Last year’s NCAA champions, the “Michigan Wolverines,” who lost almost all their key players to the NBA or other universities over the summer, struggled for a long time against the Lithuanian national team.
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In the third quarter, the opponents, whose starting five had an average age of only 19.6 years, led 62:48 and it seemed that the Lithuanians would lose for the second night in a row to a university team made up of teenagers (on Saturday, the Lithuanian team, missing several key players, lost 74:88 to the Arizona team).
But then the Lithuanians woke up: winning the stretch 48:17, Rimas Kurtinaitis’s team turned the game around and left no suspense at the end of the match – 96:84.
“There was a good talk among the players after two quarters. We spoke frankly about what and where things were not working for us,” revealed M. Blaževičius, who played the longest (34.5 minutes) and was among the most valuable (15 points, 8 rebounds) after the game. “We stopped blaming others, started helping each other, and immediately the game was different, the energy was different, the pleasure on the court, the fight in defense, the pleasure in defense. I think that’s what we needed.”
What triggered that talk?
“A lot of crap had built up already,” the center did not mince words. “We are people too, we don’t like to lose. Losing one or two games is unpleasant no matter who it is against. That triggers everything. One told another, another told someone else, someone calmed someone down somewhere, we calmly put things in order and I think it united us a bit. Then the coach came, he was calm, there was no stress. He said we would do this or that and that united us.”
Defending the team’s performances, M. Blaževičius reminded that the Lithuanian national team players who gathered for camp two weeks ago came after vacations or rehabilitation.
“Please don’t forget that we all came after the summer. No one has played basketball, and individual work does not compare to basketball five against five. Getting into shape, feeling the rhythm of basketball takes time, you need to get to know each other because there are players who were not in the previous window. We need to gel, get into shape, feel the body – it all adds up. You should understand that and think about the fact that it’s the end of summer: some rested, others were recovering from injuries, but no one played team basketball,” said Marekas.
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The Lithuanian team’s losses not only to the University of Arizona students but also to the Estonian national team only fueled the talks about the country’s basketball situation and concerns about the World Cup qualifiers, where the Lithuanians’ situation is close to critical. Does this turmoil reach the players as well?
“I think it’s always like that in Lithuania – if something is wrong, the media shows it, and if things are good, the media highlights it. I think that’s normal. People who grew up in Lithuania are used to it, and it’s normal – part of our job, we need to live with it and not pay attention to it. You do your job, and we do ours,” said M. Blaževičius.
The center hopes that such a performance in the last friendly test will help the team get on the right track.
“We lacked a bit of training because there were many games, but we ended the friendly game marathon on a good note. Hopefully, we will have a day off, and then we will have a few practices where we can work out all the details. You saw for yourselves that in the second half we played, there were no holes in defense, it seemed like we could play.”
Asked if they will travel to Turkey, where the Lithuanians will fly on Wednesday, calmly, the Kaunas “Žalgiris” big man answered confidently:
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“Yes, of course.”
