1.
Baltic Basketball League
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Baltic Basketball League is the Baltic states basketball league founded in 2004. The league mainly focuses on teams from the Baltic states but teams from Sweden, Russia, Kazakhstan, Finland, the teams qualified for the eight-finals based on their ranking after the regular season. All play-off games are played in home-and-away series, Baltic Basketball League also features a Baltic Basketball League Cup competition before the beginning of the regular season since 2008. These are the teams that are participating in 2016–17 season, Statistics include regular season and play-off games Official website Eurobasket. com League Page
2.
Prienai
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Prienai is a city in Lithuania situated on the Neman River,39 km south of Kaunas. In 2001 the city had 11,353 inhabitants, the name of the city is a derivative from a surname Prienas. Pociūnai Airport is associated with the city, the first documented mention of Prienai is in 1502 when the Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander gave the land of Prienai to the noble Mykolas Glinskis. Magdeburg rights were granted to the city in 1609, beginning a period of growth continued through the 17th and 18th century. During World War II, when it was occupied by German troops, people emigrated or were expelled, while the Nazis killed the Jews. On August 27,1941,1,078 Jews from Prienai, the massacre was perpetrated by Rollkommando Hamann and local Lithuanians. 1868 beer brewery of high quality beer founded, AB „Sportinė aviacija“ for a long time was the only glider factory in Soviet Union. Here was created the first Lithuanian glassfibre glider BK-7 Lietuva, Prienai is home to BC Vytautas, a basketball team that competes in the Lithuanian Basketball League. Prienai is a member of the Douzelage, a town twinning association of 24 towns across the European Union. This active town twinning began in 1991 and there are events, such as a produce market from each of the other countries. Discussions regarding membership are also in hand with three further towns
3.
White
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White is an achromatic color, a color without hue. An incoming light to the eye that stimulates all its three types of color sensitive cone cells in nearly equal amounts results in white. White is one of the most common colors in nature, the color of sunlight, snow, milk, chalk, limestone, in many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, white is the color most often associated with perfection, the good, honesty, cleanliness, the beginning, the new, neutrality, and exactitude. In ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, priestesses wore white as a symbol of purity, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance a white unicorn symbolized chastity, and a white lamb sacrifice and purity, the widows of kings dressed in white rather than black as the color of mourning. It was also used in 20th century modern architecture as a symbol of modernity, simplicity. White is an important color for almost all world religions, the Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, has worn white since 1566, as a symbol of purity and sacrifice. In Islam, and in the Shinto religion of Japan, it is worn by pilgrims, in Western cultures and in Japan, white is the most common color for wedding dresses, symbolizing purity and virginity. In many Asian cultures, white is also the color of mourning, the white color on television screens and computer monitors is created with the RGB color model by mixing red, green and blue light at equal intensities. The word white continues Old English hwīt, ultimately from a Common Germanic *χwītaz also reflected in OHG wîz, ON hvítr, the root is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language *kwid-, surviving also in Sanskrit śveta to be white or bright and Slavonic světŭ light. The Icelandic word for white, hvítur, is derived from the Old Norse form of the word hvítr. Common Germanic also had the word *blankaz, borrowed into Late Latin as *blancus, the antonym of white is black. Some non-European languages have a variety of terms for white. The Inuit language has seven different words for seven different nuances of white, Japanese has six different words, depending upon brilliance or dullness, or if the color is inert or dynamic. White was one of the first colors used in art, the Lascaux Cave in France contains drawings of bulls and other animals drawn by paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. Paleolithic artists used calcite or chalk, they sometimes as a background, sometimes as a highlight, along with charcoal and red, in ancient Egypt, white was connected with the goddess Isis. The priests and priestesses of Isis dressed only in white linen, in Greece and other ancient civilizations, white was often associated with mothers milk. In Greek mythology, the chief god Zeus was nourished at the breast of the nymph Amalthea, in the Talmud, milk was one of four sacred substances, along with wine, honey, and the rose
4.
LKF Cup
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LKF Cup was an annual basketball competition for Lithuanian basketball teams. It is organised by Lithuanian Basketball Federation, before 2007 LKF cup wasnt ran regularly, but since then its finals are organisised every January, February or March. Between 2007 and 2014 the competition was played between teams from LKL, NKL and RKL, in 2015, the LKF decided to change the competition format and it is played between the eight first qualified teams of the LKL after the first half of the season. Only three teams have won the cup, the competition was replaced in 2016 by the King Mindaugas Cup. In the 2012–13 season, Lietuvos Rytas and Žalgiris organized a separate competition, two games were played in September 2012, the first one in Kaunas, was won by Žalgiris, 89–71, and the second leg, in Vilnius, both teams tied 87–87. Žalgiris won the Supercup by aggregate score 176–158
5.
Basketball uniform
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A basketball uniform is a type of uniform worn by basketball players. Basketball uniforms consist of a jersey that features the number and last name of the player on the back, as well as shorts and athletic shoes. Within teams, players wear uniforms representing the colors, the home team typically wears a lighter-colored uniform. Different basketball leagues have different specifications for the type of uniform that is allowed on the court, early in the history of the sport, basketball was played in any type of athletic attire, but by the 1900s, special uniforms were developed and marketed to basketball players. The style, cut, and fit of basketball uniforms evolved throughout subsequent decades, originally, basketball was played in any type of athletic attire, ranging from track suits to football uniforms. There were two types of suggested jersey, a sleeve and a sleeveless version. The long pants later evolved into medium-length shorts in the 1920s, and by the 1930s, in the 1970s and 80s, uniforms became tighter-fitting and shorts were shorter, consistent with the overall fashion trends of these two decades. At this time, womens basketball uniforms transitioned from longer-sleeved uniforms to tank-top style jerseys similar to mens basketball uniforms, which more explicitly showed off players muscle tone. In 1984, Michael Jordan asked for longer shorts and helped popularize the move away from tight, for the Christmas Day games of 2013, the NBA introduced a newly designed sleeved jersey with large team and NBA logos on the front. Marketers for the new uniforms realized that fans were unwilling to wear jerseys in their day-to-day life. In 1903, a basketball shoe with suction cups to prevent slippage was added to the official basketball uniform demonstrated in the Spalding catalog. In the 1970s, Slick Watts and Bill Walton began to wear headbands, rick Barry popularized wrist-bands, and other players soon created variations, such as bands that covered their forearms or biceps. These were used to wipe off sweat, or simply worn as fashion statements, in professional basketball leagues today, teams playing at home typically wear lighter-colored uniforms than the visiting team. In the NBA, basketball shorts must fall at least 1 inch above the knee, unlike European basketball leagues, the NBA forbids the display of commercial logos on players uniforms, with the exception of players shoes. Some WNBA teams have allowed sponsors logos to appear on their uniforms, uniforms are made of wicking material designed to absorb sweat and ensure that it evaporates faster. They are the product of a study researching professional basketball players, who identified the need for fewer seams, lighter weight
6.
Away colours
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Away colours are a choice of coloured clothing used in team sports. They are required to be worn by one team during a game between teams that would wear the same colours as each other, or similar colours. This change prevents confusion for officials, players, and spectators, in most sports it is the visiting team that must change – second-choice kits are commonly known as away kits or change kits in British English, and road uniforms in American English. Some sports leagues mandate that teams must always wear an alternative kit. In some sports, conventionally the home team has changed its kit, in most cases, a team wears its away kit only when its primary kit would clash with the colours of the home team. However, sometimes teams wear away colours by choice, occasionally even in a home game, at some clubs, the away kit has become more popular than the home version. Replica home and away kits are available for fans to buy. Some teams also have produced third-choice kits, or even old-fashioned throwback uniforms, in American sports, road teams usually wear a change uniform regardless of a potential colour clash. Further, almost all road uniforms are white in American football, in the National Basketball Association, home uniforms are white or yellow, and visiting teams wear a darker colour. In the United States, color vs. color games are a rarity, most teams choose to wear their color jerseys at home, with the road team changing to white in most cases. White road uniforms gained prominence with the rise of television in the 1950s, a white vs. color game was easier to follow in black-and-white. According to Phil Hecken, until the mid 1950′s, not only was color versus color common in the NFL, even long after the advent of color television, the use of white jerseys has remained in almost every game. The NFLs current rules require that a home jerseys must be either white or official team color throughout the season. If a team insists on wearing its home uniforms on the road, the road team might instead wear a third jersey, such as the Seattle Seahawks Wolf Grey alternate. According to the Gridiron Uniform Database, the Cleveland Browns wore white for home game of the 1955 season. The only times they wore brown was for games at Philadelphia and the New York Giants, in 1964 the Baltimore Colts, Browns, Vikings and Rams wore white regularly for their home games according to Tim Brulias research. The St. Louis Cardinals wore white for several of their home games, until 1964 Dallas had worn blue at home, but it was not an official rule that teams should wear their colored jerseys at home. The use of white jerseys was instigated by general manager Tex Schramm, the Cowboys still wear white at home today
7.
Lithuanian language
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Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.9 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania, Lithuanian is a Baltic language, related to Latvian. It is written in a Latin alphabet, Lithuanian is often said to be the most conservative living Indo-European language, retaining many features of Proto-Indo-European now lost in other Indo-European languages. Anyone wishing to hear how Indo-Europeans spoke should come and listen to a Lithuanian peasant, among Indo-European languages, Lithuanian is extraordinarily conservative, retaining many archaic features otherwise found only in ancient languages such as Sanskrit or Ancient Greek. For this reason, it is one of the most important sources in the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European language despite its late attestation, the Proto-Balto-Slavic languages branched off directly from Proto-Indo-European, then branched into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. Proto-Baltic branched off into Proto-West Baltic and Proto-East Baltic, according to some glottochronological speculations, the Eastern Baltic languages split from the Western Baltic ones between AD400 and AD600. The Greek geographer Ptolemy had already written of two Baltic tribe/nations by name, the Galindai and Sudinoi in the 2nd century AD, the differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after AD800, for a long period, they could be considered dialects of a single language. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th or 15th century, also, the 13th- and 14th-century occupation of the western part of the Daugava basin by the German Sword Brethren had a significant influence on the languages independent development. The earliest surviving written Lithuanian text is a translation dating from about 1503–1525 of the Lords Prayer, the Hail Mary, printed books existed after 1547, but the level of literacy among Lithuanians was low through the 18th century, and books were not commonly available. Brought into the country by book smugglers despite the threat of prison sentences. Jonas Jablonskis made significant contributions to the formation of the standard Lithuanian language and his proposal for Standard Lithuanian was based on his native Western Aukštaitijan dialect with some features of the eastern Prussian Lithuanians dialect spoken in Lithuania Minor. These dialects had preserved archaic phonetics mostly intact due to the influence of the neighbouring Old Prussian language, Lithuanian has been the official language of Lithuania since 1918. During the Soviet era, it was used in official discourse along with Russian, Lithuanian is one of two living Baltic languages, along with Latvian. An earlier Baltic language, Old Prussian, was extinct by the 18th century, such an opinion was first represented by the likes of August Schleicher, and to a certain extent, Antoine Meillet. Endzelīns thought that the similarity between Baltic and Slavic was explicable through language contact while Schleicher, Meillet and others argued for a kinship between the two families. An attempt to reconcile the opposing stances was made by Jan Michał Rozwadowski and he proposed that the two language groups were indeed a unity after the division of Indo-European, but also suggested that after the two had divided into separate entities, they had posterior contact. The genetic kinship view is augmented by the fact that Proto-Balto-Slavic is easily reconstructible with important proofs in historic prosody, vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov believed in the unity of Balto-Slavic, but not in the unity of Baltic. In the 1960s, they proposed a new division, that into East-Baltic, West-Baltic, the Ivanov–Toporov theory is gaining ground among students of comparative-historic grammar of Indo-European language, and seems to be replacing the previous two stances in most PIE textbooks
8.
BC Lietuvos rytas
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BC Lietuvos rytas, also known as Rytas, is a Lithuanian professional basketball club based in Vilnius, Lithuania. The club, founded in 1997 on the basis of another club, Rytas, among other titles, have won two Eurocup titles, five Lithuanian League titles, three Lithuanian Cups and three Baltic Championships. Lietuvos Rytas plays their games at 11, 000-seat Siemens Arena and 2. They also had a daughter club Perlas which was used for the development of young players, Lietuvos Rytas basketball club is connected with the Lietuvos rytas newspaper and owned by newspaper editor Gedvydas Vainauskas who is also the president of the club. Lietuvos Rytas plays in the Eurocup, Lithuanian Basketball League, in 1963 first basketball team from Vilnius, called Žalgiris, was formed. Next year it changed its name to Plastikas, the same year,1964, Plastikas players joined a new team, called Statyba. This name was used for over 30 years, Jonas Kazlauskas, Rimas Girskis, and then head coach Rimantas Endrijaitis led Statyba to a third place in the 1979 Soviet Union Championship. Three years later, Šarūnas Marčiulionis joined the team and became its leader, in 1987, Artūras Karnišovas joined the team at the age of 16. In 1994 Statyba won bronze medals in first LKL season, in 1995 biggest Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvos rytas started sponsoring Sūduva Marijampolė, a basketball club from Marijampolė, Lithuania. The partnership lasted for two seasons, during which the team was known as Lietuvos Rytas Marijampolė and played in the second-tier Lithuanian league, a notable player for the team was teenager Darius Songaila. However, after 1996–97 season partnership ended, at the same time Statyba faced with financial difficulties and was at the verge of bankruptcy. The team needed new investors and in 1997 Lietuvos rytas bought the club, however, new owners didnt want to continue Statyba history and started anew – the team was renamed to Statyba-Lietuvos rytas, then just Lietuvos rytas. The newspapers investment helped the club to establish itself as one of two best in Lithuania, the other being BC Žalgiris from the countrys second-largest city Kaunas, during its first season, Lietuvos Rytas managed to repeat Statybas biggest achievement in LKL and won bronze. Next season was even better - Rytas won LKL silver, losing only to reigning Euroleagues champions BC Žalgiris, team also took second place in 1997 William Jones Cup. The team was coached by Šarūnas Sakalauskas and it was the first time in the history of the Lithuanian Basketball League when Žalgiris did not win the LKL title. Also, Rytas reached the Saporta Cup semifinal, where they met last season Euroleague runner-up Kinder, after an upsetting home win 70–60, Lietuvos rytas lost in Italy 71–83, with Šiškauskas missing a three-pointer which wouldve won the two-game series for his team. The next season, due to the split between the FIBA and ULEB, Rytas played in the FIBA Suproleague, making to the, the team won third place in the NEBL, a step down from the previous seasons second place. In the LKL finals, Žalgiris defeated Lietuvos rytas in tough five game series 3,2, in 2002 Lietuvos rytas repeated their triumph, this time in a dramatic seven-game final series with the last game decided in overtime
9.
Bronze
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These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as stiffness, ductility, or machinability. The archeological period where bronze was the hardest metal in use is known as the Bronze Age. In the ancient Near East this began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, with India and China starting to use bronze around the same time, everywhere it gradually spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age starting from about 1300 BC and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BC, the discovery of bronze enabled people to create metal objects which were harder and more durable than previously possible. Bronze tools, weapons, armor, and building such as decorative tiles were harder and more durable than their stone. It was only later that tin was used, becoming the major ingredient of bronze in the late 3rd millennium BC. Tin bronze was superior to arsenic bronze in that the process could be more easily controlled. Also, unlike arsenic, metallic tin and fumes from tin refining are not toxic, the earliest tin-alloy bronze dates to 4500 BCE in a Vinča culture site in Pločnik. Other early examples date to the late 4th millennium BC in Africa, Susa and some ancient sites in China, Luristan, ores of copper and the far rarer tin are not often found together, so serious bronze work has always involved trade. Tin sources and trade in ancient times had a influence on the development of cultures. In Europe, a source of tin was the British deposits of ore in Cornwall. In many parts of the world, large hoards of bronze artefacts are found, suggesting that bronze also represented a store of value, in Europe, large hoards of bronze tools, typically socketed axes, are found, which mostly show no signs of wear. With Chinese ritual bronzes, which are documented in the inscriptions they carry and from other sources and these were made in enormous quantities for elite burials, and also used by the living for ritual offerings. Pure iron is soft, and the process of beating and folding sponge iron to wrought iron removes from the metal carbon. Careful control of the alloying and tempering eventually allowed for wrought iron with properties comparable to modern steel, Bronze was still used during the Iron Age, and has continued in use for many purposes to the modern day. Among other advantages, it does not rust, the weaker wrought iron was found to be sufficiently strong for many uses. Archaeologists suspect that a disruption of the tin trade precipitated the transition. The population migrations around 1200–1100 BC reduced the shipping of tin around the Mediterranean, limiting supplies, there are many different bronze alloys, but typically modern bronze is 88% copper and 12% tin
10.
Rolandas Alijevas
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Rolandas Alijevas is a Lithuanian professional basketball player of Azeri descent. He is currently a member of Azad University Tehran BC, on 15 April 2011, Alijevas signed a contract with BC Prienai, until the end of the season. On 28 June 2011, he signed with Budivelnik Kyiv in Ukraine, on 13 February 2012, he became a member of the Krasnye Krylia basketball club, based in Samara, Russia. He also played for BC Nevėžis, BC Žalgiris, ASVEL Basket, BC Krka, BC Boncourt, Polonia Warszawa, nike International Junior Tournament MVP, LKAL Champion, FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship Silver, FIBA Under-21 World Championship Gold, Summer Universiade Gold, Euroleague. net Profile
11.
Single-elimination tournament
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Where more than two competitors can play in each match, such as in a shootout poker tournament, players are removed when they can no longer play until one player remains from the group. This player moves on to the next round, some competitions are held with a pure single-elimination tournament system. Others have many phases, with the last being a final stage called playoffs. The round before the quarterfinals is sometimes called the round of sixteen, Last Sixteen, or pre-quarterfinals, earlier rounds are typically numbered counting forwards from the first round, or by the number of remaining competitors. If some competitors get a bye, the round at which they enter may be named the first round, with the matches called a preliminary round. Many Olympic single-elimination tournaments feature the bronze medal if they do not award bronze medals to both losing semifinalists. The FIFA World Cup has long featured the third place match, the number of distinct ways of arranging a single-elimination tournament is given by the Wedderburn–Etherington numbers. Brackets are set up so that the top two seeds could not possibly meet until the round, none of the top four can meet prior to the semifinals. If no seeding is used, the tournament is called a random knockout tournament. One version of seeding is where brackets are set up so that the quarterfinal pairings would be the 1 seed vs. the 8 seed,2 vs.7,3 vs.6 and 4 vs. This may be done after each round, or only at selected intervals, in American team sports, for example, the MLS, NFL and WNBA employ this tactic, but the NBA does not. MLB does not have teams in its playoff tournament where re-seeding would make a large difference in the matchups. In international fencing competitions, it is common to have a group stage, participants are divided in groups of 6–7 fencers who play a round-robin tournament, and a ranking is calculated from the consolidated group results. Single elimination is seeded from this ranking, the single-elimination format enables a relatively large number of competitors to participate. There are no dead matches, and no matches where one competitor has more to play for than the other, the format is less suited to games where draws are frequent. In chess, each fixture in a single-elimination tournament must be played multiple matches, because draws are common. In association football, games ending in a draw may be settled in extra time, another perceived disadvantage is that most competitors are eliminated after relatively few games. Variations such as the tournament allow competitors a single loss while remaining eligible for overall victory
12.
Utena
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Utena is a city in north-east Lithuania. It is the center of Utena district and Utena County. Utena is one of the oldest settlements of Lithuania, the name of the city is most probably derived from a hydronym. The name of the settlement has been known since 1261 and it is known for its clothing, food and beverage factories. In recent years, however, streets, public squares and large areas of the parks in the city were reconstructed and Utena is now an attractive for recreation. In 2007, Utena won a Silver Award in category B of the International Awards for Liveable Communities, the anniversary of Utena City used to be held on the last weekend of September each year. However, since 2013 the anniversary has been moved to the first weekend of September to take advantage of weather conditions. Utena is located in northeastern Lithuania, the city covers 15,1 km² and is the 8th largest city by size in Lithuania. Four rivers cross the city territory, Vyžuona, Krašuona, Vieša, there are also two lakes in Utena, Dauniškis and Vyžuonaitis. The lowest temperature recorded in Lithuania occurred in Utena. It was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until 1795, from 1802 it belonged to the Vilna Governorate until 1843 when it became a part of the Kovno Governorate. The town grew rapidly after the St. Petersburg-Warsaw road was constructed between 1830 and 1835, in 1899 a narrow gauge railway line, connecting Panevėžys-Utena-Švenčionys, was constructed. At the end of the 19th century two big fires devastated the town, germany occupied Utena from 1915-1918, until the Soviet Bolsheviks took over. In June 1919, Utena became a center in independent Lithuania. Utena, known as the shtetl Utyan in Yiddish, historically had a Jewish population, in 1941, approximately 2,000 Jews were rounded up in the town, which was then under the Nazi occupation and shot in the Rašė Forest about 2 km to the north. FK Utenis Utena plays in A Lyga
13.
Mindaugas Lukauskis
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Mindaugas Lukauskis is a Lithuanian professional basketball player for Lietkabelis Panevėžys of the Lithuanian Basketball League. Lukauskis began his career in the Panevežys youth basketball clubs. He got attention from the LKL, and in 2001, he joined Sakalai, in 2002, he signed a one-year contract with Alytus, and he was the top scorer on the team. In 2003, he joined Lithuanian basketball giant Lietuvos Rytas, in 2006, Lukauskis improved his game and alongside Tomas Delininkaitis he gave Rytas a strong impact off the bench. In the 2007 season, he became a starting player, Lukauskis was a member of the Lithuanian national team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. On August 16,2008, when Lithuania played against Croatia in the Olympics and he then went on to become the only two-time Eurocup champion. In July 2009, he joined the French League club ASVEL, in September 2010 he signed with the German Eurocup-Team Baskets Oldenburg. After spending a season with Italys Barcellona Sigma of Legadue, in September 2012 Lukauskis moved to Valencia Basket for signing contract during the injury of Thomas Kelati, on August 7,2016, Lukauskis signed with his hometown Lietkabelis Panevėžys. Note, The EuroLeague is not the only competition in which the player participated for the team during the season and he also played in domestic competition, and regional competition if applicable. net Profile TBLStat. net Profile Eurobasket. com Profile
14.
Antanas Guoga
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Antanas Guoga, more commonly known as Tony G, is a Lithuanian-Australian businessman and poker player, Lithuanian politician and philanthropist. He is a Member of the European Parliament for the Liberal Movement, in May 2016, Guoga was the temporary leader of the Liberal Movement following the bribery scandal that prompted Eligijus Masiulis to step down after potentially corrupt activities. Guoga spent his childhood in Kaunas and in the Alytus district in Lithuania, when he was 11 years old, he moved to Australia. Guoga lived in Melbourne where he graduated from school, and had various jobs, including repairing sewing machines, later, Guoga started working as an assistant to Australian Mortgage Brokers chief Bill Buchanan. He studied accounting and finance at college, in 1993, he was employed by an investment bank in Hong Kong managed by CitiBank. His responsibilities included attracting new customers and managing their investment portfolios, following that, Guoga successfully invested in a news portal, and in Rate Detective life insurance company in Australia. In addition, he developed a business in London. Guoga also owns a business in Australia. Today, more than 500 jobs have been created in the companies in which he has invested, over 300 of them are in Lithuania. Since 2014, Guoga has been married to Aistė Šlapokaitė, a psychology student. Guoga and Šlapokaitė met during her 30th birthday celebrations in a Vilnius night club, together they have a son and are expecting a second child in 2016. Guoga also has a son and two daughters from previous relationships, Guoga was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats group in the European Parliament until 4th of October,2016. He became a member of the European Peoples Party which is the biggest party in the Parliament and he works on a range of digital policies in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee. Guoga is actively involved in a number of Digital Single Market topics, being an entrepreneur himself, Guoga works for better conditions for European businesses, especially in the technology sector. These conditions include smarter regulations, less red tape, and policies that encourage innovation, in 2015 Guoga was chosen as the Lithuanian representative in the POLITICO28 list. The European affairs weekly newspaper chose one person from each of the European Unions 28 member-states who is shaping, shaking and stirring Europe and he is also a substitute member in the Employment and Social Affairs Committee. Guoga is Coder Dojo and entrepreneurship education ambassador in Lithuania, in 2016, he plans to launch Coder Dojo movement in Lithuania and to organise more than 30 programming clubs for 7–17 years old youth in the country. In 2015, he organized #SWITCH, the biggest ICT and entrepreneurship event in the Baltics and this event attracted approximately 6000 participants, including 120 speakers from 16 countries
15.
EuroCup Basketball
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Clubs qualify for the competition based on their performance in their domestic leagues competitions. For this purpose, the clubs from participating in the ABA League qualify for the competition based on their performance in the ABA League. Previously called the ULEB Cup, the competition has been known as EuroCup Basketball since the 2008–09 season, for Euroleague Basketball records purposes, the ULEB Cup and EuroCup Basketball are considered the same competition, with the change of name being simply a re-branding. The winner of EuroCup Basketball qualifies for the edition of the European-wide top-tier level EuroLeague. The winner enters the season, if the berth reserved for the EuroLeague title holders is not used. The title has been won by 11 different clubs,3 of which have won the more than once. According to the agreement, starting with the 2016–17 season, the 2nd-tier level European competition would be named 7DAYS EuroCup and this title partnership was set to run for three seasons. Starting with the 2016–17 season, the EuroCups first phase is the Regular Season, each team plays two games against every other team in its group. At the end of the Regular Season, the field is cut from 24 to 16, the next phase, known as the Top 16, then begin, featuring the 16 survivors of the Regular Season, enter into four-team groups. As in the Regular Season, each Top 16 group is contest in a double round-robin format, the third phase, the Playoffs, the group winners and runners-up advanced. The series are best-of-three and the winners of each advance to next round persistently until the Finals. Home advantage in the series goes to the best place team in the Top 16, the Finals features the two remaining series winners in a best-of-three series with home advantage in the series to the best place team in the Top 16. Historically, the competition began with a phase in which the starting field was reduced to 16 teams. The survivors then advanced to a knockout phase, in the inaugural 2002–03 season, the knockout phase consisted entirely of two-legged ties. In the following 2003–04 season, the became a one-off game. In the 2007–08 season, the phase, now called the Regular Season, was only used to reduce the field to 32 teams. The survivors were paired into two-legged knockout ties, with the advancing to another set of two-legged ties. The survivors then entered the first-ever Final Eight phase in the competitions history, the following 2008–09 season, was the first in which preliminary rounds were conducted
16.
FIBA
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A total of 213 national federations are now members, organized since 1989 into five zones or commissions, Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. The FIBA Basketball World Cup is a tournament for mens national teams held every four years. Teams compete for the Naismith Trophy, named in honor of basketballs Canadian creator James Naismith. A parallel event for teams, the FIBA Womens Basketball World Cup, is also held quadrennially, from 1986 through 2014, it was held in the same year as the mens event. The womens tournament will continue to be held in the year as the FIFA World Cup. In 2009 FIBA announced three new tournaments, two 12-team U-17 World Championships to be played in July 2010, and an eight-team FIBA World Club Championship to be launched in October 2010, however, the FIBA World Club Championship did not materialize. In its place, FIBA instead relaunched its original world club championship for men, the newest worldwide FIBA tournaments for national teams are in the three-player half-court variation, 3x3. The FIBA 3x3 U-18 World Championships were inaugurated in 2011, all events include separate tournaments for mens, womens, and mixed teams. The U-18 championships, held annually, feature 32 teams in each individual tournament, the senior championships have 24 teams in each individual tournament, and are held in even-numbered years. The association was founded in Geneva in 1932, two years after the sport was recognized by the IOC. Its original name was Fédération internationale de basket-ball amateur, eight nations were founding members, Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland. During the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, the Federation named James Naismith, FIBA has organized a World Championship, now known as World Cup, for men since 1950 and a Womens World Championship, now known as the Womens World Cup, since 1953. From 1986 through 2014, both events were held four years, alternating with the Olympics. As noted above, the mens World Cup will be moved to a new cycle, with tournaments in the year before the Summer Olympics. The Federation headquarters moved to Munich in 1956, then returned to Geneva in 2002, in 1991, it founded the FIBA Hall of Fame, the first induction ceremony was held on 12 September 2007, during EuroBasket 2007. During its 81st anniversary in 2013, FIBA moved into its new headquarters, The House of Basketball, patrick Baumann is the current Secretary General of FIBA. Up until that point, even players from some fully registered and licensed professional leagues could qualify to compete at the Olympics, after making this monumental rules change, the Fédération internationale de basket-ball amateur became the Fédération internationale de basket-ball, but it retained FIBA as an abbreviation. The 1994 FIBA World Championship was the first time that the FIBA World Cup allowed current American NBA players that had played in an official NBA regular season game to play
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BC Juventus
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BC Juventus is a professional Lithuanian basketball club which currently plays in the Lithuanian Basketball League. Juventus basketball club was founded in 1999 and debuted in Naujametinis Utenos rajono Mero taurės turnyras, first team roster consisted of other sports players, football players and one handball player. First team captain, which also founded Juventus basketball team was football player Nerijus Kuzmickas, now Šiauliai football academy, child, in the debut Juventus season also played, Egidijus Varnas, Tomas Keraitis, Tomas Karvelis and others. In 2003–2004 season, Juventus basketball team was coached by Rimvydas Vaitkus, Juventus debuted in Lithuania basketball B league and in their debut season, BC Juventus took sixth place. After year, in 2004–2005 season, Juventus basketball team was coached by Mindaugas Kildišius, Juventus basketball team first time in the club history won LKBL championship and won right to participate in the LKAL championship. But because of various barriers, Juventus basketball team wasnt permitted to debut in the second-tier Lithuania basketball league. During 2005–2006 season, BC Juventus took third place in RKL tournament, one season later, Juventus won RKL championship once again and in transition match to the NKL championship, BC Juventus won against Kauno LKKA-Atletas basketball team. Same year, team coach Mindaugas Kildišius, was named the best RKL championship coach, in 2007–2008 season Utenas basketball team debuted in the NKL championship and won regular season, however in the final standings BC Juventus took only fourth place. In the end of 2007, Juventus guard Raimondas Ambrulaitis was named Lithuania basketball discovery of the year, one year later, Juventus basketball team won NKL regular season once again and participated in NKL championship semi-finals. In 2009, Juventus wasnt able to participate in the NKL finals, also because of that, Mindaugas Kildišius assistant Rolandas Urkis coached Juventus basketball team until the end of the season. On 15 June 2009 LKF decided to let Juventus basketball team participate in the Lithuania super basketball league LKL because of the commercial principles, for the permission to participate in the LKL, Juventus basketball team had to pay 350 thousand LTL. On 20 August 2009 Gintaras Kručkauskas became main Juventus basketball team coach, the 2009–2010 LKL season was the most successful in the club history as Juventus basketball team took fourth place in the LKL championship. On 7 July 2010 Robertas Giedraitis became main BC Juventus coach, during 2010–2011 season, BC Juventus first time in the club history became Baltic Basketball League Challenge Cup champions. Also BC „Juventus made a surprise as they eliminated 7-time LKL Bronze streaker Šiauliai in the first round of LKL playoffs. After eliminating Šiauliai in quarter-final, BC Juventus reached LKL semi finals, on 27 April 2011 BC Juventus lost first game at Kaunas Sports Hall against Žalgiris with result 63–95, the second match took place on 29 April 2011 in Utena. Juventus lost the game too and had to fight for LKL Bronze against Rūdupis. Juventus lost first Bronze game at Prienai with result 65–79, the game was unsuccessful for Juventus too as they lost it in their home arena in Utena with result 73–98. In the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 seasons, Juventus did not accomplish anything notable, after the 2011-2012 season, where Juventus missed the playoffs entirely, Robertas Giedraitis was fired as head coach
18.
Tomas Delininkaitis
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Tomas Delininkaitis is a Lithuanian professional basketball player who currently plays for Vytautas Prienai–Birštonas of the Lithuanian Basketball League. He was a member of the Lithuanian national basketball team at the 2010 FIBA World Championship and he is 1.90 m and weighs 82 kg. Delininkaitis established his career in Lietuvos Rytas, alongside Robertas Javtokas and Simas Jasaitis, he led Rytas to an ULEB Cup trophy in 2005, although Rytas lost the LKL and BBL titles to their Lithuanian rivals Žalgiris that season. In the next season, Rytas played in the EuroLeague, where Delininkaitis began to fade away from his role in the team. Still, Rytas had their best season that year, winning their easiest LKL Finals series against Žalgiris, in his last season with Rytas, Delininkaits was the teams sixth man, and he helped Rytas reach their 2nd ULEB Cup final, which they lost to Real Madrid 75–87. In 2007, he signed with Azovmash Mariupol, in 2009, he joined Budivelnyk Kyiv. After playing a fraction of the 2008–2009 season, he moved to CB Murcia to start his 2009–2010 season, after the relegation and the financial problems of Murcia, his contract was terminated, and he joined PAOK, in April 2010. He appeared in 6 games for the Greek side, and he averaged 10.33 points,2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game. After winning a medal with the senior Lithuanian national basketball team, in the 2010 FIBA World Championship, he was signed by Žalgiris Kaunas. On November 5,2014, he signed with AEK Athens of the Greek Basket League. In 25 regular season games, he averaged 9.76 points,1.4 rebounds, on August 12,2016, he signed with Vytautas Prienai-Birštonas. In April, he helped BC Vytautas win the BBL championship, at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, Delininkaitis played for the senior Lithuanian national basketball team, which won the tournaments bronze medal. Note, The EuroLeague is not the only competition in which the player participated for the team during the season and he also played in domestic competition, and regional competition if applicable. net Profile TBLStat. net Profile Eurobasket Profile
19.
FIBA Europe Cup
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FIBA Europe Cup is the 4th tier level international mens professional club basketball competition in Europe. On June 30,2015, FIBA announced it would start a new league to compete with Euroleague Basketballs EuroCup, the new competition, that replaced EuroChallenge, was supposed to be open for up to 100 teams to enter. The first FIBA Europe Cup game was played on October 21,2015, in the Regular season, all teams are divided in groups of four. The best two of each group, along with the best third-placed teams, advance to the Round of 32. In the Round of 32 all teams will once again play in groups of four, starting from the Round of 16 a knock-out tournament is played, each year, the best player of the Final Four wins the FIBA Europe Cup Final Four MVP Award. Quantez Robertson was the first winner in 2016, source, FIBA Europe Cup Basketball Champions League EuroLeague EuroCup Basketball FIBA Europe official website FIBA Europe Cup official website
listen (help·info)), is a professional basketball club based in Prienai and more recently taking up Birštonas. They play domestically in Lithuanian Basketball League and also compete in the Baltic Basketball League every year, during the 2008–09 season, then called Rūdupis they became the champion of the NKL and won the challenge match for a slot in the LKL. In their debut LKL season Rūdupis took seventh place, while next two seasons brought BC Prienai two bronze LKL medals. BC Prienai played in EuroCup 2011–12 with moderate success; the team managed to win 3 games out of 6, but nonetheless failed to qualify for the next stage. More recently, the team has become a strong competitor in domestic tournaments, more than once upsetting teams such as Žalgiris Kaunas and Lietuvos rytas Vilnius; in December 2017, in a highly publicized move, Vytautas signed American basketball players and brothers LaMelo and LiAngelo Ball.
Valdas Dabkus (2010; 2012)