Algirdas Varnagiris

Euroleague regular season have just ended and now we have Top16 teams. Here they are:

* best second-place team
** worst third-place team
*** best sixth-place team

Actually it was clear that in first level we’ll have Unicaja, Tau Ceramica and Panathinaikos. Only last minute defending champions Maccabi got first level. They should say thanks to Efes Pilsen couse they unexpected lost to Cibona. But this victory gave the last spot to Cibona in Top16. One of the bigest surprise this year was Bamberg. They managed to overcome such teams as Olympia or AEK.

Another interesting info is individual statistics leaders. Dejan Milojevic of Partizan had the best average index rating, 23.6 over 12 games after he missed the last one. He was also the top rebounder of the first phase with 10.1 per game. Euroleague newcomer Drew Nicholas of Benetton was top scorer with 18.6 points on average. Pablo Prigioni of Tau Ceramica finished first in assists, with 6.9 per game. Darjus Lavrinovic of Zalgiris topped everyone with 2.7 blocks and Jeff Trepganier of Ulker with 3.5 steals.

Lithuania’s Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas proved the most popular medal winners, picking up a bronze on their comeback after almost four years out of competitive skating.

Drobiazko and Vanagas’s “Phantom of the Opera” interpretation was greeted by deafening roars of approval. Their dance featured innovative lifts including a straight line-curve lift with him skating on one foot and her in an upside-down position, intricate steps and fast twizzles. They were awarded a level four for their circular step sequence and scored a new personal best of 100.98 points (52.74/48.15) for their program. They finished second in the Free Dance but remained in third place overall with 196.18 points. Drobiazko/Vanagas had won bronze medals at the 2000 European and World Championships and retired from competitive skating in 2002, but decided to come back for the Olympic season. “Honestly, when we started, I forgot about the levels (of the elements). When we finished, I thought, oops, what about the levels? But (coach) Igor (Shpilband) says everything is ok. We’re not used to this, we skated in shows. But it worked even without thinking about itâ€?, Drobiazko revealed.

The Lithuanians were cheered when they came back on the ice to receive their bronzes while the crowd jeered and booed every time the faces of the gold and silver medal winners flashed up on the big screen during the presentation ceremony.

In my opinion 2005 is really good year for Lithuanian basketball. There was several tournaments where our players and teams showed really good game. Our players and teams was good in Euroleague and ULEB cup. Also in summer there are lots of tournaments where our national teams are showing good results.
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Zalgiris is once again the Lithuanian League champion!

Zalgiris Kaunas is once again the Lithuanian League champion by dweeping the best-of-seven final series 4-0 against the ULEB Cup champions Lietuvos Rytas. Zalgiris also swept L. Rytas in last year’s finals and has clinched its third consecutive league title and its 13th since Lithuania became independent back in 1991. Zalgiris sealed the outcome of the series by downing L. Rytas 71-88 on the road in Siemens Arena, Vilnius, on Tuesday night. Tanoka Beard led the winners with a huge double-double, 20 points and 16 rebounds. Robert Pack added 19 points, Mindaugas Timinskas nailed 15 while Dainius Salenga and Ainars Bagatskis had 12 apiece for Zalgiris. Just three players scored in double figure for Lietuvos Rytas, as team captain Robertas Javtokas led the hosts with 14 points. He added 11 rebounds for a double-double. Tomas Delininkaitis had 13 points and Simas Jasaitis 11 for Lietuvos. Zalgiris built its lead minute by minute, increasing the margin at the end of each of the opening three periods. Zalgiris led 22-24 after 10 minutes and extended its margin to 41-46 at halftime and then again to 54-63 after 30 minutes. A three-pointer got Lietuvos as close as 57-63 early in the third, but Zalgiris used a 0-8 run to make it a 14-point game, 57-71, and never looked back, as the outcome was clear long before the final buzzer. All Zalgiris players started to celebrate, as the team not only won the Baltic League this season, but also managed to repeat as the Lithuanian league champions!
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Russia capital Moscow was colored in yellow. The main reason for that was Sarunas Jasikevicius and Tel Aviv Maccabi basketball club. On Sunday at Moscow “Olympiysky� arena Maccabi won the second ULEB Euroleague title in a row.

Sarunas Jasikevicius get the third title in a row. One of the best player in Europe won the cup on 2003 with Barcelona. Also he made the same with Tel Aviv Maccabi on 2004 and 2005.

Moreover “Golden Boyâ€? got MVP title of Final four. It seams that the team which has Sarunas Jasikavicius will definitely win…

Maccabi leading by Sarunas Jasikevicius in main game of this season defeated Vitoria Tau Ceramica 90:78 (26:15, 24:24, 15:23, 25:16). This season in Tau ceramica is playing another Lithuanian – Arvydas Macijauskas.

The game went different for Lithuania players. Sarunas Jasikevicius played perfectly. During 36 minutes he scored 22 points (4/8 2FG, 3/4 3FG, 5/5 FT), 6 rebounds, 2 steals, made 6 assist, but made 3 turnovers and 4 fouls.

Arvydas Macijauskas was not so good - 13 points (1/2 2FG, 0/3 3FG, 11/13 FT, 2 rebounds and 2 steals and 5 turnovers.

CSKA had fiasco…

CSKA this year had giant budget, best players in Europe, but lost all games in final four… First of all they lost semifinal to Tau Ceramika where Arvydas Macijauskas had one of the best game in this season, he scored 23 points and was the best player of the mach. In the game for third place CSKA was leading and after first half they where leading by 19 points, but Panathinaikos showed what they can do and after 2 OT won the game 91:94 (17:13, 26:10, 19:28, 17:27, 6:6, 7:10).