By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Lithuania hopes that the glorious past of coach Jonas Kazlauskas in the country’s national team can be repeated. As it was officially announced by the Lithuanian basketball federation the former coach of CSKA Moscow will sit on the bench of “Lietuva” for the next four years and will guide again the team, like he did between 1997 and 2001. At Sydney’s Olympics in 2000 Lithuanian under Kazlauskas won the bronze medal and missed by a shot – missed by Sarunas Jasikevicius – the chance to knock out team USA at the semifinal.
Kazlauskas during last summer was also a target of Russian club Unics Kazan after leaving CSKA Moscow, but he decided to refuse their offer. As it turned out, it was for the best. Kazlauskas is considered the ideal replacement for Kestutis Kemzura by the Lithuanian basketball federation. Khimki’s coach Rimas Kurtinaitis was also a candidate for the job, but his relationship with the federation is rocky the last years.
The first goal of Kazlauskas is, of course, a good result in the upcoming Eurobasket 2013. The draw of the competition will take place later this year, but FIBA Europe already announced the six seeding pots of the 24 participating teams.