By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
One month after returning to the Croatia senior national team as the sports director, Aco Petrovic took over as the interim head coach, the Croatian Basketball Federation announced Monday.
Petrovic, 63, was tasked with narrowing down the list of candidates to the next head coach of the Chequered Ones. However, the approaching international window and Croatia participating in the 2025 EuroBasket Pre-Qualifiers prompted him to emerge as the play-caller for the games versus Austria in Graz and Poland in Zagreb on November 10 and 13, respectively. Also, he will be the head coach in FIBA’s next international window scheduled for February 2023.
“This was not the direction I was expecting four weeks ago, but considering the initial talks with potential candidates and myself reaching out to all the players, maybe this is the logical solution,” Petrovic explained the current situation.
He returns to the role of head coach of his home country’s national team after three previous stints, focused on the 2016 Olympic Games, and the 1995 and 2001 editions of EuroBasket. Further experience at the international level stems from Brazil and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Knocked out of the 2023 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers, Croatia switched to the 2025 EuroBasket Pre-Qualifiers and is up 2-0 in Group E. With Poland named host of the 2025 EuroBasket, Croatia was effectively left in a battle with Switzerland and Austria for one single berth in the EuroBasket Qualifiers. The national teams currently placed in the 2023 World Cup Qualifiers will be part of the next stage.
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL