The management of Lietuvos Rytas acted quickly and found a replacement to Drazen Anzulovic who was released on Friday. Lithuanian champions brought back their former head coach Aleksandar Trifunovic who has previously coached the club for one-and-a-half seasons through 2006-2008.
Trifunovic led Rytas to ULEB Cup final in 2007 and brought his club to Euroleague Top 16 the following season.43-year-old Serbian coach has coached three clubs in three different countries after leaving Rytas – Panionios, Spartak St. Petersburg and Red Star. Trifunovic was a free agent after leaving Red Star in summer.
In addition to a new head coach there were some more changes in the coaching of Lietuvos Rytas. Assistant coach Roberts Stelmahers was sent to another LKL club Perlas to take the head coach position. He finished last season in Perlas as a head coach too.
Stelmahers was replaced by Darius Maskoliunas, a former head coach of the fierce rivals Zalgiris. This was a rather controversial move since Maskoliunas coached Zalgiris in LKL finals against Rytas. Zalgiris’s owner Vladimir Romanov fired Maskoliunas during the finals series after accusing him of intentionally losing against Rytas. Although these accusations were never proved to be truth the addition of Maskoliunas to Rytas’s coaching staff might add some more controversy the next time that these two teams meet.
Maskoliunas started the season as a head coach of LKL side Kaunas.
The official goal of Lietuvos Rytas for this season is to reach the quarter-finals in Euroleague which would be the best achievement in the club’s history.
