She was aiming for at least a place in the semi-finals of the competition. Lithuania didn’t even finish among the top eight European teams. Eliminated in the round of 16 against Spain, after extra time, the Baltic nation ended far from its ambitions.
Despite this failure, coach Kazys Maksvytis is not in the hot seat. ” It should be understood that the team was playing with Kazys for the first time. We saw his way of doing things, his level as a coach, how the team feels. Especially since we don’t have many coaches. Throughout the championship, we constantly spoke with Maksvytis, we told him that we trusted him“, reports to BasketNews the secretary of the Lithuanian federation, Mindaugas Balciunas.
Winner of numerous gold medals in the youth categories (Euro U16, U18 and U19, and U20 world championship), Kazys Maksvytis has another mitigating circumstance to highlight: his team played in this terrible group B, which did not not facilitate their entry into the matter.
No foreign coach in this basketball country
Rather than concede these three short defeats to start against Slovenia (85-92), France (73-77) and Germany (107-109), Lithuania could very well have experienced the reverse start.
She then knew how to react by easily dismissing Hungary (87-64) and Bosnia (87-70) to qualify. Finally his elimination against Spain (94-102) was played on details and some possessions. With each time, prohibitive difficulties to conclude a match which turned in their favor.
” In view of the results, we posted a good basketball. We’ve only lost to the top five teams, and we’ve been ahead for most games. “Recalls Mindaugas Balciunas, who says he exchanged with his coach after the eighth. “We told him he shouldn’t even think about leaving. He is trusted, the national team is quite young and it is shown that a team achieves its best results in three years. “.
Kazys Maksvytis, who has probably not optimized the use of his Jonas Valanciunas – Domantas Sabonis tandem, should thus remain in place at least until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“ Unless there is a huge division internally. But the players feel good with him, he is able to bring the team together “, ends the head of the federation, according to whom the idea of recruiting a foreign coach would be ” a surrender to the whole history of Lithuanian basketball “.
