Aleksandar Džikić

Aleksandar Džikić
Budućnost Podgorica
Position Head coach
League ABA League
Montenegrin League
EuroLeague
Personal information
Born (1971-03-23) 23 March 1971
Belgrade, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia
Nationality Serbian
Coaching career 1994–present
Career history
As coach:
1994–1997 Beovuk (assistant)
1997–1999 Beovuk
1999–2005 Partizan (assistant)
2005–2007 Minnesota Timberwolves (assistant)
2008 Olimpija Ljubljana
2009–2011 Krka
2011–2012 Lietuvos rytas
2013–2015 Krka
2014–2015 Macedonia
2016–2017 Partizan
2017–present Budućnost
Career highlights and awards

As head coach:

Aleksandar Džikić (Serbian: Александар Џикић; born 23 March 1971) is Serbian professional basketball coach. He is currently the head coach of Budućnost Podgorica.

Coaching career

Early career

He began his coaching career in 1991 leading the Partizan's youth squad, before being promoted to second assistant for the Partizan full squad. In 1994, he was named lead assistant coach for Beovuk before advancing to become the club's head coach for two seasons (1997–98 and 1999).

Assistant at KK Partizan

In 1999, Džikić was named assistant coach at KK Partizan, assisting head coach Nenad Trajković. Darko Russo took over the head coaching post in summer 2000 while Džikić remained the assistant. In summer 2001 Duško Vujošević returned as the head coach of Partizan, and Džikić once again continued in his assistant role, helping the team to four consecutive Serbia and Montenegro league titles from 2002 to 2005.[1]

While working at Partizan under Vujošević, Džikić got his first taste of the NBA through Summer League coaching stints with San Antonio Spurs in 2003, Seattle SuperSonics in 2004, and Minnesota Timberwolves in 2005.

Minnesota Timberwolves assistant coach

After completing his 2005 Summer League coaching stint with the club at Target Center, in August 2005, Džikić accepted Minnesota Timberwolves' offer of an assistant coaching position on their staff under recently-arrived head coach Dwane Casey.[2] Thirty-four-year-old Džikić thus became the very first NBA assistant coach with no prior coaching experience in the United States at either the collegiate or professional level. Additionally, he became just the second European native to be hired as an NBA assistant coach, after Igor Kokoškov who got on the Los Angeles Clippers coaching staff in an assistant role in 2000.

Casey got fired by the Timberwolves in January 2007 and replaced with Randy Wittman, one of his assistants. As a result of Casey's firing, Džikić got let go from his assistant coaching role though he stayed with the organization in scouting capacity until the end of the season.

In late 2007, Džikić went back to Europe.

Union Olimpija

On 7 January 2008, after spending two and half years in the United States, Džikić became head coach of Slovenian team KK Union Olimpija.[3]

Olimpija Union dismissed him in December 2008, after bad results in Adriatic League and EuroLeague and was replaced by Jure Zdovc.[4]

Krka

On 15 July 2009, he became head coach of KK Krka in Slovenia.[5][6]

In his first season, Krka did not compete in Adriatic League thus fully focusing on the domestic league in Slovenia from the start of the season. Džikić led the club to the Premier A Slovenian League title, the club's third in history, beating his old club Olimpija 3–2 in the playoff final series.[7]

In the following 2010–11 season, he added to his success with Krka. Following the 17–9 regular season, they made the Adriatic League final four in Ljubljana where they lost to old rivals Olimpija. Some ten days later Krka won the 2010–11 FIBA EuroChallenge, defeating PBC Lokomotiv-Kuban in the final. Finally, they repeated as champions of Slovenian Basketball League.[8] Soon after the successful seasons with Krka, richer European clubs, like BC Khimki, expressed interest in his services. He returned to Krka in June 2013.

Lietuvos rytas

In July 2011 Džikić was named the head coach of Lithuanian team BC Lietuvos rytas.[9] In his first season at the club, the team came runners-up in the domestic league, losing the playoff final 0-3 to Žalgiris. The club recorded significant success on the European stage - following the heartbreak of missing out on EuroLeague due to losing versus Galatasaray at the last stage of qualifying tournament, the team responded by making the Eurocup final-four where they lost the semi-final to Valencia before winning the third place match over Spartak Saint Petersburg. Lietuvos rytas also took part in two regional competitions: VTB United League where they made the final-four, losing the semi-final to powerhouse CSKA Moscow and also the Baltic Basketball League, which they joined at the playoff stage and made the final that they lost to Žalgiris.

On 12 October 2012, he parted ways with the team.

Return to Krka

In 2013, Džikić returned to be a head coach of the Slovenian team Krka. In June 2015, he left Krka.[10]

Partizan Belgrade

On January 5, 2016, he was named a head coach of the Serbian team Partizan Belgrade, following the departure of Petar Božić.[11] On June 13, 2017, he parted ways with Partizan.[12]

Budućnost

On June 22, 2017, Džikić was named as the head coach of Budućnost Podgorica.[13] In February 2018, Budućnost won its 5th consecutive and 11th in total Montenegrin Basketball Cup, after beating KK Mornar Bar with 87–83 in the final game.[14] In the ABA League, he led them to second place of the regular season with 17–5 score. In the semifinal series of ABA League, it eliminated the Croatian team Cedevita with 2–1 score.[15] In April 2018, Budućnost with 3–1 score won in the final series of the ABA League against the reigning champions Crvena zvezda.[16] Thus, they were crowned champions of the ABA League for the first time in history and also secured a spot in 2018–19 EuroLeague, that would become its first appearance in the elite European competition after 16 seasons.[16]

On July 31, 2018, Džikić re-signed with Budućnost for two more seasons.[17]

National team coaching

Serbia under-20

On 4 May 2011, Džikić got named the head coach of Serbian under-20 national team, in parallel with his club coaching duties at Krka.[18]

In July 2011, he led the team at the 16-squad 2011 European under-20 Championship in Bilbao, Spain where they got eliminated at the group stage after recording a win versus Russia in the opening game, which was followed by two blowout losses, to Montenegro and Slovenia. This sent the team to the 13th to 16th place classification round with Lithuania, Croatia and Austria with knowledge that bottom two teams would be relegated to European under-20 B division. Džikić's team finally got their act together, recording six assured wins to stay in the A division.

The following summer Džikić led the team at the 2012 European under-20 Championship in Slovenia.

Macedonia national basketball team

On 31 December 2013 Džikić got named head coach of the Macedonia national basketball team, succeeding Aleš Pipan in the job.[19]

Coaching record

Legend
G Games coached W Games won L Games lost W–L % Win-loss %

Note: The EuroLeague is not the only competition in which the team played during the season. He also coached in domestic competition, and regional competition if applicable.

EuroLeague

Team Year G W L W–L% Result
Union Olimpija 2007–08 14410.286Eliminated in regular season
Union Olimpija 2008–09 1028.200Eliminated in regular season
Lietuvos rytas 2012–13 1028.200Eliminated in regular season
Career34826.235

See also

References

  1. ↑ - Aleksandar Džikić
  2. ↑ "- Aleksandar Dzikic new assistant coach in Minnesota Timbervolves". Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2011.
  3. ↑ - Aleksandar Dzikic New Olimpija Coach
  4. ↑ - Olimpija Dismiss Head Coach Aleksandar Dzikic
  5. ↑ - Aleksandar Dzikic new head coach of Krka
  6. ↑ - Aleksandar Džikić
  7. ↑ - KRKA NOVA WINS SLOVENIAN CHAMPIONSHIP
  8. ↑ - KRKA OSVOJILA POKAL EUROCHALLENGE (in Slovene)
  9. ↑ Aleksandar Džikić tudi uradno na klopi Rytasa Archived 14 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine. (in Slovene)
  10. ↑ "Džikić napustio Krku". mondo.rs (in Serbian). 22 June 2015. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  11. ↑ "KK Partizan: Božić otišao, Džikić novi trener". novosti.rs (in Serbian). 5 January 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  12. ↑ "Džile, hvala i srećno!". kkpartizan.rs (in Serbian). 13 June 2017. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  13. ↑ "Budućnost appoint Džikić as new head coach and sign Nikolić". aba-liga.com. 22 June 2017. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  14. ↑ Janičić, Svetozar (17 February 2018). "Kup Crne Gore: Budućnost dobila triler protiv Mornara". sportklub.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  15. ↑ Jovanović, Nenad (1 April 2018). "Fantastično slavlje ekipe Aleksandra Džikića" (in Serbian). Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  16. 1 2 Pavlović, A. (14 April 2018). "Budućnost osvojila ABA ligu". danas.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  17. ↑ Zarić, Milan (31 July 2018). "PODGORIČANI NE MENJAJU TRENERA Džikić na klupi Budućnosti još dve godine". blic.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  18. ↑ - Džikić preuzima mladu selekciju(Serbian)
  19. ↑ Džikić: Cilj je plasman Makedonije na Evropsko prvenstvo;Blic, 31 December 2013
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.