{"id":102169,"date":"2024-01-12T01:47:17","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T01:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/?p=102169"},"modified":"2024-01-12T13:48:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T13:48:20","slug":"kantzouris-unveiled-as-hapoel-jerusalems-new-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/kantzouris-unveiled-as-hapoel-jerusalems-new-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Kantzouris unveiled as Hapoel Jerusalem\u2019s new head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hapoel Jerusalem introduced their brand new coach Illias Kantzouris at a press conference at the PAIS Arena on Friday morning. The Greek tactician takes over for Aleksandar Dzikic who departs the Reds due to the ongoing war against Hamas.<\/p>\n

Kantzouris had most recently been leading Limoges but with a chance to come to Israel\u2019s capital city and to depart a tough situation in France it was a no brainer for the former AEK head coach. Jerusalem is familiar with the 50-year old as he faced Dzikic\u2019s club last year in a highly charged playoff series that saw the Reds win 2-1 with Kanztzouris\u2019s squad falling by 40-points in the finale. <\/p>\n

The bench boss began his career as assistant coach back in 2000 with Apollon Patras and served in that same capacity for close to twenty years until he took the reins mid-season in 2020 with Iraklis Thessaloniki which was followed up by two successful campaigns with Kolossos Rodou before taking over at AEK last year.
\n

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Ilias Kantzouris – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div>
\nNow with that same Jerusalem, Kantzouris understands that there are big challenges ahead with even bigger expectations, \u201cIt’s a great honor for me to be at the coaching position of this great club. I want to thank Yonatan Alon, Gal Mekel and Matan Adelson for giving me the chance. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a big challenge, in 95% of coaching changes things go in the wrong way, but here the situation is different and I want to continue the good job. Hapoel Jerusalem right now is the number 1 project in Europe. We are going to give everything every day. I want to do the best every day. I would be a liar if I didn’t say the team has high goals, but we should go day by day. I believe that the team has very good structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kantzouris also spoke about making the move to Israel while a war is going on as well as what he remembers from being at the Arena in the past, \u201cI believe it’s a combination of several things. I’ve been here several times as a opponent and it’s a special team. I am not going to hide that there was a difficult situation in Limoges. I don’t have fear from the war. I’m really excited to work with these players. I played here 3 or 4 times, the number 1 memory is the fans, I couldn’t sleep normally for 2-3 days after that. I’m happy they are on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Kantzouris says he can be tough also has a softer side to him, \u201cI’m tough and demanding, this is the way I know, but at the same time I believe that human atmosphere is important. What I see from far is good, the basketball team seems healthy, it’s something very interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Israeli league action, Nes Ziona came out flying against Kiryat Ata as they downed the team from the Krayot 78-64. Elad Hasin\u2019s team raced out to a 24-9 lead after the first quarter and never looked back as Rawle Alkins and Zuf Ben Moshe led the way with 19 and 14 points respectively while Isaiah Whitehead dropped 11 points and George King scored 10 points in his debut. Ben Saraf and Tomer Porath each scored 12 points in a losing effort. <\/p>\n

Hapoel Afula dropped Nes Ziona 82-64 thanks to an overwhelming second half that saw the hosts take the final two quarters by a score of 51-23 to take the victory. Roie Perel\u2019s squad featured five players in double digits with Cassius Stanley leading the way with 25 points and 10 boards while Noam Avivi recorded 15 points in the win. Rawle Alkins with 13 points was Elad Hasin\u2019s high scorer. <\/p>\n

Hapoel Jerusalem defeated Bnei Herzliya 81-65 as Levi Randolph scored in bunches to get the game underway and set the tone early as the capital city squad never looked back to take the easy win. Speedy Smith and Brynton Lemar each scored 14 points while Randolph dropped 13 points in the victory. Adrian Banks with 19 points and Marcus Carr with 16 points paced Dan Shamir\u2019s team. <\/p>\n

Maccabi Ramat Gan got by Hapoel Haifa 81-74 as a second half comeback was in order to secure the win for Shmulik Brenner\u2019s team. JP Tokoto led the way with 17 points, Alex Hamilton added 16 points and Adam Ariel scored 14 points in the win. Dakari Tucker scored 16 points and Jon Davis added 15 points in the loss. <\/p>\n

Hapoel Galil Elyon downed Hapoel Beer Sheva 96-86 as James Feldeine and Omar Silverio helped the visitors notch the win after having gone into halftime down by a pair of points. Feldeine led the way with 28 points, Silverio added 22 points, Roi Huber scored 16 points and Lotan Amsalem notched a 15 point and 11 rebound double-double in the win. Grant Sherfield scored 22 points and Joaquin Szuchman added 16 points in the loss. <\/p>\n

Kiryat Ata kept winning as they downed Hapoel Eilat 83-70 up north as James Batemon with 26 points and Amin Stevens with 22 points and 15 rebounds led the way in the win. Elijah Stewart paced the Red Sea squad side with 27 points in the loss. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hapoel Jerusalem introduced their brand new coach Illias Kantzouris at a press conference at the PAIS Arena on Friday morning. The Greek tactician takes over for Aleksandar Dzikic who departs the Reds due to the ongoing war against Hamas. Kantzouris had most recently been leading Limoges but with a chance to come to Israel\u2019s capital […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":102149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[96,5939],"class_list":["post-102169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-hapoel-jerusalem","tag-illias-kantzouris","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nKantzouris unveiled as Hapoel Jerusalem\u2019s new head coach - Sports Rabbi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/en\/kantzouris-unveiled-as-hapoel-jerusalems-new-head-coach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kantzouris unveiled as Hapoel Jerusalem\u2019s new head coach - Sports Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hapoel Jerusalem introduced their brand new coach Illias Kantzouris at a press conference at the PAIS Arena on Friday morning. 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