Hot start, cold shower - Martynas Pocius - Welcome to EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL

Hi, everyone. After my first four weeks in the Euroleague, I think I can safely say that I experienced both the highs and lows of playing in this competition. I guess I did expect a lot of what happened so far: great players playing basketball at a really high level. That was the main impression I take away from the first month. Of course, the big support from our fans was huge, too. There were way more fans at our Euroleague games than we had at domestic games. For both of the Euroleague home games we've had, the place was packed. If that reminded me somewhat of my days at Duke University, my girlfriend saw something that told us we certainly weren't in America anymore. She was surprised to see fans carrying four-packs of beer into the stands to watch the game. In the States, you rarely see a guy with one beer, and in some places beer is not allowed at all. Here, you see them carrying four-packs or even eigh-packs. Home, sweet home!

First, the good news was our opening game, my first in the Euroleague. We were at home against Asvel and, like I said, our crowd was hyped for the Euroleague season to get started. I was a little nervous beforehand, which is natural, but I was definitely excited to be playing in this competition. Fortunately, I started off well. I came in and hit my first couple of shots, three-pointers, and that gave me a lot of confidence. I was able to hit another to give me 10 points before the first quarter ended. I am glad I could help send Zalgiris on its way to a victory to open the season. The best thing that happened was we won the game, and it was a huge confidence boost for us. In the locker room after that, the mood was really good. However, we had some tough games ahead, on the road in Siena and at home against Barcelona...

To say that we were brought down to earth quickly is a bit of an understatement. Going to Siena, I was full of confidence. We had not lost much before that game, so I was thinking that if we played well, maybe we could surprise them. Once that game got going, however, I saw it was a different story. It was totally different from the very start, for me personally and for the team. It was a cold shower for us. We started off well enough and played decently throughout the game, but for three or four minutes in the second quarter, Montepaschi went crazy with something like a 20-0 run that blew us away. We couldn't do anything to overcome that lead, so the game was pretty much lost then. I know it's tough for any team to win in Siena, but what you want is to give your team a chance, and we didn't do that.

Next was Barcelona, and it was good to be home, but we knew it was going to be a really tough game anyway. Two of their great shooters, Navarro and Basile, didn't come with Barcelona. We thought that if we played real well, we might have had a chance to win. It was definitely a heckuva game. The crowd was great, we were doing pretty good, down by just two or three points at the half. We came back to within the same two points with a couple minutes left in the game, but that's where we lacked the experience we need as a group. It's like we almost didn't believe we were down only two against Barcelona, with a chance to win. Once we are all playing together awhile, I am sure we'll be able to handle these situations, but in that game, without that group experience yet, we missed the opportunity. We turned the ball over three times in a row, I think, and that was the end of the story.

Week 4 we went to Cibona, and it's fair to say that if we won there, our team would have been satisfied to start the season 2-2. Unfortunately, we didn't. We can't make excuses, even though a couple of our key guys were real sick. One didn't play and another got out of bed to do so. So we weren't deep that night, and it hurt us. I think our big mistake was we gave them confidence early and they started feeling as though they could beat us on a good day. If we had pressured them from the start and got ahead, they might not have felt so comfortable. But that never happened. They were always up by a couple points at least. We just could not score. Our threes didn't fall, mine especially. We lacked some post scoring. And our defense wasn't in sync that day, so they were using extra passes and kick-outs to get open looks at the basket. It's even more frustrating to lose that game because Cibona is probably our main competitor for a spot in the Top 16. Now, we'll need to beat them at home by more than they beat us. It also means that we really have to win our next game, at home against Fenerbahce Ulker.

After one month, I can say that the one thing that has surprised me that in general I didn't think would be a problem is the lack of practice time. Of course, Zalgiris is unique because we are in so many competitions: the Lithuanian League and the Baltic League as well as the Euroleague. Don't get me wrong: when I looked at the schedule at the beginning of the season and saw how many games we played, I thought: 'Oh, great, there won't be much practice time'. But now, I see how important practices are. You are just not as sharp without it. Even though we play three or four games a week, I think you kind of lose fundamentals when you're not practicing hard. You forget simple things when you don't practice: you don't set the screen on time, you make a bad read on a play, or you don't run motion right. I'm not talking about taking enough practice shots, either. We get plenty of shooting reps, because we add some every time we come in for video or scouting meetings. So there's a lot of shooting between games, enough to keep your stroke. What I miss with this schedule is the hard-contact, five-on-five practices working on plays and anything else you need to. We are still playing a lot of games, but by the new year the schedule slows down and we'll have more time to practice. Between now and then, though, we've got a lot of tough games.

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MARTYNAS POCIUS - KAUNAS, LITHUANIA