Aco Petrovic – new head coach of Zalgiris 0

Aco Petrovic will lead Zalgiris Kaunas next season in a head coach position. Petrovic, 51, signed a one-year deal with an option for the 2011-12 season.

He started last season at Crvena Zvezda in his native Serbia, but left the post early in the season. Petrovic is also an assistant for the Serbian national team and has helped it win the gold medal at the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, USA, and a silver medal at EuroBasket 2009 in Poland.

He started his coaching career as an assistant at Crvena Zvezda and has been the head coach of multiple teams in Serbia and Russia. Petrovic won a Russian Cup with Unics Kazan, which he also guided Kazan to the 2008 ULEB Cup Final Eight. He has previously coached Lokomotiv Rostov in Russia and Hemofarm and FMP in Serbia, leading the latter to the ULEB Cup quarterfinals in 2004.

Zalgiris will be his first Euroleague post. Petrovic has already toured the Zalgiris practice facilities and begun to work for the 2010-11 season.

“I am very happy that Zalgiris has shown confidence in me as a coach,” Petrovic said. “Now I must learn more about the team, make an assessment and take appropriate action. I know that Kaunas has for many years played at the highest level of basketball. I know that the teams and fans in general are all people interested in basketball, so I am very happy to be the coach of Zalgiris.”