After facing failure last March, Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis dedicated himself in the offseason. He ended up pacing the Pac-12 in scoring and rebounding — and leading the Wildcats to a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Bruce Pascoe SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The All-American honors, the Pac-12 Tournament MOP award, leading the conference in scoring and rebounding, those were all just byproducts of the goal.
Players always work on their games in the offseason, but this was something else. It was efficient. It was focused. It was almost ... angry. “It went fast, really fast,” he said. “And I'm happy where we are. We're playing good, solid basketball.” Living in the same Likens dorm as freshmen with the Tubelis brothers, Weitman spent time getting to know them. A local who played a standout role on Salpointe’s 2020 4A state champions, Weitman drove them around Tucson to get them familiar with their new home from home.
“I think my defense improved the most, and my shooting from the 3-point line,” Tubelis said. “That’s basically it. I didn’t work on my bounce, so I don’t know.” “In his mind is just winning, winning, winning,” Tautvilas Tubelis said. “He never looks on personal achievements or whatever. He just wants to win. He works on himself to help the team. And you see the results.”
But Tubelis was fighting off a wrist injury over the summer, and both UA and the Lithuanian basketball federation agreed that it would be in everybody’s long-term interests for Tubelis to rehab and continue to develop in Tucson over the summer. After all, Lithuania probably could use a 25- or 30-year old Tubelis in the World Cup or Olympics someday.
“The national team, at the end of the day, what they want the most is for the team to be good,” Fois said. “So to have a player get better is gonna make the best chance for the senior team to be good. We have a great relationship with the Lithuanian federation.” Late reboundActually, it did show up at the beginning of the season. Tubelis threw down 30 points on Cincinnati in the first round of the Thanksgiving-week Maui Invitational, outplayed first-team AP All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis of Indiana with 21 points and seven rebounds against the Hoosiers in December and made his way to the free-throw line 12 times en route to a 29-point game against Washington State on Jan. 7 at McKale Center.
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