Wolves Twinsbet have announced the hiring of Alessandro Magro from Italy as the Vilnius club’s new Head Coach. The 41-year-old basketball tactician signed a one-year contract with the option for a one-year extension.
Over the last three seasons, Magro coached the Germani Brescia team from Brescia, Lombardy (Italy). In 2023, he steered the team to its first trophy in the club’s history – the Italian Cup.
Prior to that, he was recognized as the best coach of the Italian basketball league (Serie A) during the 2021-2022 season. By the end of this year’s Serie A championship, Germani Brescia finished in third place under his leadership – just behind Italian basketball giants Virtus Bologna and Olimpia Milano EA7 Emporio Armani.
“We wanted an ambitious, charismatic, flourishing strategist with solid knowledge and experience to become the head coach of the team. Coach A. Magro meets all these qualities,” Wolves sports director Donatas Zavackas said. “He is a relatively young coach, he learned from top-level mentors such as Luca Banchi, he has worked with both youth and men’s teams, and he has European tournament experience. We congratulate the coach on joining the club and we will immediately start work on the preparations for the upcoming season.”
Magro decided to choose the path of a basketball coach at the age of 22 years old. He began working as an assistant for Livorno Basketball (Pallacanestro Don Bosco Livorno) of Livorno, Tuscany in 2004-05. He then followed it up with stints in Viola Reggio Calabria in 2005-06, and Mens Sana Basketball Siena from 2006-2014.
He got his first taste of head coaching duties in 2014 with Fulgor Omegna in the second division of the Italian league (Serie A2), staying for two seasons. Afterwards, he became an assistant coach for three years with Germani Brescia (2016-2019). With his help during this stretch, the team won a ticket to the top Italian league for the first time in the club’s history.
In 2019, he received an invitation to be an assistant for head coach Luca Banchi with PBC Lokomotiv Kuban – Lithuanians Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Mantas Kalnietis were part of team‘s roster.
The following season, A. Magro helmed the MKS Dąbrowa Górnicza club and spent a year in Poland. By 2021, he returned to Brescia and accepted the offer to become the club’s head coach.
Germani Brescia also debuted in the European Cup (BKT EuroCup) under his tutelage. The team took seventh place (8-10) in its group and the Italian club lost in the round of 16 to Türk Telekom B.K., the eventual runner-up of that season’s tournament.
While working for Germani Brescia, he also managed the Italian youth U-20 boys’ national team for two summers, during which he finished in 9th place twice in the European Championships. In 2022, the U-20 national team included Abramo Canka, known to Lithuanian basketball fans after he spent one season with BC Nevėžis Kėdainiai.
Magro’s coaching staff will be announced in the near future.
