In less than 24 hours, Fenerbahce changed courses by substituting one renowned head coach with another.
Fenerbahce names Sarunas Jasikevicius head coach through 2026!
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Sarunas "Saras" Jasikevicius, the iconic former player whose star rose just as quickly as a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague head coach, will be the new man at the head of the bench for Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, the club announced on Thursday.
Jasikevicius, 47, replaces Dimitris Itoudis, who was let go on Wednesday after a year and a half with Fenerbahce. Jasikevicius and the club signed a contract through the end of the 2025-26 season.
A tumultuous 24 hours, ending a day before Fenerbahce hosts AS Monaco in Round 14 of the regular season, came as the team is tied for 11th place in the EuroLeague standings with a record of 6-7, including a pair double-round losses on the road in Spain last week. A domestic home loss to injury-riddled Anadolu Efes Istanbul over the weekend added to the impetus for change among the club's management.
"Everything happened very quick in the process of my arrival," said Jasikevicius in an interview with the club's official media channels. "Of course it's not easy, but at the end of the day we are here to do our job: to help Fenerbahce to win games and hopefully achieve great success. I'm definitely very excited to be here. There are so many familiar faces for me, so many familiar sights and places. I realize it's not an easy situation, so we will need everyone's support. But little by little, we will try to implement some new ideas. I am grateful for this opportunity and I am looking forward to this new chapter."
Saras has taken his playing success on the bench
Jasikevicius came off a legendary playing career, in which he was crowned a EuroLeague champion four times with three different teams, to quickly make his impact in the coaching ranks. He spent a season and a half as an assistant coach at his hometown club, Zalgiris Kaunas, before being elevated to the top position in the middle of the 2015-16 season and compiling a 2-10 record the rest of the way.
In its first full season under Saras, Zalgiris improved to 14-16, falling just short of the EuroLeague Playoffs. But in the next one, 2017-18, Jasikevicius and Zalgiris broke the bank. Not only did Zalgiris reach the playoffs for the first time in more than 15 years, it also upset Olympiacos Piraeus despite lacking home-court advantage and claimed the club's first Final Four qualification since it had been continental champion in 1999. Zalgiris lost to defending champion Fenerbahce in the semifinals but defeated CSKA Moscow for third place. The next season, Zalgiris returned to the playoffs but lost 4-1 to Fenerbahce. In the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season, Zalgiris was 12-16 and tied for ninth place when the competition stopped.
Challenging for titles with Barcelona
The 2020-21 season saw Jasikevicius return to FC Barcelona, the club with which he had won his first EuroLeague title as a player in 2003, and continue his success. Barca finished first in the EuroLeague Regular Season, defeated Zenit St Petersburg 3-2 in the playoffs, and returned to the Final Four for the first time in seven years. After beating EA7 Emporio Armani Milan on a buzzer-beater in the semifinals, Barca fell short in the championship game against Anadolu Efes Istanbul. The next year, Barca again finished first in the regular season and again won a five-game playoff, this time against FC Bayern Munich, but was beaten by archrival Real Madrid in the semifinals at the Final Four and settled for third place. Last season, after a second-place regular-season finish, Barca swept Zalgiris in the playoffs, but lost another semifinal to Real Madrid, the eventual champion, and finished fourth after losing the Third Place Game to AS Monaco. After the season, Barca and Jasikevicius parted ways.
All told Saras coached 140 games over parts of five seasons with Zalgiris for a 66-74 record and 118 more with Barcelona for an 82-36 record. His winning rate of 57.4%, based on a 148-110 overall record, ranks 10th among coaches with at least 100 EuroLeague games this century.
Second stop at Fenerbahce
As a player, Jasikevicius earned Euroleague Basketball Legend status for his winning ways throughout his career. He is the only player in competition history to lift the EuroLeague trophy with three different teams (Barcelona 2003, Maccabi Tel Aviv 2004 and 2005, Panathinaikos Athens 2009) and the last to lift the trophy in three consecutive seasons.
His pro career started with a season each at Lietuvos Rytas of Lithuania and Union Olimpija of Slovenia before he landed at Barcelona, with whom he won the EuroLeague title in the last of his three seasons there. His legend grew over the next two seasons as he guided Maccabi Tel Aviv as point guard to back-to-back titles and lifted the 2005 Final Four MVP trophy in the process. He landed next at Panathinaikos Athens and won the continental crown there in 2009, giving him four EuroLeague trophies in seven seasons.
Saras played short stints at both Rytas and Fenerbahce in the 2010-11 season before finishing his career with one-season stops again at Panathinaikos, Barcelona and, finally, his hometown club, Zalgiris.
Now back at Fenerbahce, Jasikevicius is due to debut on its bench this Friday against visiting Monaco.