The poor performance in the Baltic Basketball League (BBL) Final Four in Kaunas, where Lietuvos Rytas lost to VEF Riga in the semi-final and had a lot of trouble against Ventspils in the bronze-medal game, cost the team’s coach Aleskandar Trifunovic his job.
After an abysmal showing at the weekend, the 43-year-old Serbian specialist got the sack and will be replaced Darius Maskoliunas, who previously was Trifunovic’s assistant.
Lietuvos Rytas had a very unsuccessful stretch of games lately, losing not only to their biggest rivals Zalgiris, but also to smaller teams such as Rudupis in LKL and VEF in the BBL. If that wasn’t enough, the Lithuanian champions only barely escaped a defeat to Ventspils, winning by only four points.
Trifunovic had worked in Lietuvos Rytas before, but under his supervision the club won only one trophy despite playing fairly well throughout the Serb’s reign in 2006-2008 seasons.
The newly appointed coach Maskoliunas joined Lietuvos Rytas’ coaching staff in October, coming from KK Kaunas, against whom the 40-year-old Lithuanian coach will make his debut as Lietuvos Rytas’ head coach on Tuesday.
source : lithuaniabasketball.com
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This is no doubt a tough industry to be a part of. If the management is not satisfied with your performance, then this is what happens. But to Trifunovic' credit, the team has performed beyond what fans and critics had expected this season. They even came close to qualifying in the Playoffs by being part of a group with PAO and Caja Laboral, it was a seemingly insurmountable challenge that was waiting up ahead for them.
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