FIBA officials made it official late yesterday: Jasmin Repesa, citing personal disappointment with his team’s performance in Eurobasket 2009, has resigned as Croatia national basketball team coach.
Though Croatian media had reported Repesa’s imminent dismissal/retirement from the post as early as two weeks ago and his contract ran out as of Croatia’s elimination from this year’s Eurobasket tourney, the coach definitively announced his stepping down yesterday.
“We won our first qualification for the [FIBA World Championship] since 1994 and for that we can all be proud,” said Repesa, “but for me what happened in Poland is the biggest disappointment in my career coaching. I expected much more than we achieved.”
Repesa also stated that the next coach of Team Croatia should work on “player behaviour, special services, training, and better monitoring of player health.”
Repesa first took over the reins of Team Croatia after Eurobasket 2005 and coached the team through two Eurobasket tournaments and the 2008 Olympic Games; Repesa went on to predict a top-three finish for the checkerboards in Eurobasket 2009, but to no avail.
December 15th has been set as an informal timeline by which to replace Repesa.
