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Germany coach Frank Menz has returned to his role of coaching the under-20s following the German Basketball Federation’s decision to end his spell as senior men’s coach.
In a statement on their official website, the DBB added that there is currently no decision on who is going to replace Menz as head coach of the men’s squad.
With Menz at the helm, Germany did not progress past the first round at Eurobasket last summer in Slovenia, despite beating eventual champions France in their first game. The Germans lost to Belgium, Great Britain and Ukraine before beating Israel in their last game.
“We had said after Eurobasket 2013 that ahead of the summer we would analyse thoroughly the situation of the senior men’s national team,” said DBB president Ingo Weiss.
“This is exactly what has happened at various levels and following a number of discussions and considerations, we decided that we want to go with another coach for the men’s national team in the coming years.
“We wanted to make this decision with calm and not under pressure immediately after the end of the EuroBasket,” Weiss clarified with regards to the timing of the announcement.
“Frank Menz is indisputably a great coach who celebrated success with the U20 national team but, in our opinion, was not as good a fit as we had imagined for the senior team.”
As it turned out following our conversations with the DBB, we had different views on the direction and goals of the senior national team,” Menz commented.
“For this reason, I will not coach the team in the EuroBasket qualifiers this summer.
“I will focus instead on educating and training our young players and introducing them to the professional sector.
“I see this as a major task which gives me the opportunity to create players for German basketball in the long term and create the conditions for the nation to stay competitive at the highest level internationally.”
Germany will begin preparation for the Eurobasket 2015 Qualifying Round on August 10 where they are drawn in Group C and will play Poland, Austria and Luxembourg.
