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This EuroLeague season isn’t even over yet and it’s already successful for Zalgiris. In what way? The explanation is simple: sixth in the regular season (18-12), qualification without the home court advantage against Olympiacos in the playoffs (1-3) and a return to the Final Four for the first time – second overall – since 1999, when they won the trophy.
In his third season in the competition as a coach – all of them with the Lithuanian team – Sarunas Jasikevicius could only be satisfied as a coach and the best among all, as voted almost unanimously by Eurohoops‘ editorial team across all of its editions: Greek, English, Turkish, Spanish, Russian and German.
The 42-year-old Lithuanian coach won in a landslide with 93.3% of votes and left 3.3% for Real Madrid‘s Pablo Laso and the same figure for Baskonia‘s Pedro Martinez.
SARUNAS JASIKEVICIUS
Zalgiris | 05/03/1976 | Lithuania
His first season as head coach was a kind of reconnaissance (2-10) and it was a half one. His second was an imporvement (14-16), but incomplete. His third is highly successful (21-13) and is still going. Jasikevicius gets better every year as he now counts 47.8% in three seasons with Zalgiris and is getting ready for his first Final Four as head coach after six Final Fours with four trophies as a player (Barcelona 2003, Maccabi Tel Aviv 2004 & 2005, Panathinaikos 2009).
See how 30 Eurohoops writers voted:
