Having drawn heaps of praise after a pair of successive wins in Europe’s premier club competition, including a comeback 79-76 victory over Zvezda in the previous round, Ocokoljic was brought crashing down to earth amid speculation whether he will stay in charge until the end of the season or make way for one of the big names linked with Partizan in recent weeks.

Some of the anomalies which his predecessor Obradovic had complained about seemed to have resurfaced in the tame defeat by Virtus, as players lacked guile and effort while Jabari Parker, the subject of criticism since his summer move from FC Barcelona, failed to get any minutes – and not for the first time this season.

“Our approach was poor and last night I warned the players that they needed to forget the fact that we’d won four on the trot in all competitions,” Ocokoljic told reporters at the post-game press conference.

“We seemed to switch off after taking a 37-30 lead and Virtus needed no second invitation to turn the matchup on its head. We made too many mistakes in the second half and Virtus duly took advantage. Leaving Parker out was entirely my decision after watching him in practice yesterday, while Tyrique Jones was hampered by injury and it’s unlikely he will be joining us in Kaunas (against Zalgiris) on Friday.”

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