Friday Frappé: Will Pitino take Greece to the next level?

In this week’s edition of the Friday Frappé, AGONAsport’s Peter Katsiris discusses the announcement of Rick Pitino as the next head coach of the Greek national team and the impact this could have on the Ethniki next summer.

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Seemingly out of the blue the Hellenic Basketball Federation (EOK) has announced Rick Pitino as the next head coach of the Ethniki, just a few weeks after backing Thanasis Skourtopoulos through the qualifying campaign for EuroBasket 2021.

According to reports, Pitino has returned to Greece nearly a year after he made his debut on the Panathinaikos bench and just a few months after opting not to re-sign an extension with the Trifylli.

Having always given the impression during his time in Greece that he coaches because of his love for the game, Pitino has backed up those words by reportedly offering to not take a penny in order to coach the Ethniki.

Whether Pitino gets paid or not, there’s a separate issue for the EOK to resolve and that is the fact that the federation had recently backed Skourtopoulos to carry on as head coach of the Ethniki. While he was exposed during the most recent FIBA World Cup for his inability to unleash the talent of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Skourtopoulos did extremely well to guide Greece through a tricky European qualifying section essentially unscathed without the likes of key EuroLeague-based players at his disposal virtually the whole campaign.

Under the new alignment of the national team, Skourtopoulos will stay on as the head coach for qualifying tournaments though it does appear that it will be Pitino calling the shots when Greece attempt to qualify for next summer’s Olympics in Tokyo.

It might seem a strange system to have two different coaches in charge of the same team, but with the massive difference in squads that each coach will be allowed to work with it certainly doesn’t appear to be as awkward as it might sound.

It’s also not the first time that a national team will roll with different coaches for qualifying and major tournaments, most notably the United States have done this in recent years; including at the 2019 FIBA World Cup when Gregg Popovich took over for the final tournament after Jeff van Gundy had steered the team to China through qualifying.

Pitino’s incredible knowledge of the game had a tremendous impact on Panathinaikos last season in the EuroLeague, as the American’s back-to-basics approach helped the Athenians bounce-back after a turbulent start to their campaign under Xavi Pascual. While the club didn’t quite meet their goals of reaching the Final Four, the unexpected run into the playoffs after a dismal start in Europe certainly proved that Pitino still has the touch as the main man on the sidelines – something that certainly speaks to his legend as a coach on the college level in the United States.

It will be interesting to see how Pitino can game plan for the national team, especially if he can get Antetokounmpo and his brothers back in the Ethniki shirt next summer. While the veteran coach will likely need some time to tinker his strategy, once he gets into the hot seat, he won’t have a lot of time to get it right as Greece will need to do whatever it takes to land a spot next summer’s Olympics in Japan.

by Peter Katsiris

Image Source: to10.gr

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