1984. Symbolic that exactly this number of people dedicated the penultimate Sunday evening of this summer to watching the Lithuanian national team’s game.
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In recent months, representatives of our second religion, like clerks of the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s dystopian 1984 world, have been desperately trying to convince that no defeat is a tragedy for the Lithuanian national team anymore, so a double-digit deficit against students who have not yet smelled professional basketball should no longer surprise or anger every fifth spectator seated in the Vilnius Arena.
If on Saturday, when they lost to the University of Arizona students, Rimas Kurtinaitis could still justify that the team was missing a number of important players and that the game was actually supposed to be played by the reserve Lithuanian team (although the Lithuanian Basketball Association communicated otherwise until the game), then there were no excuses for the picture that the capital’s stands saw for more than 20 minutes on Sunday.
Last year, the Michigan Wolverines team, which won the NCAA championship, came to Lithuania with the status of champions, but not with a championship lineup.
Of the eight players who defeated the UConn Huskies in the NCAA final, only one basketball player came to our country – the others flew to the NBA or other universities that offered them more favorable financial conditions.
But even fundamentally changed, still made up of young men who just played in high schools and will start their season in a couple of months, the team managed to dictate terms to the Lithuanians preparing for the World Championship qualifying window. A team of students with an average age of less than 20, whose oldest players are only 21, landed on this side of the Atlantic just two days ago but boldly and straightforwardly taught basketball lessons to much older opponents.
62:48 – this was the score with which the “Wolverines” led against the Lithuanian national team when the latter finally managed to press the button and switch the course of the game in their favor.
As Marekas Blaževičius revealed, the Lithuanians, who talked emotionally during the long break, took control of the match and for the first time in this preparation cycle looked like the Lithuanian national team, not a patchwork of randomly gathered players.
48:17 – this was the run won by the Lithuanians, led by Ąžuolas Tubelis who scored 31 points, and respectively 17 and 15 added by Augustas Marčiulionis and Marekas Blaževičius.
Having climbed out of a deep hole, the Lithuanian national team defeated the Michigan students 96:84 and will travel to Turkey in a better mood, demonstrating that it is still a bit early to blow out the hope for the World Championship.
But there, it will require not just a dozen, but 40 minutes of top-level play and concentration, because the games will be against the European vice-champions who have not tasted defeat in six qualifying matches yet, not against students.
- These were the third friendly matches of the Lithuanian basketball national team in this window;
- In the first meeting on Thursday, the Lithuanians lost to Estonia 108:110 after overtime;
- In the second game on Saturday, our team lost 74:88 to the University of Arizona basketball players. However, in those games, the Lithuanians played without several important players (Ąžuolas Tubelis, Gytis Radzevičius, Marekas Blaževičius, Matas Jogėla, Osvaldas Olisevičius), who were replaced by players from the reserve team;
- Now the Lithuanians will face do-or-die battles in the World Championship qualifiers. On August 28, R. Kurtinaitis’s men will meet Turkey in Istanbul, and on August 31, they will host Bosnia and Herzegovina in Vilnius.
“We started sluggishly but fought throughout the game, which is what we wanted from our team during this preparation period. We wanted to achieve physicality because we know what kind of team the Turks are, and I think we got that,” Rimas Kurtinaitis stated after finally achieving victory. “We played four games. We played a friendly with our reserve team, which defeated Arizona. The game with the Estonians was very good; we lost after overtime. Such things toughen you up, teach you to fight until the end. Today, despite being behind after two quarters, we found strength within ourselves, returned to the game, and I think we deservedly won.
I evaluate this preparation positively; we will see what happens next.”
– Yesterday after the game, you mentioned that the two biggest team problems are rebounds on the opponent’s offense and one-on-one defense. How do you view this today?
– Both halves were different. We managed the third and fourth quarters well, defended well. The problems remained because we made 20 mistakes, allowed them to grab too many rebounds. We still lose in physicality, even though the young American players are younger, but physically they are strong. Games of this nature gave us a lot, even though these are not Czechs or Poles, these are Americans, but we need that speed, physicality… Playing with Americans in Lithuania is a welcome factor. I think these games gave us a lot. Yesterday we had a mixed team; we needed to give Žemaitis and Marčiulionis some playing time. They played a lot, and today both played excellently despite the fatigue from yesterday. I think these games gave us something. I wouldn’t want to evaluate friendly games like this – they are friendly so you can correct mistakes, see what needs work. Sometimes you harshly judge that we lost, but these are friendly games for improvement. I don’t know what will happen next, but I think this preparation phase gave us a lot. The games were intense, we won one, lost to the Estonians.
I don’t know what will happen next, but I think this preparation phase gave us a lot.
– You did not register Laurynas Beliauskas and Karolis Lukošiūnas for these games. Will they not go to Turkey?
– No, we have 14 people; they will go to Turkey. We’ll see. I don’t want to say this is the final list. We gave them more playing time yesterday; today we decided this way. The decision probably wasn’t bad since we won. What will happen next, we’ll see.
– Is it not the case that by not registering these players, there is a shortage of players who can effectively shoot three-pointers?
– We have, if you noticed, a bigger problem in defense. Yesterday we allowed 54 points, today 56 (in the first half of the game – ed.). This is our problem. Everyone can shoot, but you need to score. Today we relied on players who defend better, and we were not wrong. How it will be next, we’ll see.
– What are your main tasks before the game with Turkey?
– Since some of us have played a lot, scattered, and had a heavy load, tomorrow we will give a day off. The day after tomorrow we will gather, see what to fix, what is bad, what is good. We have a couple more trainings and will now specifically prepare for the Turks. We have video recordings, so [we prepare] how we will defend, how we will attack. We don’t want to overload players in these [friendly] games. We don’t even know what the Americans play because both Arizona and Michigan changed half the team last year, Michigan also changed the coach, so there is no point in preparing for such games. But we had to react to the situation, react to defense, that all five change in defense, so we had to find ways to attack. In the second half of the game, we succeeded. The tasks were to get a good physical load, and now we will specifically prepare for the Turks.
– On Thursday you played in Kaunas, where in an arena with a capacity of 15.5 thousand there were 3.5 thousand people. Today, in the Vilnius Arena with almost 10 thousand capacity, there were only 1984 spectators. Does the empty stands not sadden you?
– What can I say – does it sadden or not? Usually, if you play in Kaunas, Kaunas sees a lot of basketball, sees the Euroleague, people go. Maybe they think the Euroleague is more important. I noticed a trend that if you play in Klaipėda, it will be full, if you play in Kėdainiai, it will be full, I think Panevėžys would have many. Those big cities are saturated with club basketball. The people who came to watch cheered excellently, it was audible. We won, they left satisfied, so I see no problems.
