The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : Bucan gets straight down to business

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Sunday, Jun 17, 2007
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Bucan gets straight down to business

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: The FIBA coach from Serbia, Aleksander Bucan, who arrived in India on Friday for a six month coaching stint, quickly got down to business and headed for Anantapur where the junior National basketball championship is in progress.

Bucan, 44, made a brief stopover at Bangalore and expressed his desire to see the young Indian players in action. "My trip to Anantapur, should give me an idea where basketball stands in this country and I have limited time on my hand right now to train the Indians in the game and I will do the best I can," said the coach.

Bucan described his mission as two-fold. "Firstly I wish to train the senior team in the national camp at SAI and later I will work with junior squad for the junior ABC championship which will be finalised after the meet in Anantapur." Bucan said that he was looking at the possibility of extending his contract for at least two years, if all goes well.

Immense potential

Bucan spoke about the immense potential for the game in the country. "I am sure it has a great scope in India and I understand cricket is your major game. If India can produce a player of NBA calibre, then it will fire the imagination of the public here," he said.

Though it might sound a bit far-fetched, the coach strongly believes that the country can certainly get to that level in four to five years time. "It is all about how you work with the team and how you tune up your system. The game has changed so much now. In Europe, no one sticks a to particular position and all players are all-rounders, excelling in all positions as pivot, player-maker and defender. I will be looking at the ways to bring about such an all round capability with Indian players," he added.

Bucan also stressed on the right basics as the key to building a good basketball player. "An ideal player should be tall, strong and clever, but do we get all that in one player? Not even in Europe we get that kind of combination. So let's look at areas, we are lacking and work on it," said Bucan.

The former unified nation of Yugoslovia was a major power in the world arena, before civil strife split the country in to four different States and also destroyed the sports fabric of the nation. "For five years from 1995 to 2000, we never had an international presence thanks to a blanket ban against Serbia and it was unfortunate that sports and politics got mixed there," rued Bucan.

Flight of talent

He also regretted the large flight of talented players to USA for the NBA and to other European nations for lucrative contacts. "The game had no money back home, but we are picking up threads and building a strong national team," said the Serbian coach.

Bucan will return to Bangalore after a short stay at Anantapur and begin his stint at SAI (South) centre here. Mr.K. Govindaraj, secretary of the Karnataka State Basketball Association, said that the State Association will utilise the services of Bucan in all possible manner and also request him do a clinic for State coaches.

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