Blend of quality and youth ready to take on the World

A youthful Croatia team at last year’s EuroBasket provided fans with plenty of optimism for the future. The further development of some of these young players at club level as well as the return of some key players suggests that this future may come earlier than expected.

Croatia have participated in three Olympic Games winning the Silver medal in 1992, while they took a Bronze medal in their only previous appearance at the FIBA World Championship, in 1994 in Toronto. After finishing sixth in Beijing in 2008, and once again sixth at EuroBasket last summer, they are definitely back at the top level both in Europe and on the World stage. Croatia will now have to prove that they can win a medal again and look to match something close to the excellence of their past greats like Drazen Petrovic or Toni Kukoc.

But the future looks bright for Croatian basketball as they showed potential last summer despite playing without key players like Marko Tomas and Stanko Barac, who were both injured. Josip Vrankovic has succeeded Jasmin Repesa at the head of the team, but he’s no newcomer having previously held the coaching role of the Croatian National Team B since 2008.

Vrankovic will be able to count on talented players who revealed themselves last season such as Ante Tomic and Bojan Bogdanovic. Both players showed this year that they were able to be productive in the Euroleague and that they can also help the national team. Croatia don’t have big NBA stars but they can count on a lot of players who assume important roles in both Euroleague or EuroCup teams.

Roko-Leni Ukic came back from the NBA and has proved with Fenerbahçe Istanbul that he was able to drive a Euroleague powerhouse. Marko Banic has become one of the best players at his post in the Liga ACB with Bilbao while Zoran Planinic helped CSKA Moscow to reach the Euroleague Final Four in Paris.

Marko Tomas is expected to be the offensive leader of team. He is also a decisive player able to score winning shots as he did against Spain at EuroBasket in 2007. With Roko-Leni Ukic, Zoran Planinic and Marko Popovic, Coach Vrankovic will have plenty of options at the point guard position. He will also count on a very powerful, talented and young frontcourt with Ante Tomic and Marko Banic. But Croatia will not benefit of the experience of Nikola Vujcic, Nikola Prkacin, Sandro Nicevic and Mario Kasun, who have not been included in the selection.

Croatia will have to be ready as they will play their opening game against the United States, the reigning Olympic champions. They will also have the opportunity to take their revenge against Slovenia, who eliminated them in the quarter-finals at last year’s EuroBasket in Poland. Brazil will also provide tough opposition, and no mistakes will be allowed against Tunisia and Iran if Croatia want to qualify for the eighth-finals.