Well, we're still alive, and that's all that matters right now. In this case, 'we' refers to my team, Zalgiris Kaunas, and to me, Martynas Pocius. And of course we're alive in the Euroleague after our first Group H victory last week, over previously undefeated Fenerbahce Ulker, in overtime, with heart-attack shots, back-and-forth scoreboard, crowd going wild.... you know, the Top 16. And the best part is, we're going to do it again. Well, I can't promise a victory when we play Power Electronics Valencia on Thursday, but we will be home again, needing another win to survive, and the crowd in Kaunas will be bouncing off the walls. That much I can promise!

The victory over Fenerbahce goes back two weeks before it actually happened. We had played them in third game of the Top 16, on the road in Istanbul. We came out strong, had the game in our hands early, then Sarunas Jasikevicius came in and settled them down. It was a tie game more or less the rest of the way, and we were down by just a couple points with 6 minutes left. They hit some big three-pointers right then, Mirsad Turkcan and Marko Tomas, and we couldn't keep it going till the end. It was tough to go 0-3 in the group, for sure, but we didn't leave Istanbul feeling like we couldn't play with them. We had given them a challenge on their own floor. Then we were going to get a week break, which we definitely needed to regroup and get our minds right. We had a cup championship the... more

 Well, it's been awhile since I talked to you, and a lot has happened, but I mostly prefer to look forward right now, because right in front of my team, Zalgiris Kaunas, is a game that will define our season. We are 0-2 in Group H of the Top 16, and we travel to play Fenerbahce Ulker, the undefeated group leader at 2-0, on Wednesday. In just a six-game round, the math is clear enough. We almost have to win, on the road, against one of just five undefeated teams in this round, to have a realistic shot at keeping our Euroleague season alive. But guess what? I am psyched to be headed back to Istanbul! The last time I was there was September, and it was all good for me and for the Lithuanian national team, as we won the bronze medal in the World Championships. Few people expected us to do that, either. Just yesterday, I and four teammates from that team - Tomas Delininkaitis, Mantas Kalnietis, Tadas Klimavicius and Paulius Jankunas - we were all invited to Vilnius to take part in the draw for next summer's European Championships. Being together again with our national team coach put the memories of Istanbul kind of fresh in our minds again. Honestly, you don't get much of a chance to re-live that dream, but when the memories come back, they are certainly good. Now, we're going to the same town and the same arena on Wednesday, and hopefully it will be good luck for us. We will try to use some of the magic from our last trip there to make... more

Hi everyone! It has been four weeks since I last blogged, and a lot has happened in that time. We went on a three-game winning streak, tied for first place in our group, and have since fallen to second, but we're still confident about making the Top 16 and challenging for first place, too. I spoke then about our group being attractive not just for the excellent teams, but for the chance to play in front of some of the best basketball fans in the world. Now that I have visited some of those places, all I can say is it's more exciting than I imagined. One of our guys in the locker room before we played Partizan last week said it best. You know the crowd is out there hating you, but it's so interesting. It's scary, but at the same time, that's what you train all your life, games like that. To go out against 10,000 fans screaming at you and try to perform on the top level against the top teams in Europe is a dream come true for any basketball player. All the venues so far - in Spain, Serbia and Tel Aviv - have been so exciting, and of course it's the same for us at home. The crowds in this group are exactly what basketball players want to experience.

Our winning streak started at home against Asseco Prokom, and of course, that was a different moment. We were 1-1 at the time, coming off a big road loss and and knew we needed a win badly just to keep moving forward in such a tough group. A lot of people in Kaunas seemed to forget that Prokom was... more

Hi, everyone! For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Martynas Pocius of Zalgiris Kaunas, and I’m glad to be back blogging for you on Euroleague.net again this season. This makes it two years in a row for me in the Euroleague and on this blog. We were able to reach the Top 16 and win a couple games there last season, so let’s see if we can do more this time for the fans of Zalgiris. But first things first: we have a super tough regular season group to get through, and that’s all that we have on our minds right now.

Although I played one year here already, it was a little bit of an adjustment to return right after the World Championships. First, there was no time at all to enjoy the bronze medal we won. Someday, I will look back on that great experience, but for now we just had to forget about it and get to work with our clubs. Here at Zalgiris, we have a new coach, Aco Petrovic, and as soon as five of us came back from the national team, it was time for us to learn his system. I had only met him briefly for a quick conversation when we played Zalgiris in our last warm-up game before leaving for Turkey in the summer – which was strange (playing against my own team, not meeting the coach). Getting adjusted to a new coach can sometimes be difficult for a player, but Coach Petrovic was very supportive. He watched all our games with the national team and knew each of our styles, knew what we can do. We feel the trust from him and now we just have to convert that into more Euroleague wins.

As I said, I think we have a tough group, not to mention an exciting one. Any basketball player would have to be overjoyed to play in Kaunas, Belgrade, Tel Aviv and Vitoria in the same season. That’s not... more