2024-04-19 05:36:18
Lithuanian vice-champions 83:74 managed the basketball players of the city of Saulė for the third time this season.
During the long break, the jersey marked with the number 13 of the legendary Ch. Eidson was brought to the decks of the “Jeep” arena, and at the same time, the championship team of Vilnius was honored.
“It’s a festive atmosphere, there are a lot of disturbances, but we have to concentrate and pay attention to ourselves and not spoil the celebration,” said G. Žibėnas. – There were a lot of things – the honoring of the winners of the FIBA Youth Champions League, the honoring of Chuck Eidson, the debut of Igno (Urbono – ed.)… I can’t complain about the players’ efforts. We controlled the game through defense. There was really good ball pressure, good energy, we positioned our bodies better than we have in the last few games.
The only thing missing was concentration in attack, where we made 19 mistakes that were not even provoked in reality. We were not focused on those details. When Tomas Pavelka is on the pitch, we play through him too much and it makes us look bad.
We didn’t see a tribute to Chuck, some LKL representatives did some congrats before the game. It’s nice that a person came, it’s nice that we managed to invite him to the celebration. It’s a big event for our club, a big event for our fans, but as a team we need to win games.”
2.5 minutes left Ignas Urbonas made his debut in “Ryto”. Uteniškis became the youngest basketball player (16 years, 4 months and 27 days) who ever made his debut in Ryto’s main team.
In 2 min. In 21 seconds, I.Urbon could not score points on the pitch. The young man from Ute missed his only three-pointer and accumulated -1 utility score.
When asked about I. Urbon’s potential, G. Žibėnas did not even hesitate.
“For now, Igna is haunted by fatigue from the match marathon, which was in the FIBA Youth Champions League, NKL playoffs. But he is a brave kid and has a lot of potential. He invests a lot of time in his development. We are very glad that we have it. We will try to integrate him in these remaining games before the start of the playoffs. There is really a lot for a young player to play sports among such basketball players.
He is a player who is not afraid of anything. Here is its biggest advantage. He is looking forward to the big game. We saw how he played against Zalgiris doubles. That combativeness of his… must have been inherited from his father.
Reading the game, situations and everything else will come with experience, practice. Everything is in front of him. The most important thing is health. Everything will be fine for him”, said the “Ryto” helmsman.
– Outside of the game against Wolves, Marcus Foster has been in the hole lately. Is it the effects of his injury or something else?– journalists asked G. Žibėnas.
– Marcus had one of his best defensive games tonight. We are very pleased with his performance. He threw away his throws. Maybe it wasn’t his game today where we needed him to pull us through. We are very happy for him. In the locker room, I forgot to praise him and the other players who sacrificed for the team on defense.
We all understand that we have to hurry there, we don’t know what the games will be in the playoffs, so we always have to work on defense so that on a bad night we can break the game defensively.
– How do you remember Chuck Eidson? Can he be considered a player ahead of his time and would he be a player who is playing better now than he was 15 years ago?
– It is very interesting how he would look in modern basketball with his reading of the game. He is a good player with the ball, he evaluates and calculates every situation, how he makes everyone around him better… how he can single-handedly carry a team… it would be very interesting how he would look in today’s basketball. What he did 15 years ago is impressive and I don’t know if it can be repeated.
– Whose jersey should be put on the decks of the “Jeep” arena?
– Actually, this is not a question for me. We have many loyal fans who have supported the club for over 20 years. I think it would be best to ask them. I have been in the club for just 4 years. Perhaps it would be most interesting to make a vote from the opinion of the fans and choose the most deserving players.
But, if you had to choose from among the Lithuanians, probably the next shirt lifted should be Ramūnas Šiškauskas. This is just a thought.
– What the young generation could learn from the golden years of 2008-2009. Morning teams?
– I think that this young generation, where our youth is, is very similar to that generation in terms of character, unplayed emotions, doing hard work… they broke opponents through defense in the FIBA Youth Champions League. Especially when they didn’t go well with something. Both of them became champions (smiles – ed.).
Full press conference:
2024-04-19 05:36:18