Slovenia sets sights on ‘tough’ Olympic qualification

Slovenia coach Aleksander Sekulic. -MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — After matching its best finish in the Fiba World Cup at seventh place on Saturday, Slovenia is determined to book a ticket to the 2024 Paris Games through the Olympic qualifying tournament next year.

Slovenia duplicated its feat in the 2014 World Cup after surviving Italy, 89-85, behind Luka Doncic’s 29 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists at Mall of Asia Arena.

The Slovenians failed to reach the semis and missed their chance for an outright Olympic berth when they lost to Canada in the quarterfinal last Wednesday while World Cup finalists Germany and Serbia emerged as the two best teams from Europe.

Veteran swingman Zoran Dragic admitted the qualifying tournament will be a tougher road for Slovenia to reach the Olympics but added the team will be ready for the challenge.

“For sure, we want to qualify for the Olympics but like coach said it’s gonna be a tough task because Spain and Greece, they didn’t come to the top eight and for sure we’re gonna get one good opponent. But at end of the day, you need to win one to go to the Olympics,” Dragic said. “For sure it will be great if we have this tournament at home, it will be even better. But you know, we still [have] time.”

Slovenia during a Fiba World Cup classification game against Italy. -MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

Slovenia, led by Doncic, had a Cinderella run at the Tokyo Games two years ago when they made the semifinal in their first-ever appearance and finished fourth overall after losing to France in the semis and yielding to Australia in the battle for bronze.

Slovenia coach Aleksander Sekulic admitted expectations were higher for their team this World Cup but he was still proud of his team for placing seventh.

“They played together. Despite all the problems that we had before the camp for the world championship, during the camp, and during the world championship, especially with injuries and we never complained, players never complained. We were always looking for solutions,” Sekulic said. “Hands down to the players who came to this world championship and showed their courage and their determination to play high-level basketball against amazing teams we played in this tournament.”

“It was very important for us to finish [with a] win this World Cup. Obviously, seventh place but we want more. But this is life sometimes you have luck but sometimes no. We are happy that we finished with a win. For that small country only two million people, I think it’s a great result,” Dragic said.