ISTANBUL 

Frutti Extra Bursaspor’s Dusan Alimpijevic was named EuroCup Coach of the Year for the 2021-22 basketball season on Thursday.

A EuroLeague Basketball statement hailed Alimpijevic as "the leader of a Cinderella story like few others in the competition history."

Alimpijevic has made club history by leading the Turkish team to the EuroCup final, where they will face Italy’s Virtus Segafredo Bologna on May 11.

"Alimpijevic, at 35 the youngest coach to win the award, guided Bursaspor all the way to the EuroCup Finals in his first full season in the competition," read the EuroLeague Basketball statement.

"He engineered a rarely seen in-season turnaround that saw his team win just four of its first 13 games before going on a run of 8-1 that included three postseason road wins in a span of just 14 days."

Alimpijevic has become the second Serbian national to win the EuroCup Coach of the Year award, following Sasa Obradovic, who took the honor with Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar in 2018.