Kavalyauskas, Antanas

Antanas Kavalyauskas was born in Vilnius , Lithuanian SSR . ^[1] At the age of 11, his parents divorced, and Antanas stayed with his mother, grandmother and older sister in a small apartment in Vilnius. His mother, a former volleyball player Birute Kavalyauskene, then worked as a hairdresser, as well as in the guard. ^[2]

Despite the fact that Antanas was neither a good student, nor a good basketball player (he only went out on the court for 5 minutes), his height (209 cm ) attracted the attention of a scout who recommended him to go in for basketball at a general education college in Barton County, Kansas , USA . ^[2]

September 4, 2003 Kavalyauskas arrived in the United States, knowing only three words in English: Yes , no , and o'kay . Another foreign player to the team was the Brazilian Joao Batista , who became the mentor of the young player. For three months, Kavalyauskas began to fluently speak English, his fourth language (after Lithuanian, German and Russian). During the first year of study, he gained weight, which reached 100 kg . ^[2]

In the second year of training, he got into the first team of all regions of all conferences: on average, he scored 17.6 points per game. He led the region in rebounds (10 per game), as well as rebounds in defense (3.9 per game). In the second season, the percentage of hits from the game was 50.9 - according to this indicator, he ranked fifth in the region, and also led the team in the number of block shots (29). During his career in college, his percentage of hits from the game (58) was the second in the history of Barton College. ^[3]

After college, he could choose between the University of South Carolina , Tennessee and the Polytechnic University of Virginia . In the end, Cavaliauskas chose A&M University of Texas, where he played under the direction of Billy Gillispi . ^[3] Gillispi initially wanted to invite another player from Barton College, but after watching the game, Kavalyauskas was satisfied with the speed of such a giant as Antanas. ^[2]

Season One (2005–2006)

In the first 10 games of the debut season for A&M University of Texas, a player scored an average of only 5.4 points per match, and his team in the Big 12 conference won only 4 out of 10. However, in the second 10 matches, Kavalyauskas leveled up and scored already 8, 6 points per game. ^[2] In general, the player scored 6.5 points and 3.4 rebounds per match, leading the team in the percentage of hits from the game (.584). Twice he scored 15 points per game (the highest achievement in his career) - in games against the University of Iowa and Savannah State University, and in the game against the University of Colorado Kavalyauskas scored 9 rebounds. ^[1] Also, the player was included in the symbolic rookie team of Big 12. In total, he played 30 matches in a season. ^[one]

According to the results of the second half of the season, the college team for the first time since 1987 got the opportunity to participate in the NCAA tournament. ^[4] At the tournament, Kavaliauskas scored an average of 10.5 points and 4 rebounds. ^[1] After winning the first round at the University of Syracuse, the team was one step away from getting into the 16 strongest - 18 seconds before the end of the second round match against Louisiana State University, it won 57-55. However, three seconds before the end of the match, Darrell Mitchell threw a three-point shot through Cavalauskas. Antanas blamed himself for defeating him - he printed a photo with Mitchell’s last throw and hung him in the locker room to remind him to work even harder on himself. ^[2]

Second Season (2006–2007)

Soon after the start of the 2006–07 season, the University of Texas team was ranked 6th in the ranking — the highest achievement of the local basketball team. ^[5] The team showed the best start from the opening season of 1959-60 with the ratio of wins and losses of 16–2, as well as the best start in Big 12. ^[6]

On February 3, 2007, the team became the first in the Big 12 conference from the South zone, which was able to beat (in 32 matches) Kansas Johox in the guest arena. Two days later, the team with the number 25 - Texas won the 21st home victory and became the sole leader of the Big 12. conference. ^[7]

After the Dallas Morning News newspaper published an article about Kavalyauskas, mentioning that he only saw his mother twice after moving to the United States, many Texas A&M fans began to raise money to get the family connected. The university found the opportunity to use the funds of the Student Athletes Fund under the auspices of the NCAA and paid for the trip of Birute Kavalyauskene to the USA for her son’s last home match for A&M. ^[8] In the last match of the season against the University of Missouri, Kavalyauskas scored the highest in his career - 26 points with 11 of 12 accurate shots from the game, and his team won 94–78. ^{[9] The} victory allowed the team to finish in second place in the conference - the highest for the university for all the time of entry. ^[10]

In the second season for the university, Kavalyauskas took first place in Big 12 in terms of the percentage of hits from the game (58%). On average, he scored 12.5 points per match - with this indicator hit the second five of Big 12. ^[11]

Despite being the second number of the Big 12 playoff tournament, the Agees were very unsuccessful in their first quarterfinal game against Oklahoma State University and were defeated. ^[12]

For performances in the regular season, the Agees were sown at number 3 in the South in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. ^[12] The team won the game in the first round against Pennsylvania and in the second. ^[13] Louisville’s 72–69 win guaranteed the team a place in the top 16 for the first time since 1980. ^[fourteen]

Club

Kavalyauskas spent two seasons in the championship of Greece , where he played for the clubs “ Panionis ” (2007-08) and “ Kavala ” (2008-09). Then he moved to Italy, where he played for Juventus (Caserta) (2009-10) and Prima Verole (2010-11). In July 2011, the player signed a contract with the Latvian VEF club for a period of one year. ^[15] Since 2013, has been playing for the Spanish club Bilbao .

Since 2014 at Lietuvos Rytas .

In June 2015, the basketball player signed a new contract with Lietuvos Rytas . ^[16]

International

Before the start of the 2005–06 season, Kavalyayuskas started studying at the summer school of the Lithuanian youth team. ^[3] As part of the national team, he won a gold medal at the 2005 World Youth Championships in Argentina . In the final game against the Greek team , the player scored 9 points and 5 rebounds, and the team won 65:63. Kavalyauskas also took part in the games of the youth “Global Games” in Dallas , Texas . At the tournament, his team won bronze with one defeat from the U.S. youth. In the match for the bronze medal, the player scored 22 points and 7 rebounds. ^[one]

In 2012, he made his debut for the first national team of Lithuania , when the team showed a shortage of high players. Due to the low competition for the center spot, he was included in the application of the Lithuanian national team for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London , where the team took 8th place.

International :

• Silver medalist of the European Championship : 2015

• Knight 's cross of the Order of Merit for Lithuania ( Lithuania , 2015 )

• Profile on the official website of BC “Panionis” (Greek)