Bahrain sign Lithuanian Lukosius as new national basketball team head coach

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Lithuanian tactician Mindaugas Lukosius has been signed to take over as head coach of Bahrain’s senior men’s national basketball team. This was announced last night by the Bahrain Basketball Association (BBA). The 63-year-old arrived in Bahrain yesterday and was received by BBA officials. Lukosius replaces American coach Sam Vincent, who was previously at the helm of the Bahrain squad but left his role on mutual consent in early March.

Lukosius has many years of coaching experience, including a few in the Arab world and GCC. His first task as Bahrain’s head coach is leading the nationals in their final games of the first round of qualifying for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. They will be held in the first week of July in Syria and Kazakhstan. The Bahrainis have so far lost all four of their games in this stage of World Cup qualification, falling twice to Iran before also losing to the Syrians and Kazakhs.

After the World Cup qualifiers, Bahrain will be competing in the FIBA Asia Cup 2022, taking place later in the same month in Indonesia. The Kingdom’s senior men’s national team are in Group B for the competition’s preliminary round along with continental powerhouses China, South Korea and Chinese-Taipei. There are 16 countries in all participating in this year’s FIBA Asia Cup, which was postponed from its original slot last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The other groups in the preliminary round feature Saudi Arabia, Jordan, defending champions Australia and hosts Indonesia in Group A; Iran, Japan, Kazakhstsan and Syria in Group C; and India, Lebanon, the Philippines and New Zealand in Group D. This year’s event will mark the 30th edition of the continent’s leading basketball championship. Bahrain have appeared in the Cup, originally known as the Asian Basketball Championship, eight times in the past.