Basketball-Spain bring back Scariolo as national team coach

MADRID, May 7 (Reuters) - Spain have reappointed successful former coach Sergio Scariolo to oversee the Iberian nation's campaign at September's European championships, the Spanish basketball federation (FEB) said on Thursday. Italian Scariolo, 54, led Spain to continental titles in 2009 and 2011 and a silver medal behind winners United States at the Olympic Games in London in 2012 before stepping down and being replaced by Spaniard Juan Antonio Orenga. Orenga departed in September after two years in the job following Spain's surprise exit to France on home court in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. "Sergio Scariolo returns to the position which he held during the Olympic cycle 2009-2012, in which he became the coach with the most titles in the history of the national team," the FEB said on their website (www.feb.es). Scariolo, who has coached at club level in Spain and speaks fluent Spanish, will be presented at a news conference in Madrid later on Thursday, the federation added. Scariolo was hailed as "the ideal man" for the job by Spain's Chicago Bulls forward Pau Gasol. "He knows the team and the players and we have achieved a lot of success with him," Gasol wrote in his column in Spanish sports daily Marca. Spain have been drawn in Group B for the EuroBasket tournament with Serbia, Italy, Turkey, Iceland and Germany. The top four sides progress to the knockout round and the two teams who make the final will secure a berth at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. EuroBasket is being jointly hosted by Croatia, France, Germany and Latvia. (Reporting by Iain Rogers, editing by Amlan Chakraborty)