Tau and Ivanovic together again

Dusko Ivanovic

17-06-2008 17:17

A club and coach who made each other's Euroleague reputations at the start of this decade are back together for the end of it with the announcement Tuesday that Dusko Ivanovic is returning to Tau Ceramica on a three-year contract. Ivanovic replaces Neven Spahija, who was released despite winning the Spanish League title and reaching the Final Four in his only season with Tau. Ivanovic returns to Vitoria from another Spanish team, F.C. Barcelona, where he spent two-and-a-half seasons before being released in February. He had previously headed Tau's bench from 2000 to 2005 and enjoyed a string of successes that included two single-game chances to win the Euroleague title, in 2001 and 2005.

Ivanovic had won three consecutive crowns in Switzerland and one in France during his four seasons as a head coach before he landed with Tau in 2000. His impact in Vitoria was immediate, too, as he marched Tau into the Euroleague playoff finals, a one-time only five-game series against Kinder Bologna. Although Tau won the first game in Bologna, it could not repeat that feat in winner-take-all Game 5, so finished as runner-up. The next season, 2001-02, Ivanovic led Tau to its first-ever Spanish League title and doubled up with the club's second Spanish King's Cup trophy. They won another King's Cup together in 2004, and the following season made history with Tau's first-ever Final Four appearance, in Moscow. Tau upset host CSKA Moscow in the semifinals, but fell to defending champion Maccabi Tel Aviv in the title game for another second-place finish.

Ivanovic returned to the Final Four as Barcelona's head coach the following year, but did not make it to the final. The next season, Ivanovic and Barcelona won the King's Cup, but lost the Spanish League playoff finals. An early exit from last season's King's Cup saw Ivanovic released by Barcelona soon after, just hours before the team's first Top 16 game.

Ivanovic gained fame before coaching as a team captain and two-time Euroleague champion on the famed Jugoplastika Split team that won three consectuve titles between 1989 and 1991.

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