3X3 in Lithuania

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The Utena team has looked really good in international competition since the summer:

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What makes it extremely difficult to rate both the teams and the players is the extreme variability of their play from week to week. Here are the results of the Lithuanian teams from the tournaments with twelve teams in each that were held in the last few months of 2020 together with the results of other teams that had players Team Lietuva may likely face in the pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Graz, Austria:

August 29-30 Debrecen, Hungary

2. Utena (Matulis, Tarvydas, Vaitkus, Šulskis) 3-2
3. Riga, Latvia
5. Amsterdam, Netherlands
6. New York Harlem
8. Piran, Slovenia
9. Šakiai Gulbelė (Beliavičius, Pukelis, Užupis, Vingelis) 0-2

September 1-2 Debrecen

1. Riga
4. Harlem
5. Piran
10. Šakiai Gulbelė (Beliavičius, Pukelis, Užupis, Vingelis) 0-2

September 4-5 Antwerp, Belgium

2. Šakiai Gulbelė (Beliavičius, Pukelis, Užupis, Vingelis) 4-1
4. Harlem
5. Riga
6. Piran

November 20-21 Doha, Qatar

1. Riga
3. Utena (Matulis, Skučas, Vaitkus, Šulskis) 3-1
5. Princeton, United States
12. Harlem

December 18-19 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

1. Riga
3. Utena (Matulis, Skučas, Vaitkus, Šulskis) 3-1
6. Harlem
8. Amsterdam
9. Šakiai Gulbelė (Beliavičius, Pukelis, Vingelis, Gabrielius Čelka) 0-2
11. Piran

We'll see now how Šakių Gulbelė with Beliavičius, Pukelis, Vingelis and Tarvydas (I think) will perform at the Doha Masters tournament on March 26-27.

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Here's an interesting article from early last July on the four weekend Hoptrans 3x3 tournament in Palanga:

Ten Players to Watch at Hoptrans 3x3 Tournament - FIBA

Interesting that none of the fourteen players mentioned (including the four with Šakių Gulbelė and the Lavrinovič twins) were on the Utena team which emerged on top!

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Here's an interesting article from early last July on the four weekend Hoptrans 3x3 tournament in Palanga:

Ten Players to Watch at Hoptrans 3x3 Tournament - FIBA

Interesting that none of the fourteen players mentioned (including the four with Šakių Gulbelė and the Lavrinovič twins) were on the Utena team which emerged on top!

Tarvydas is, but overall not surprised to see such misses from FIBA, they are known for that

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Yes, that's correct. And Darius Tarvydas ended up being a critical component of Utena's first place finish after he stepped in to replace injured Žygimantas Skučas.

Here incidentally is the Stop 2 Final on July 11th of the Palanga Hoptrans Tournament between Utena and Šakių Gulbelė:

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The Stop 3 Final on July 17th:

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And the Stop 4 Final on July 25th:

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There's certainly an interesting storyline developing here. Despite not having played in a formal 3x3 competition since 2016 and not playing in Stop 2 of the Hoptrans July 3x3 Tournament in Palanga, Darius Tarvydas was voted the Tournament MVP:

Darius Tarvydas Hoptrans MVP - FIBA

Tarvydas was then part of the Utena team that finished in second place in the FIBA 3x3 Tournament in Debrecen, Hungary on August 29-30. But the Utena Juventus LKL team did not renew his contract for the 2020-21 season and Tarvydas signed with Jonavos CBET of the NKL instead. As a result his tenure with the Utena 3x3 team ended as well.

Meanwhile Marijus Užupis, one of the stars of Šakių Gulbelė, sustained a bad knee injury playing for Šakių Vytis in an NKL game in late November and underwent surgery in early December. But with Gabrielius Čelka as a replacement for Užupis, Gulbelė's play suffered and the team lost 21-19 (OT) to Harlem and 21-14 to Utena at the December 18-19 tournament held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

But Darius Tarvydas joined Gulbelė in place of Čelka earlier this year and he'll be taking the floor with Gulbelė teammates Beliavičius, Pukelis and Vingelis in the Doha, Qatar Masters on March 26-27.

So while Tarvydas was key to Utena's victories over Gulbelė last summer, he's now stepping in to help Gulbelė in the absence of Užupis. Here's hoping Gulbelė does really well at the Doha Masters!

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Utena based team travels to St.Petersburg to participate in "United League" tournament starting tomorrow (10-11th). Skucas, Matulis, Sulskis and... coach Novickas who will replace injured Vaitkus. There will be 3 tours: 2nd on March 30-31st, 3rd on April 14-15th and then final on April 26th. Mostly Russian teams will be there, but also some strong ones like Riga, Novi Sad with Bulut will feature in 1st tour. Utena will play against Monaco and Inanomo (Russia) teams in group stage

LIVE tomorrow from 12:30 LT time (11:30 CET) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZisiWwTDF2w

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Hah! So at the age of 42 Dainius Novickas is stepping back onto the court for the good of Team Lietuva!

Dainius Novickas Player Profile

Here's an interview with Novickas that seems to have taken place a few weeks ago:

Dainius Novickas Interview

I wonder if Žydrūnas Urbonas will be accompanying the team to St. Petersburg as the coach?

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...will replace injured Vaitkus.

I see that Ignas Vaitkus did not play against Žalgiris on Sunday but I take it he's not badly injured.

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This FIBA article fingers Riga and Novi Sad as the two teams to beat but also surmises that the Russian teams will be tough since they just finished competing in their own national championship in the past month. The author speculates that Utena group participant Inanomo may actually be the best of the Russian teams:

Superpowers Headline ULE 3x3 Tournament - FIBA

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First game first loss 14-21 vs Inanomo. It's already too tough for Novickas to play at this level Made some mistakes even trying to get back with the ball to inbound it, which led to instant points for Russians, also in defense he is too slow. LT Team kept it close, it was 13-13, but then couldn't handle physicality, got tired playing almost 3 vs 4 with Novickas barely contributing. Also team lacked a go to guy like Vaitkus, Tarvydas

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First game first loss 14-21 vs Inanomo.

Both Basketnews.lt and Krepšinis.net are reporting 17-21 as the score of that first game against Inanomo.

In any event Utena has now qualified for the quarterfinal since Monaco lost both its games:

Utena 21 Monaco 19
Inanomo 20 Monaco 16

Utena will meet Team Netherlands in a quarterfinal tomorrow March 11th at 16:30 Lithuanian time.