Hello, Eurocup fans! My name is Renaldas Seibutis but friends and teammates call me Ronnie. I am 23, play for iurbentia Bilbao Basket and came from a city named Palanga in Lithuania. I have played professional basketball for almost nine years and this is my first Eurocup Final Eight, so I am very excited about it. I have been a big basketball fan since I was a kid. Basketball really is a big part of my life, and has been for a long time. I woke up dreaming about basketball every day, probably because I went to sleep thinking about it every night, too. One of my dreams was to win European titles and now I have the chance to do that. Going to the Final Eight with iurbentia Bilbao Basket is a big thing for me, but our work has just started. We have achieved a lot already this season but we want to do even better. This is a good feeling and obviously, when you love basketball the way I do, you see this as a blessing.

We finished the Last 16 with a big win against Lietuvos Rytas to finish first and face Zadar in the Eurocup quarterfinals. It was not the first time that I faced a Lithuanian team, but every time it happens, it is very special. You try to think that it is a regular game but actually it is not. It was a good feeling to play against and beat Lietuvos Rytas, because it was an important win for all of us. Moreover, we finished first in our Last 16 group and reached the Final Eight as a group... more

The Eurocup season is winding down. Seven of the eight teams have already booked their tickets to the Final Eight. Unfortunately, the Artland Dragons are not one of those teams, but I am proud of our team nonetheless. This leaves me an opportunity to gossip about some of the teams still playing.$0$0Team I would most like to win the Final Eight:$0$0This one is a no-brainer....Bilbao. Finishing second in our group makes them an underdog, and I always root for underdogs. Also, we were able to squeak out a victory at home against them. Therefore if they win, I can say, "Oh well, we may not have won the entire competition, but our team was able to get a win against the 2009 Eurocup champions." My second pick would be a dead tie between Pamesa Valencia and Lietuvos Rytas. In this case, if either team won, I could at least mention that our team played in tough groups, I mean geesh, we had the 2009 Eurocup champion...of course leaving out that we lost to both of them twice.$0$0Team outside of our group that I would like to win if the other options fail:$0$0Benetton Treviso. After the CJ Wallace blog about MarioKart, I feel intellectually inferior...the guy dabbles with book writing in his free time. Also he is a lot cooler, he plays DS with all of his teammates. I watch my teammates play NBA2K9, but I am too nervous to actually play amongst them. So putting his better qualities aside, he makes a good point... more

Yes my friends, the time has come. The much-anticipated follow up to my blog debut has finally arrived. Ok, yes, I will admit it; I did not receive any critical acclaim for my first blogging attempt. Shocking I know, but I'm a self-admitted work in progress. However, the immensely talented editors over at Eurocupbasketball.com asked me for another go-round, so I'm taking that to mean the fans out there reading at least tolerated or maybe even moderately enjoyed my writing efforts. And with those reassurances fresh on my mind, I confidently embark into my second posting.

Enough of trying to sound somewhat smart, let's get to the important stuff here. Our team, Benetton Treviso, just won our fourth consecutive game in the Last 16 and guaranteed our trip to Torino for a spot in the Final Eight. On top of that, we put ourselves in very good position to qualify as the first-place seed in our group. Other people seem to think this is important, and obviously given the choice, our team would prefer to play a team finishing second in their group rather than first. However, especially as we narrow the field to the final eight teams of the competition, I think every matchup will be extremely dangerous and escaping with wins will be a huge challenge.

Luckily for me, I don't have to bother thinking about those kinds of things. We still have two important games left in the Last 16 to secure a first place position, and even... more