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From green to red. 20 ties Lukas Uleckas As a talented and promising defender, he had previously linked his way with Kaunas “Žalgiris”, but was unable to establish himself among the champions and will now wear Vilnius “Rytas” clothing.
Luke himself didn’t make the transition meaningful, even though his friends were drawn to the teeth. Still, he says Rytas has shown the most important thing he’s looking for: a great desire to see him in his ranks.
New “Rytas” strategist Donaldas Kairys, with whom L. Uleckas worked together on the youth team last year, also became a major factor in the transition.
“He is an intelligent strategist, to feel pleasure in his training. The coach creates so much energy and atmosphere that he is a lot of fun,” says the new Ryto player.
– Luke, what rhythm do you have to live this summer? I’ve seen you work out intensely and focus on work, not vacation.
– The pace is such that at 10.30. I have a training with Artūras Javtokas, we work more with physical training in the weight room and then we do exercises with basketball elements. We run with tires and the like.
Currently I have one training a day because this is how progress progresses better, the body becomes stronger. After training, I go home, go to bed for lunch and go for a walk at night, I need an active rest.
I waited 10 weeks of such training, nine have already ended and, as will be later, I will see. Initially, we played sports one by one during quarantine, and now we put together several, maximum eight.
– Do you have a specific plan for what you want to reinforce more for the rest of the summer and what elements to improve?
– I will focus on fitness because I think I need it the most. And as for basketball, I don’t plan on having at least a couple of weeks of individual training, and later on maybe I will also play sports with a coach in this direction. There’s time. The most important thing for a basketball player is a stable pitch, but we also have to take into account the weak points, all a little.
– Tell us briefly, how did you get the invitation for “Morning” and found yourself in this club?
– I heard that they showed interest in me before the quarantine, but I did not know at the time. Why did I choose “Morning”? Because this is the team that wanted me to be second in Lithuania and play in Europe. Last season, I only played one game a week, which is a step forward for me here.
– Were there other options you would have considered?
– There were still variants from Spain and Germany, but I decided that Rytas was the best platform for me now.
– Rolandas Jarutis spoke to you personally and showed great initiative to invite you to the team?
– I spoke to Jarutis, he told me about the vision of the club, how things will be here, but most of the speeches were with an agent with whom all nuances were combined.
– Europe will have to play in the Champions League. At 20, is that the same step forward in your career?
– I think it is a great step, because everyone sees which teams will come to this league. The level will be really strong, we will play against good clubs, I will show myself against them. I imagine that both the approach will be different and I will be more visible to Europe.
Uleckas
– How would we evaluate our last season in the ranks of Prienai CBet, how was it for you personally? (L. Uleckas scored 9.7 points in 28 minutes, bounced 4 balls, and made 2 passes each.)
– I’m not completely happy (smiles). I think the season was very wavy, there was no three-point stability (28.5 percent – Krepsinis.net), which I didn’t really like. So I want to put more work in the summer. Everything in the team was excellent, but the lack of personal stability crossed it a bit.
– What do you think was more lacking in that stability?
– On physical form. I think I have encountered problems in that and when I am better prepared, the better the conditions, the better the level of play.
– Last season’s CBet team was full of youngsters, how did it feel to play in such a team?
– I played my whole life in a young company: in the Student League, in the backup copies of “Žalgiris”, I only spent 7 months in the main team of “Žalgiris” (Smiling). I came to Prienai and I was still the youngest. But the others weren’t much older either, just Lukauskis twice.
– What can young people learn from a long-time player like Lukauskis?
– It is a real example of how to take care of the body. Mindaugas looks better than 60 percent. For LKL players, being 40 seems so impressive. He is agile, he could not lose sight of him during training, he had to stay very focused, because he would take the opportunity to relax. Seeing how he does it, he wants to repeat the same thing. When he was around, if someone did something wrong, he said: maybe he should be here, he really didn’t forgive the advice.
– During workouts, did you notice any different Mindaugas routine than others, that would reflect your justified contribution to your body?
– I don’t know if you are drinking a magic elixir. I think there is also some genetics, rapid digestion, something else that does not gain weight. However, it is not understood how it manages to maintain this shape.
– And from the team’s perspective, how can you evaluate the progress of the Prienai team during the season?
– If it wasn’t for the quarantine, I think we would have played further, better. We had a period where we lost a few games, but then the time came when two games a week would start. We would have picked up the pace and it wouldn’t have been bad. We missed those second games because with them the rhythm is still different.
Uleckas
– Frankly: As a former member of the Žalgiris system, was it a strange feeling to pass the Vilnius team?
– I belonged to Žalgiris for three years and spent a year in Prienai, that was the gap. I don’t want to say that, because neither I was a former player of “Žalgiris” nor Rytas looked at me as such.
– The relatives did not pull out the tooth for that choice?
– Both friends and family were attracted, but they still know that I have a good place to improve here and that it will be a good season.
– What do you feel most taken from the stage in “Žalgiris”?
– Although you don’t play much in the game, but you train with Euroleague players every day, you can’t do anything worse than them, because you will leave the coach’s platform. God forbid you make a mistake: you know what to expect (laughs). You have to train like the others: this is how the level will grow: you start to appreciate the ball, make better decisions, defense and reading the game become important. He helped me with everything.
– Which player from Žalgiris helped you the most and what advice did you receive the most?
– Probably Westermann. I liked it, calmly explained everything, gave advice: Leo is a very smart player.
– How well do you know the new Rytas coach Donald Kairis?
– Last year we were together for twenty years, so I’m familiar with that. He is an intelligent strategist, to feel pleasure in his workouts. The coach creates so much energy and atmosphere that it’s so much fun. As the coach himself said, he wants basketball to be beautiful to look at, to attack fast and smart. I liked. It is like systemic basketball, but much faster. Looking at the statistics of their teams, it can be seen that they were often productive.
Before signing the contract, I wasn’t sure Kairys was a coach yet, but I saw that he was among the candidates. I’d say it even helped me decide.
– What do you expect from next season, both as a team and individually, with a preview of what is forming?
– I would like to fight for the highest quality medals in each tournament as a team, it is fun to win something, whatever the tournament. And individually … I don’t know, I like to dream peacefully (smiles). The contract signed with me was not like a starting player of five players, it is a goal to compete with other players in their position and earn their place on the field in the second half of the season.
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