The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : Alexsandar Bucan to coach Indian sides

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Friday, Jun 15, 2007
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Alexsandar Bucan to coach Indian sides

A. Joseph Antony

ANANTAPUR: Aleksandar Bucan will coach the Indian junior and senior teams while on deputation from FIBA, basketball's international governing body. He was expected to arrive in New Delhi late on Thursday night or in the early hours of Friday.

His first stop will be in Anantapur, where the junior National basketball championships are now under way. "He will at first coach the Indian boys' and girls' under-18 teams in preparation for the junior Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) championships to be held next year," P.J. Sunny, Chairman, Selection Committee, Basketball Federation of India (BFI) told The Hindu.

Credentials

As a player, Bucan turned out for Partizan, Radivoj Korac and Zemun basketball clubs in his native Belgrade. For almost a decade from 1993, he coached the Partizan squad as an assistant. His wards won medals in all categories in various events in Serbia and Montenegro and later made their way into national teams.

The club's senior squad made the final four Euro league in 1998 at Barcelona, by then Bucan becoming the Assistant Head Coach. Towards the end of his tenure, Partizan's youth team reached the first division of the Serbian league. As the Basketball Federation of Yugoslavia's Head Coach, the national team struck gold in the European Cadet championships in 2001.

When he was Assistant Coach of the Serbia and Montenegro senior side, the team won the Serbian Cup in 2004. Bucan also served in varied capacities with Napredak-Krusevac, Swisslion Takovo-Vrsac, Radnieki Zastava-Kragujevac and Pancevo basketball clubs.

FIBA Commissioner Norman Isaac said that Bucan's services were likely to be utilised for the senior teams as well.

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