WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. ? Long live Lithuania.
A worldwide audience saluted Wake Forest junior Darius Songaila and his pals from Eastern Europe last summer after their narrow 85-83 semifinal loss to the U.S. Dream Team at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Tonight, an ESPN audience tunes in as Songaila, who scored 12 points against NBA players Alonzo Mourning, Vin Baker and Kevin Garnett, matches wits against Eric Chenowith, Drew Gooden and Nick Collison of college powerhouse Kansas.
Tipoff for the KU-Wake Forest nonconference basketball battle is 6:05 p.m. at Lawrence Joel Coliseum.
“Right now this is bigger,” the 6-foot-9 Songaila said of the matchup between the No. 3-ranked Jayhawks (7-0) and No. 11 Demon Deacons (6-0). “The Olympics are over. I’m done being happy about the Olympics. I still cherish my bronze medal, but now I’m at Wake Forest and we have a big game coming up.”
Songaila averaged 9.6 points and 4.8 rebounds for Lithuania, which placed third overall after winning five of eight games. He had 16 points against the U.S. in a nine-point qualifying-round loss.
Not bad stats for the only non-professional athlete on Lithuania’s team.
“I definitely had a great experience,” Songaila said. “When I was a young kid, all I dreamed of was to play for the Lithuanian National Team because the NBA was so far away. That was my goal. I finally got my chance and it was a great experience.”
A great experience and a tiring one.
Songaila, who missed several weeks of school and spent most of the summer preparing for the Games, found the Olympic experience exhausting.
“When I got back, it took a week to get adjusted to this time zone,” Songaila said. “Strength-wise, I had to catch up.”
Wake Forest coach Dave Odom noticed Songaila needed a second wind.
So he told the big guy to take it slow and easy during the early portion of the season.
“We are being relatively careful not asking him to do too much too long because of his long and exhausting experience in the Olympics,” Odom said.
Songalia averages 13.2 points and 6.3 boards while averaging 26.3 minutes a game.
“Two and a half months of training and actively playing games takes its toll on his body,” Odom said. “When we got him in mid-October we gave him 10 days to get his legs back under him, to begin to recover. He worked out lightly in that time. We’ve tried to hold him to 22 minutes for the most part. I am not going to tell you he’ll only play 22 minutes against Kansas. His minutes will be more like an ACC game. We need him in there. His game has improved. His confidence level is higher than a year ago (when he averaged 13.7 ppg). His defense is better. We feel he’s going to have another outstanding season.”
Odom sees tonight as a major test for Songaila
“The ability of Kansas’ big men to run the court … they are relentless and do it every single possession,” Odom said. “You cannot take a single possession off. We must make sure they only get one shot and we hope to make it a bad one and get the rebound. They are unrelenting offensive rebounders and have no fear of getting fast break baskets scored on themselves.”
Songaila knows it could be a track meet. “They have a strong front line. Their big men run so well,” he said.
The story line, in fact, might be “a little bit our inside game against more a perimeter game for Wake Forest,” KU coach Roy Williams said. “We do have some strength inside. I like our big guys offensively and on the backboards. We’ve got to do a better job on defense.”
Wake’s perimeter players have been on fire as the Deacons are hitting 54.9 percent of their shots.
Junior guard Craig Dawson, who has been coming off the bench, averages a team-leading 15.5 points on 55.4 percent shooting. Senior guard Robert O’Kelly averages 13.7 points on 39.4 percent three-point shooting. Sophomore Josh Howard averages 12.0 points a game.
The Demon Deacons have won 11 consecutive games dating to last season when Wake claimed the Postseason NIT title. Included is a 71-60 win at Michigan this season.
“This game will be more like a February game from an atmosphere standpoint,” Odom said. “Hopefully both teams will play hard and play well and it’ll be a close game. That would be the best of both worlds.”
Wake Forest will return the trip to Lawrence next season.
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