By Giorgos Orfanakis / info@eurohoops.net
The beloved Saras has experienced everything in his career. He won the EuroLeague four times, he was the MVP of the Final Four (2005), he tried his luck in the NBA, he won dozens of titles but, above all, he was etched in people’s memory as one of the most fun-to-watch leaders in history.
Now, he continues to serve his favorite sport from a different post but with the same success.
As he draws near to two years as head coach on Zalgiris Kaunas’s bench, Jasikevicius has already celebrated some very important results and has become a reference point for the Lithuanian club.
Eurohoops singled out and presents here coach Saras’s greatest triumphs, the ones that prepare us for what will follow in the years to come!
Zalgiris Kaunas – Olympiacos 75-55
Just one week after he was hired as Zalgiris Kaunas’s head coach, Sarunas Jasikevicius celebrated a great win right off the bat and, in fact, against Olympiacos.
Zalgiris hosted the Red-and-Whites on 22 January 2016 for Round 4 of the Top 16 and got a triumphant 75-55 win! The truth is that a coach doesn’t have enough time to change a lot within a few days but just the presence of such a big personality on the bench gave the players the necessary psychological push.
The result caused a sensation and was essentially the first warning sign for everything that was going to follow in the coming months…
Crvena Zvezda – Zalgiris Kaunas 79-88
What does a team need in order to “escape” from Crvena Zvezda’s fort? Talent, the right plan, character and Sarunas Jasikevicius as head coach!
Zvezda played excellent basketball throughout the 2016/2017 season and lost the qualification for the playoffs in a tie with Darussafaka. Things might have turned out differently if on 2 December 2016 the Serbian club had managed to prevail against Zalgiris.
Saras’s players, however, had something to say about that and, thanks to their amazing defense in the last quarter (22-13), they got their first important away win (79-88) with the Lithuanian legend on their bench.
Anadolu Efes – Zalgiris Kaunas 71-84
Last season, Zalgiris Kaunas proved to be a tough nut to crack for every one of their opponents and Velimir Perasovic’s Anadolu Efes understood this first hand.
On 20 December 2016, Sarunas Jasikevicius and his players got a comfortable 84-71 win for Round 13. This result armed them with confidence for what was to come and filled them with hope that they will manage to be in the competition’s playoffs.
This wasn’t possible in the end but Saras wrote another important page in his book of successes as head coach.