Ivica Skelin (born 19 September 1973) is a Croatian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach who is the current head coach for

Telenet Giants Antwerp Antwerp Giants, named Telenet Giants Antwerp for sponsorship reasons, are a Belgians, Belgian professional basketball club based in Antwerp. Their home arena is Lotto Arena. The club plays in the BNXT League, the highest tier of Belgian basketbal ...

of the

BNXT League The BNXT League, for sponsorship reasons the betFirst BNXT League, is a professional basketball league in Belgium and the Netherlands. The league is the first tier in both the Dutch and Belgian system, replacing the Dutch Basketball League, DBL a ...

Coaching career

Early years

Skelin started his club coaching career with Verviers-Pepinster in Belgium as an assistant coach in 2001, at which position he served until 2004, after that he coached youth teams for the Belgian club. In 2005 Skelin was named the head coach of

KK Split Košarkaški klub Split ( en, Split Basketball Club), commonly referred to as KK Split or simply Split, is a men's professional basketball club based in Split, Croatia. The club competes in the ABA League and the Croatian League. History The c ...

. He coached the team one year, after that he went back to Verviers-Pepinster, this time as head coach serving for two seasons. From 2008 to 2010 he was the head coach of the

Leuven Bears Leuven Bears, for sponsorship reasons also called Stella Artois Leuven Bears, is a Belgian professional basketball club from Leuven. The club competes in the BNXT League, the highest tier in Belgian basketball. History The team has played in the ...

. In 2010 he returned to Verviers-Pepinster once again for one season as head coach.

Netherlands

After being named as an assistant coach with the Belgian club Spirou in the 2010–11 season Skelin became the head coach for the Dutch club

GasTerra Flames GasTerra is a Dutch partially state-owned company that is active in the worldwide trade and supply of natural gas. It is owned by Royal Dutch Shell (25%), ExxonMobil (25%) and the Dutch government (50%). Its history dates back to 2005, when the com ...

of the

Dutch Basketball League The Dutch Basketball League (DBL), formerly the Eredivisie, was the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands, run by the Federatie Eredivisie Basketball (FEB). Since 2021, the league has been replaced by the Belgian-Dutch BNXT Le ...

(DBL) in December 2012. Skelin was signed as a replacement for coach Hakim Salem, fired due to disappointing results. After the season he signed an extension for two more years with the club. In the 2013–14 season, Skelin won the ''double'', both the DBL and

NBB Cup The Basketball Cup, formerly the NBB Cup ( nl, NBB-Beker), is an annual cup competition for Dutch basketball teams organised by the Basketball Nederland. Every team in the Netherlands can participate by signing up for the preliminary rounds. Profes ...

, with the Flames.

Split

Skelin signed as head coach of his hometown club Split once again, in November 2015. On 29 May 2018 his contract expired and he left the club and was replaced by new coach

Vladimir Anzulović Vladimir Anzulović (born 6 February 1978) is a Croatian professional basketball coach and former player currently serving as head coach for Dinamo of the Croatian League. Playing career Anzulović played pro basketball as a point guard from ...

Return to the Netherlands

On 4 September 2018 Skelin returned to the Netherlands by signing a one-year contract with the

New Heroes Den Bosch Heroes Den Bosch is a Dutch professional basketball club based in 's-Hertogenbosch. The club plays in the BNXT League since 2021 and in the top basketball division in the Netherlands since 1972. Founded as EBBC in 1951, the club had several spons ...

. Under him, the Heroes finished third in the regular season and were eliminated in the semifinals by the later champions Landstede. His contract was not renewed after the season.

Return to Split

On 8 December 2019 following the departure of

Ante Grgurević Ante Grgurević (born August 13, 1975) is a Croatian professional basketball coach and former player. Standing at 2.00 m (6 ft in) he played the power forward, and also the small forward and center positions if needed. Coaching career Spli ...

, Skelin was appointed as the head coach of Split for the third time in his coaching career. Under his leadership the club managed to secure its place in the

2020–21 ABA League First Division The 2020–21 ABA League First Division was the 20th season of the ABA League with 14 teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia participating in it. The season has started on 2 October 2020. The season is the fir ...

and win the second place of the 2021 Croatian National Cup. On 17 February 2021 following a 70–79 loss to

Zadar Zadar ( , ; historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian: ); see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited Croatian city. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar serv ...

in the national cup final, Skelin was fired from Split.

Poland

On June 9, 2021, he has signed with

Twarde Pierniki Toruń Twarde Pierniki Toruń is a Polish professional basketball team based in Toruń. The team currently plays in the Polish Basketball League (PLK). The club has won Polish Basketball Cup, Polish Cup and Polish Basketball Supercup, Polish Supercup titl ...

of the

Polish Basketball League Polska Liga Koszykówki (PLK) (English language, English: Polish Basketball League) is a professional men's club basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Poland. It constitutes the first and highest-tier level of the Polish basketball leag ...

Antwerp Giants

On May 10, 2022, Skelin signed a 2-year contract with

of the

Coaching record

Dutch Basketball League

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2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

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National team coaching

Croatia

From 2011 to 2014 and again from 2016 to 2017 Skelin served as an assistant coach of the senior Croatia men's national team under head coaches

Josip Vranković Josip-Jerko "Joke" Vranković (born October 26, 1968) is a Croatian professional basketball executive, coach and former player. He currently works in the Strught Assembly of the Croatian Basketball Federation The Croatian Basketball Federation ...

Jasmin Repeša Jasmin Repeša (born 1 June 1961) is a Bosnian-born Croatian professional basketball coach and former player whose last coached team was Fortitudo Bologna of the Italian Serie A. Repeša has won numerous pro club competitions during his head coa ...

and Aleksandar Petrović. On 15 September 2017 following unsuccessful

EuroBasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the E ...

tournament and departure of Aleksandar Petrović, Skelin was named the head coach of the Croatia national team. He was sacked by the

Croatian Basketball Federation The Croatian Basketball Federation ( hr, Hrvatski košarkaški savez) is a non-profit organization and the national sports governing body of basketball in Croatia. It was founded on 19 December 1948 as a member of the larger Basketball Federati ...

on 8 March 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skelin, Ivica 1973 births Living people Croatian basketball coaches Basketball players from Split, Croatia Donar (basketball club) coaches Dutch Basketball League coaches KK Split coaches Leuven Bears coaches RBC Verviers-Pepinster coaches