Žydrūnas Urbonas – about the unburned European Cup plan and the attempt to invite a famous American / News

After the chaotic end of the preseason, the Utena Juventus team arrived at the LKL starting line in an ambiguous mood. Žydrūnas Urbonas entered the season opener with only 10 players, two of them aged 16 to 17.

One of them, Martynas Žvirblis, appeared on the field when the fate of the duel became clear, and until then the entire game fell on the shoulders of eight basketball players. His forces weren’t enough for the intense 40 minutes.

Urbon was convinced that the team could still endure the first half, at that time he had serious doubts about the second half and those doubts were confirmed. Rytas advanced by scoring 32 points in the third half.

“I grew up in a fairy tale time long ago,” Urbon began. – I still read to children, but I myself no longer believe in them. The simple thing is that, before the game, all I thought was how we would handle the intensity in the second half. Now there are simply not two defenders and with such intensity that there are 12 people in Rytas, and the twelfth is Augustas Marčiulionis, MVP of the NKL (Marčiulionis became the best young and most improved basketball player in the NKL – past aut.) .

It was a matter of not breaking up, and we broke up, we abandoned the initiative ourselves. At the beginning of the third quarter, mistakes were made, although we were not tired yet, and then everything is clear. I see people who try, but the physical trainer also noticed that we couldn’t. And “Rytas” regularly drove at -30. Bryant has to come back, thank God we finished this game without injuries.

Over time maybe another lineup will show up, we will definitely move in asap because loaded wait. The European Cup shuffled the cards for us, we had agreed with some, but we did not get a place in the European Cup, now it is natural that some serious guys fell, we really wanted to see them. Now you have to buy under the table, cheaper. It had an impact, we spent time in vain. “

– When should Bryant Crawfod return?
– Doctors allow it from Tuesday to Wednesday. Of course, this is our main organizer of attacks, in addition to sharpness, points and effective passes. Together with Marius Runkauskas, they looked great, when we played in several games in nine, there was a completely different rhythm. We participated in the Sargūnas tournament, we exhaled with great force while playing in seven. So far, we are playing in mild emergency mode.

– Why didn’t we get a place in the European Cup in the end?
– We just don’t have an arena that meets the requirements right away. You already have to play on September 30. The three-point site should be a different color, LED screens, different timers on the baskets. It would have been very difficult to achieve everything in 10 days. We just couldn’t physically. As the saying goes, we, as an organization, have grown our salon. It is a bit unfortunate that we have not taken advantage of the situation. The European Cup has welcomed another club with a magic hall, we have played in the Champions League, but it can be done until today according to the requirements.

– You mentioned that if you do not enter the European Cup, you must choose players from another class. What was in your sight?
– There was DeAndre Kane, who played for Maccabi in Tel Aviv, a player in the Euroleague. If we had played the European Cup, we would have had it. Serious gamer. We could afford to choose players of this level. Imagine if we had such a person in third position. Now we have to end the poster, because if we had been in the European Cup, we would have received more money from the sponsors.

– Do you see opportunities to have a good fight with Rytas this season?
– We will definitely get stronger with the return of Bryant and the new man in third position. Then we will become a team: there will be rotation and natural competition between us. Today I changed players because I was tired of having to change. I felt like a coach without communication.

– When can we expect a newcomer to arrive?
– I wait from Tuesday to Wednesday. This is such an optimistic scenario.

– It seems you have a specific option.
– Your last name is a proposal, we have to receive an answer today. If it is negative, we have other surnames, we will not wait that long.

– What did you say to the judges who had earned you a technical foul?
– With all due respect, there was a very good evaluation today. We have been speaking at seminars for 10 years in a row. When I ask without bad words, they warn me. For me, those things are rare. Really with all due respect, your job is not easy. Possibly those mistakes do occur, but I do not realize this arrogance in this work. I am a fairly normal man who understands normal and intelligent human language. Jurgis and Juozas arrived, everything was normal and I didn’t understand the technicians, where was this arrogance, where was the desire to put something on the ground.