jasmin Repesa will miss Gordan Giricek and Nikola Vujcic but has plenty of firepower with the emergence of players like Roko-Leni Ukic and Marko Tomas.
The Croatia National Team last appeared in a major intercontinental competition in 1996 at the Atlanta Games and finished seventh, despite the presence of greats like Dino Radja and Toni Kukoc. It marked the end of a golden era for Croatian basketball. After breaking away from Yugoslavia, Croatia captured the silver medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, and bronze at the EuroBasket 1993 in Germany, the 1994 FIBA World Championship in Toronto and the EuroBasket in Greece in 1995.
In 1992, Croatia lost in the final against the USA Dream Team led by Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Looking back, that Croatian side was quite a dream team in its own right. Nicknamed Mozart, the precocious Drazen Petrovic was the leader of the team, a charismatic player who inspired many. Petrovic dominated Europe and then took his game to the NBA where he played for the Portland Trail Blazers and New Jersey Nets. He was one of the league's best long-range marksmen. Barcelona would prove to be his last appearance with the Croatia National Team in a major competition. After helping his team qualify for EuroBasket 1993 with a performance that included 46 points against Estonia, he was killed in an automobile accident just a few months shy of his 29th birthday. The death of Drazen Petrovic left not only Croatia, but the entire basketball world in mourning.
Before last summer in Madrid, the Croatia National Team had not finished better the seventh place at a EuroBasket for 12 years. The Croatians managed to clinch sixth place in Spain, earning them the opportunity to play at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament this year in Athens where three spots are up for grabs for the Beijing Games. The mission will be anything but easy for coach Jasmin Repesa, who will be without three major players in Nikola Vujcic, Gordan Giricek and Mario Kasun. Giricek and Vujcic have not played since EuroBasket 2005 in Belgrade. The latter missed the last EuroBasket because of an injury and he has yet to fully recover while Giricek has decided to take the summer off citing family reasons. Kasun did play last summer but missed several games with an irregular heartbeat this summer while playing for Barcelona and will rest.
If any coach can overcome the absence of such high-profile players, though, it is Repesa, a coach who has turned Lottomatica Roma into one of the best sides in Italy in his two years with the club and also led the side to back-to-back appearances in the Euroleague Top 16. Following a disappointing EuroBasket 2005 when Croatia lost to Spain in overtime of their quarter-final, Repesa took the helm and began to rejuvenate the National Team. It is a process he will continue this summer. He can count on a very strong backcourt built around the huge talents of Marko Popovic, Zoran Planinic and Roko-Leni Ukic. The trio has a lot of international experience, and have been prominent players in the Euroleague with their respective clubs. Ukic, in fact, played under Repesa at Roma this season. On the wings, Marko Tomas could be a player about to bust loose after a productive season in Spain's ACB. He caused a stir last summer in the group stages when burying a long three-pointer in the waning moments to stun Spain.
Damir Markota, who at 2.09 can slot in at either forward position, can score from anywhere on the floor and could develop into an important player. The future of the Croatia National Team is in the paint with the young twin towers Stanko Barac and Ante Tomic. Kasun's absence will give additional minutes to Barac, one of the revelations of EuroBasket 2007. Barac followed that up with a fine rookie campaign in the ACB at Pamesa Valencia. Tomic went into the summer battling for a place in the squad after a strong season with KK Zagreb in the EuroCup and Adriatic League. Nikola Prkacin, a veteran of six EuroBaskets, could also receive a lot of time on the floor for Repesa.
Croatia could not have had a better draw. They will take on Puerto Rico and Cameroon in Group D in the qualifying tournament and should they advance as most people expect them to, they are likely to face Canada or Slovenia in a quarter-final.
How did they qualify?
EuroBasket 2007, Final Round
6th place (3 W - 6 L)
Results
Preliminary Round
Sept-3rd 2007
Latvia b. Croatia 85-77
Sept-4th 2007
Croatia b. Portugal 90-68
Sept-5th 2007
Croatia b. Spain 85-84
Quarter-final round
Sept-7th 2007
Israel b. Croatia 80-75
Sept-9th 2007
Greece b. Croatia 81-78
Sept-11th 2007
Russia b. Croatia 83-70
Quarter-Final
Sept-14th 2007
Lithuania b. Croatia 74-72
Qualification round 5th to 8th place
Sept-15th 2007
Croatia b. France 86-69
5th place final
Sept-16th 2007
Germany b. Croatia 80-71
