CRO - Croatia name preliminary squad for Athens
ZAGREB (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament) – Croatia coach Jasmin Repesa has announced his preliminary squad for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens and Mario Kasun has not been included. The Barcelona big man, who missed several games this season with cardiac arrhythmia, will have further examinations in the coming weeks and could ...
ZAGREB (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament) – Croatia coach Jasmin Repesa has announced his preliminary squad for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens and Mario Kasun has not been included.
The Barcelona big man, who missed several games this season with cardiac arrhythmia, will have further examinations in the coming weeks and could join the team at a later date.
Mario Stojic is the other member of last year’s squad left off.
Dalibor Bagaric missed last summer’s EuroBasket in Spain but wants to compete for a place in the team and has been named.
Repesa, who is currently leading Lottomatica Roma in the Italian Lega A championship finals, wasn’t able to attend the press conference in Croatia but did speak to those gathered by telephone which was played over a loudspeaker.
“The list of candidates is much different to the one last summer,” he said.
“I had two criteria. First is who really has the willingness to play for the national team and second is who is able to help us (that isn’t injured or without health problems).
“Each of these 18 players showed a strong wish to be a part of the Croatian national team.
“The most important thing is that all of us must stick together in order to reach the Olympic Games in Athens.'
Slovenia, who are also taking part in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, will host Croatia in two friendlies on June 27-28.
Croatia will then host Australia and Iran – two sides that have already qualified for the Olympics – in the Svjetski kup, and then take part in the Akropolis Tournament in Athens from July 7-9 against Greece, Australia and Brazil.
The FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament then gets underway on July 14, with Croatia playing in Group D against Cameroon on the opening day and Puerto Rico two days later.
Croatia preliminary squad:
Dalibor Bagaric, Marko Banic, Stanko Barac, Davor Kus, Kresimir Loncar, Branimir Longin, Damir Markota, Sandro Nicevic, Zoran Planinic, Marko Popovic , Nikola Prkacin, Marin Rozic, Damian Rudež, Krunoslav Simon, Marko Tomas, Ante Tomic, Roko-Leni Ukic, Jacob Vladovic.
FIBA