Antanas Kavaliauskas - Assistant Coach - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Antanas Kavaliauskas

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
Phone:
336-758-2935

Antanas Kavaliauskas joined the Wake Forest basketball staff in June 2020 as Director of Player Development after an extensive professional career in Europe, being elevated to assistant coach in the summer of 2023.

Over the last four years, Kavaliauskas has been instrumental in helping Wake Forest:

Earn 61 home victories, as Wake Forest is one of only six schools with that many home wins
86 overall victories, the fourth-most in the ACC
47 ACC regular season victories, most in a four-year span in school history
13 ACC regular season victories in both 2021-22 and 2024-25, tied for the most in a single season in school history

In 2024-25, Kavaliauskas helped lead the Demon Deacons to 21 victories overall and the program’s first-ever double bye in the ACC Tournament. With 13 ACC victories – tied for the most in a single season in school history and the second time in four seasons the Deacs have hit that mark – Wake Forest earned its highest regular season finish since the 2008-09 campaign.

Wake Forest matched the school record for road ACC victories with six, as the Demon Deacons defeated Syracuse, Miami, Virginia Tech, Stanford, Cal and SMU on their home courts. In February, the Demon Deacons became the first – and only – ACC program to sweep the West Coast swing with victories over the Cardinal and Golden Bears.

In non-conference play, Wake Forest earned eight victories including a 72-70 result over Big Ten Tournament champions Michigan.

Tallying an 11-9 conference record in 2023-24, the Deacons have registered three consecutive years of double-digit ACC wins for the first time since 1995-97 -- having gone 10-10 during 2022-23 and 13-7 in 2021-22. The team's 34 conference victories in that three-year span mark the most since the 2003-05 run when Wake Forest piled up 35 ACC wins. Three seasons in a row with winning records has happened for the program -- a first since 2008-10. The Deacs also reached the 20-win mark in 2023-24 -- the second time in the past three seasons.

A native of Vilnius, Lithuania, he entered the United States in the fall of 2003 to play basketball at Barton Community College in Kansas. After successful years on the court and in the classroom, Kavaliauskas earned his associate degree and transferred to Texas A&M where he finished his collegiate career with an NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in 2007 and a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture.

Soon after graduating, Kavaliauskas played professionally in the Euroleague for 12 years, the last four of which were played in his home country of Lithuania. He also played for the Lithuanian National Team during the summers of 2005 and 2007. His team won gold at the U21 World Championships in Argentina in 2005 and won gold again at the Universiade in Thailand in 2007. He was called up to the Lithuanian National Team in 2012 for the Summer Olympics in London and represented Lithuania at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

During his playing career, Kavaliauskas was an LKL or LBL champion seven times and earned LKL MVP status twice. In 2015, he won a silver medal playing for the Lithuanian national team in the European Championship. Three years later in 2018, BC Zalgiris Kaunas finished third in the Euroleague.

He and his wife, Amanda, have one daughter, Alayna, and one son, Aaron.