RUS - Alexeeva set the standard

SPRINGFIELD (Olympics/FIBA World Championship for Women) - When it comes to excellence in the coaching profession, Lidia Alexeeva took a backseat to no one.

The Moscow-born Alexeeva won European Championships four times as a player, finishing top of the podium in Budapest (1950), Moscow (1952), Belgrade (1954) and Prague (1956).

She was a main attraction while running up and down the court for club sides like Lokomotiv Moscow (1943-46) and MAI Moscow (1947-57), leading her sides to league titles and cups.

But as a coach, Alexeeva reached unprecedented heights and that was recognized once again over the weekend when she entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

For a period of 22 years, starting in 1962 and ending in 1984, Alexeeva coached the Soviet Union women's sides that won every single tournament they took part in. That included 12 European titles, five World Championships and two Olympic Games.

Alexeeva’s Soviet sides were so overwhelming, so powerful, that they were prohibitive favorites in all of their games.

She guided the Soviets to gold at the Montreal Games in 1976, and four years later at the Moscow Games.

Alexeeva might have won even more Olympic crowns as a coach had women's basketball debuted before 1976.

The towering presence of 2.13m center Uljana Semjonova of Latvia was the main player in those awesome Soviet sides.

Both Semjonova and Alexeeva went into the FIBA Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 2007.

Alexeeva was welcomed into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1999.

After her induction in Springfield, the Russia’s Basketball Federation issued a statement to wish Alexeeva “good health and a long life.”

FIBA