Croatia has ruled out three key players for the FIBA EuroBasket (September 1-18), trimming its roster to 16 players.
These players are Ante Zizic, Krunoslav Simon and Dragan Bender. Simon and Bender will skip the tournament, as they are still injured. For his part, Zizic doesn’t fit to coach Damir Mulaomerovic’s tactics and has been ruled out for the EuroBasket.
“Zizic is a great player and a great guy, but he and Zubac have the same player profile. It is my decision to give preference to Zubac at this moment.
We will have three different profiles of players in the ‘5’ position; there is also Matkovic, who is the future of our national team, regardless of whether I am the coach or someone else.
And, of course, there is Dario Saric at 5, where we can attack in different ways, but also defend,” Mulaomerovic told media on Tuesday.
The 16 players that are part of Croatia’s preliminary roster are as follows:
Bojan Bogdanovic (Utah Jazz), Mateo Dreznjak (SC Derby), Goran Filipovic (Cedevita Olimpija), Lovro Gnjidic (Cedevita Olimpija), Mario Hezonja (Real Madrid), Pavle Marcinkovic (Zadar), Karlo Matkovic (Cedevita Olimpija), Dominik Mavra (Zadar), Toni Nakic (Rio Breogan), Toni Perkovic (Split), Roko Prkacin (Girona), Ivan Ramljak (Slask Wroclaw), Roko Rogic (Acqua S.Bernardo Cantu), Dario Saric (Phoenix Suns), Jaleen Smith (Alba Berlin), Ivica Zubac (Los Angeles Clippers).
Croatia will travel to Milano in late August and will take on hosts Italy, Greece, Estonia, Great Britain and Ukraine in Group C.
🎥📸 Izbornik Mulaomerović je na press konferenciji otkrio imena 16 reprezentativaca koji će se pripremati za @EuroBasket.
Pripreme kreću sutra, sretno dečkima i stručnom stožeru! 🤜🤛👊🤞#EuroBasket #BringTheNoise #CroatiaFullOfLife #iznadsvihHrvatska pic.twitter.com/A9Ln67oiAU
— HKS_CBF 🇭🇷🏀 (@CbfHks) August 2, 2022
