The Lithuanian basketball federation has named Dainius Adomaitis as the new head coach of the national team, replacing Rimas Kurtinaitis, who resigned earlier this month. Adomaitis, a former player for BCM Gravelines, previously coached Lithuania from 2016 to 2019. The federation's executive committee approved his appointment on September 30, even though the election of a new president was set for October 14. General secretary Dominykas Domarkas had gathered four candidates for the presidency, and all of them agreed to propose Adomaitis for the role. He accepted the nomination and was subsequently approved by the committee. Lithuania is currently fourth in Group J of the 2027 World Cup qualifiers, with four wins and four losses. The top three teams in the group will qualify for the tournament. Turkey leads the group with an 8-0 record, followed by Serbia (6-2) and Italy (5-3). Lithuania's upcoming matches include a home game against Serbia on November 26 and a road game against Bosnia and Herzegovina on November 29. Rimas Kurtinaitis, who had been in the role since October 2024, stepped down after the August international window, during which the team played without any NBA players and with only two Euroleague players, Azuolas Tubelis and Marek Blazevic. He said he wanted to give the future coaching staff time to prepare for the next stage of the qualifiers. Adomaitis has been studying the methods used by FC Barcelona. In November 2021, he attended a ten-day training session in Catalonia with Sarunas Jasikevicius, who was then the coach of Barça and a longtime friend. He observed training sessions, staff meetings, and three matches at the Palau Blaugrana, including two Euroleague victories and a first-loss-of-the-season match in the Spanish league. He also watched matches of children aged 11 and 12 to compare Spanish and Lithuanian training methods. According to the Lithuanian site 15min, he noted differences in shooting points, match structure with eight periods of six minutes without stoppage, and a score reset to zero after each period. Adomaitis observed that children in Spain made decisions more quickly and received varied instructions from coaches, such as attacking the basket after three passes or making an obligatory cut. He noted that Spanish children practiced gestures that they perform more effectively as they grow, since nothing becomes new for them later. Adomaitis is known in France for his time at BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque in the mid-2000s, where he was a bronze medalist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He was named head coach for the first time in late October 2016 while coaching Neptunas Klaipeda and later took on the role with Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius, where he succeeded Rimas Kurtinaitis in 2018. His first tenure ended in disappointment, as Lithuania's loss to France in the 2019 World Cup cost the team a chance to reach the quarterfinals and qualify for the Olympics. Adomaitis resigned shortly after, contesting the lack of video review on a play by Rudy Gobert after a free throw by Jonas Valanciunas, a mistake later acknowledged by FIBA. After a short stint with Hapoel Jerusalem in 2021, he coached Alvark Tokyo in Japan's first division for the last four seasons.