An assistant coach rarely gets the credit he deserves when a basketball team finds success.

So the name George Dikeoulakos may not resonate with many in Europe, but it will soon.

Along with Kostas Missas, arguably the best coach in Greece, Dikeoulakos helped engineer his country's stunning run to fifth place last year at the EuroBasket Women in Riga to qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship for Women for the first time.

Missas and Dikeoulakos then flew home and led Greece to the U20 European Championship for Men in Rhodes.

He didn't know it at the time, but Latvia - a country with a big appetite for the women's game - had paid very close attention to Greece and studied what allowed them to overachieve, at least in the eyes of most observers.

Missas and Dikeoulakos were so thorough in their scouting of opponents that in nearly every game, they exploited the other team's main weakness and that gave them a chance to win games.

Latvia have been without a coach since Ainars Zvirgzdins stepped down after last year's EuroBasket Women and it appears that Dikeoulakos, who is the boss of Sony Athinaikos in Greece, will replace him.

He gave this interview to Jeff Taylor of Basketball World News.

George, you are the leading candidate to coach the Latvia women's team. What can you tell us about this?

George Dikeoulakos: I have had discussions with the people of the Latvian federation and I think that we are very close to coming to a final agreement. There are just some small details left to fix with my agent Mr Dimitropoulos, so the chances are very big and I am very excited about coaching the national team of a country that has so much love for this team.

Is there much more pressure as a head coach versus being an assistant? I ask because as an assistant coach, you always looked tired in Riga and that was presumably because you went to bed late after many hours spent watching videos of your next opponents.

George Dikeoulakos: The pressure is always the same, no matter where I have worked as an assistant or as a head coach, and that's if it was with the men's Olympiacos or the women's Athinaikos. I have always worked under pressure with extremely few hours for sleep, especially if the games were every day like a European Championship. But even as an assistant coach, I had the luck to co-operate with head coaches who had full trust in me and let me decide about the organization of the practices or the plan that we should follow before or through the game and that was something that helped me a lot to take my next step as a head coach.

You and Kostas were an amazing coaching team last year. You led the women's team at the EuroBasket in Riga and steered them to new heights, and then coached the men's team at the U20 European Championship in Rhodes to a gold medal. Tell me about the challenge of last summer - the highs and the lows.

George Dikeoulakos: It was a magical summer for us. Believe me, nothing was spontaneous. With the women's team, we had a plan since 2006 with this new generation, and although we knew that we had big disadvantages, especially at the positions four and five, we worked for months to find out how we could transform our disadvantage to an advantage, and the results came, especially when we managed to change the mentality of the Greek women players and made them more professional and having basketball as a priority for them. With the men's team, it was a totally different situation. Seven of our best players came to Rhodes just one day before the first game due to their participation at the U19 World Championship in New Zealand, so we had to make 12 players with great talent look like a team in just one day, or better said in one morning practice. That was really a project for experiments. We used so many tricks, and we won the gold medal first of all because the players had the will to put their egos under the team.

Can you remember anything funny happening in Riga, or Rhodes, that you can tell me about?

George Dikeoulakos: A few hours after the final game in Rhodes, the whole team went to celebrate at a typical Greek club with Greek music bouzoukia, with the European Cup of course. Hundreds of fans and members of the families of the players were present and at different tables but the whole club seemed to celebrate all together as the same company. The team had the freedom to celebrate and to go back at whatever time they wanted to. But we didn't pay attention to the time, and at Six O'clock in the morning, the last members of the team were three guys from the coaching staff, including me, which had to pay a huge bill of thousands of Euros because everybody left. The bus driver left also, and we couldn't find a taxi, so we had to walk back to the hotel at least 1.5 km with the huge European Cup in our hands, something that brought many questions to the people who were going to work at this time. It was very funny, very human and at the same time a very silly picture!

Do you prefer coaching men, or women?

George Dikeoulakos: Both, no problem at all. Basketball is basketball everywhere. No matter if you coach men women or juniors. The only difference is that in men's basketball, you can find the glory and the money!

Congratulations on leading Athinaikos to the Quarter-Finals of the EuroCup Women. What was the aim of this team before the start of the competition?

George Dikeoulakos: Last season was the first time in the team's history that it participated in a European Cup, and most of our players had no experience from games against teams that were playing different basketball than in the Greek league. But in the end, we qualified for the Quarter-Finals and just because of one turnover - a bad pass - we didn't qualify for the Semi-Finals, so from the beginning of this season we knew that we could go further. We believe that we are a better team this year and more experienced, so we can do something better than last year.

You lost an important player to injury recently in Latoya Davis but signed Ruth Riley. Is it easy to find someone who can come into the team at this point of the season and fit in?

George Dikeoulakos: No, it is not easy at all. We feel very lucky that at this point a player of such a level as Ruth was available. She is an excellent fit for our team as a player and as a personality. We are a team that has many rules on offense as well as on defense but her experience is a big help for her in her efforts to understand us as a team.

What has been good about this Athinaikos team?

George Dikeoulakos: I've worked at many big men's clubs such as Olympiacos, Panionios and Panellinios, and I can assure you that all these teams have no better organization than Athinaikos has. Whatever I want, I have it immediately, plus 12 to 14 very talented and experienced players. For sure we work more professionally than most of the men's A1 teams in Greece and responsible for that is the mayor of the town, Mr Hardalias, who is also the president of Athinaikos. Although his time is valuable, he always has time for the team and gives us everything that we need.

Do you think women's basketball in Greece won new fans after last summer in Riga?

George Dikeoulakos: The truth is that many people were surprised by the fifth spot of our national team in the EuroBasket, and we forced many people to pay attention to women's basketball. But we still don't work under the conditions that men's basketball has. We still need to fix many, many things in Greek women's basketball.

What is your dream job in basketball?

George Dikeoulakos: Actually, it is not a dream job but I was always thinking that European coaches have a lot to give to the NBA and WNBA. I think it's time for the general managers of the teams in the USA to think seriously about this plan and I am always open for this perspective.

I understand that you like to visit the Greek islands in the summer. What do you and your family do when you go there?

George Dikeoulakos: Nothing more or less than an ordinary Greek does. That is fishing, scuba diving, sunbathing, teaching my kids the joy of the sea, and we of course eat good Mediterranean food. But there is always time for watching some basketball games on my DVD. That is something that never ends, even on vacation!

Tell me something about you, George, that most people don't know.

George Dikeoulakos: I don't believe in luck, just in hard work!