Greece names Sotiris Manolopoulos as new head coach / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Peristeri BC Credit Peristeri BC

The new cycle of the Greek national team has begun. Up next are the 2023 World Cup qualifiers and the "blue and white" will immerse into the fight with a new coaching staff.Starting from next November's FIBA window, and the games against Great Britain on 25 November and Belarus three days later, Sotiris Manolopoulos takes over as head coach.

Currently on the bench of Peristeri BC, a team that failed to qualify for the Basketball Champions League group phase but is still competing in the FIBA Europe Cup and the Greek League, the 51-year-old tactician was selected by the Greek Basketball Federation over AEK Athens head coach, Stefanos Dedas.

Manolopoulos, who was the captain of Maroussi BC when the club from the northern suburbs of Athens won the Saporta Cup in 2001, has worn the coach's suit since 2004. He joined the Greek national team as a member of the staff under Ilias Zouros in 2011-12, but also under Rick Pitino last summer when Greece participated in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament held in Canada.He has also worked in Peristeri, Makedonikos, Aris, Maroussi, and Panathinaikos as an assistant and was also the Greens' head coach for a short period in 2014-15 when Dusko Ivanovic was fired.

He then joined the coaching staff of AEK Athens for two years before guiding Greek League debutants Ifestos Limnos between 2018 and 2020.

Manolopoulos's assistant coaches at the national team will be Savas Kamberidis (assistant coach at Lavrio BC), Isidoros Koutsos (assistant to Dimitris Priftis at Panathinaikos) and Kostas Papadopoulos (youth coach and assistant to Luis Casimiro at Promitheas Patras).

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