Ainars Bagatskis has once again taken charge of the men's national basketball team.
Experienced Latvian specialist Ainars Bagatskis has become the new head coach of the Ukrainian men's basketball team.
This was reported by the Ukrainian Basketball Federation on its official website.
Bagatskis has already served as the head coach of the Ukrainian men's national team from May 2019 to March 2023.
Under his leadership, the “blue-yellows” managed to qualify for EuroBasket 2022, where the national team stopped at the 1/8 final stage, ultimately taking 11th place in the tournament.
In total, Ainars led the men's national team in 24 official matches, winning 13 and losing 11.
Bagatskis will replace Vitaliy Stepanovskyi, who was fired the day before, as the head coach of the national team.
Let us recall that under the leadership of Stepanovskiy, the Ukrainian basketball players suffered 4 defeats in 4 matches of the 2025 European Championship qualifiers: the “blue-yellows” lost to Slovenia (73:87) and Portugal (77:79), and also lost twice to Israel (73:86, 75:88).
After four rounds, the Ukrainians (0 wins) occupy the fourth and last place in the Group A table. Slovenia and Israel are in the lead, having won 3 victories each. Portugal is in third place (2 wins).
The Ukrainian national team will play the final matches of the EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers early next year against Slovenia (February 21) and Portugal (February 24). The three best teams from the group where the “blue-yellows” are playing will advance to the European Championship.
The Ukrainian national team still has a chance to qualify for the continental championship: to do this, our team needs to beat the Slovenians and the Portuguese in the last matches and hope that Israel will beat Portugal. In such a scenario, the Ukrainians will be able to get ahead of the Portuguese in the fight for third place.