On Tuesday morning, Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana made official the departure of Jurica Golemac as head coach. The club confirmed that assistant coach Miro Alilovic will be sitting on the bench for the time being, which means he will make his 7DAYS EuroCup debut during the Round 16 road game at ratiopharm Ulm on Wednesday.
Golemac became head coach of Olimpija in January of 2020. Since then, he won the last two Slovenian League championships and the 2022 and 2023 Slovenian Cup. Last season, in the EuroCup, Golemac led the team to the quarterfinals, where it fell to eventual runner-up Frutti Extra Bursaspor. He had led the team to a 11-7 record after the regular season, good enough for a third place in Group B.
This season, Cedevita has had problems from the start and has already been eliminated from playoff contention. The team is currently ranked last in Group A with a 3-12 record following last week’s home loss to 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys. In the domestic ABA League, Cedevita is currently fourth with a 14-6 record.
"Bad games and results in the last period of this season indicated that things inside the team are unfortunately not working as they should,” Davor Uzbinec, Cedevita Olimpija’s director, said in a statement. “We would like to take this opportunity to thank Jurica for the effort, work and energy he invested in his work as head coach. We believe that he has a beautiful and successful coaching career ahead of him, and we certainly wish him the best of luck on his further sports and life journey. We are actively looking for a new head coach for our senior team, which will be led by Miro Alilovic until further notice."