TMTM
SoCal College Game Preview
UCLA Takes
on Silute Lithuanian
Team Tonight at Pauley--(November 13, 1997)
UCLA will be without its regular starting Center Jelani McCoy or forward Kris Johnson tonight as the Bruins open their exhibition season against a team of Lithuanians from Silute. UCLA will probably start J. R. Henderson at center, Baron Davis at the point, Toby Bailey at a forward/wing spot, Earl Watson and either Brandon Loyd or freshman Rico Hines if Loyd cannot start because of his broken nose suffered in Sunday's scrimmage.
So who are they playing? Silute has been traveling up and down the state, and on Tuesday lost to Santa Clara 99-67. Silute beat UC Irvine (a team that went 1-25 last year) by only two points, 71-69, but lost to Pepperdine pretty badly. But that doesn't even begin to tell the story.
The Silute Team, if it is the same one which plays in the Lithuanian League, will feature Dion Cross from Stanford, Shawn Myers, and Donaldas Kairys from Warren -Wilson College. Not a single player on the squad is smaller than 6'-2", and the team average looks to be about 6'-5".
In other words, if this is the team they'll play, they're going to have to run like hell. And they've got the guys who can do that; the only question is whether they've got the chemistry yet, and the experience to play what essentially looks like a pretty tall team on paper.
And remember, Pepperdine is a whole lot taller than UCLA this year, and based upon our own personal observations also looks to be just as fast, if not faster, than UCLA.
The official roster of the Silute Team from their web site looks like this:
| No | Player | POS | PB | HGT | WGT | PRT | ||
| 4 | Mindaugas Jokulis | G | Silute | 195/6'-3" | 98 | "Silute" | ||
| 5 | Raimondas Leikus | C | Kelme | 210/6'-8" | 115 | "Silute" | ||
| 6 | Dion Cross | G | USA | 188/6'-2" | 78 | Stanford Univ. (NCAA) | ||
| 8 | Arvydas Straupis | F | Kaunas | 200/6'-5" | 96 | "Silute" | ||
| 9 | Valdas Kaukenas | F | Vilnius | 203/6'-6" | 95 | "Silute" | ||
| 10 | Kestutis Kemzura | G | Kaunas | 190/6'-3" | 91 | "Silute" | ||
| 11 | Robertas Kuncaitis | F | Silute | 200/6'-5" | 105 | "Silute" | ||
| 12 | Marijonas Petravicius | F | Silale | 206/6'-7" | 90 | VJSM | ||
| 13 | Tomas Preisagalavicius | G | Vilnius | 191/6'-3" | 89 | "Alita-Savy" | ||
| 14 | Shawn Myers | G | USA | 197/6'-5" | West Georgia, NCAA | |||
| 15 | Mindaugas Timinskas | F | Silute | 200/6'-5" | 96 | "Silute" | ||
| * | Tadas Petravicius | F | Klaipeda | 2006'-5" | 95 | "Silute" | ||
| Regimantas Butvydas | F | Silute | 198/6'-5" | 99 | VJSM | |||
| Aivaras Misius | F | Silute | 197/6'-5" | 90 | "Silute" | |||
| Zydrunas Stankus | G | Silute | 191/6'-3" | 87 | "Silute" | |||
| Martynas Valaitis | G | Kaunas | 190/6'-3" | 77 | "Silute" | |||
| Donaldas Kairys | G | Silute | 190/6'-3" | 75 | Warren-Wilson Coll. | |||
| Head coach: Steponas Kairys | ||||||||
| * - T.Petravicius has signed with Polish team for the rest of the season. | ||||||||
POS - position; PB - place of birth; HGT - height (cm)/ft; WGT - weight (kg); PRT - previous team
Anyway, we'll be at the game tonight, and it's also being broadcast on AM 1150, Sports Radio LA, the "Official Home of Bruin Basketball."
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