REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - There's always a first - it's just a matter of time. And that's the question at the Adidas Next Generation Tournament (ANGT) this weekend in Kaunas where the host team Zalgiris Kaunas has never lost.

There's always a first. Will it come this time around? Can someone keep Zalgiris from winning their fourth ANGT Kaunas crown and advance to the ANGT Finals for the 12th time in 14 editions? Well, let's take a step back.

Two teams have already booked their tickets to the ANGT Finals in Berlin in May at the Euroleague Final Four. Mega Leks Belgrade won the crown at the ANGT Rome just after Christmas and the reigning continental champions Real Madrid extended their ANGT winning streak to 14 games (and 25 wins in the last 27 games) by repeating their ANGT L'Hospitalet title.

The Kaunas winner will be crowned on Sunday and the fourth qualifier for the eight-team ANGT Finals will be decided in late February in Belgrade. And then four wild cards will be handed out to complete the field.

So, can Kaunas do it? Can they extend their undefeated ANGT streak at Zalgirio Arena to 16-0 and claim a fourth crown following 2011-12, 2013-14 and 2014-15? Up to four teams will get a shot at the two-time defending continental champions Zalgiris, who are joined in Group A by Cibona Zagreb, Fenerbahce Istanbul and Porsche Basketball Academy Ludwigsburg.

The group winner will advance to the final on Sunday and face the winner of Group B, which features two past ANGT title winners in INSEP Paris and Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius as well as USK Future Stars Prague and VEF Riga.

Let's run down the teams in the event, which runs Friday to Sunday in the Lithuanian hotbed of basketball.

The 2003 and 2007 ANGT winners Zalgiris are probably the favorites going in - and not just because they have the home court advantage. One of the biggest storylines of the tournament will be how Isaiah Hartenstein, Germany's gem from the 1998 generation, adapts to his new teammates. Zalgiris signed the long and talented power forward to a long-term deal and allowed him to stay in Germany for this season. But he will join his new teammates for the tournament.

The captain of the team will be Arnas Velicka, who is a year younger than the competition but was named to the All-Star Five of the 2015 U16 European Championship after leading Lithuania to second place. Zalgiris will also feature power forward Gytis Masiulis, who played a solid role in Lithuania finishing third at the 2015 U18 European Championship.

Cibona return to the competition after sitting out last season. And the Croatian team's best players will likely be underage ones as the 1998 Croatian class isn't that great. Oton Jankovic is considered one of the best players of the entire 2000 generation while Kresimir Nikic is a highly talented center from the 1999 generation. And Austrian Josip Popic is a big block of a man who had a strong 2015 U18 European Championship Division B as an underage player.

Similarly, Ludwigsburg return to the ANGT after not taking part in the competition last season. The German club has a couple of interesting players, including the 1999-born Mateo Seric, who played tennis for the German youth national team until picking up basketball in December 2013. Thirteen months later he was playing for Germany at the 2015 U16 European Championship.

Ludwigsburg also will have Thorben Doding on loan from Artland Dragons for the tournament and the 1999-born playmaker has some serious flash to his game. By no means is this a comparison but some of his passes make one remember the joy that Jason Williams gave us for years and years. It definitely wouldn't be a surprise if Doding watched his share of White Chocolate highlight tapes growing up.

The final team in Group A Fenerbahce, who reached the 2012 ANGT title game. The Turkish club will have a weak team as the club’s top player from 1998 Omer Yurtseven was not made available for the tournament. The only real talent on the Fenerbahce team will be 1999-born center Ahmet Can Duran, who was a big factor at last season's ANGT Kaunas despite being two years younger. Duran still has not changed his body at all which must be concerning for the club though he still has a nice skill set for a big man in the blocks.

In Group B, the 2012 champions Lietuvos Rytas have an even mix of 1998 and 1999 generation players. The top guy from 1998 is Aistis Pilauskas, who played at the 2015 U16 European Championship. The team also features four players from the second-placed U16 European team last summer including Grantas Vasiliauskas.

USK Prague have a couple of interesting players as well as a famous name. Jakub Tuma played for the Czech Republic at the U18 European Championship last summer and will be the team’s leader. And the famous name is Jan Zidek, the 1999-born eldest son of former NCAA and Euroleague champion Jiri Zidek.

The storyline for the 2010 champions INSEP is more about who is missing from the team and how those spots were filled. Star talent Killian Tillie and two other 2014 U16 European champions are not included in the roster, though U16 Euro champs Bathiste Tchouaffe and Timothe Vergiat will play in Kaunas. To fill those roster spots, INSEP will be bringing in three 2000 born players Sekou Doumbouya, Joel Ayayi and Yohan Randriamananjara.

The other team in Group B is VEF Riga, who finished runners-up in the last two ANGT Kaunas events, both times suffering their only loss of the tournament in the final to Zalgiris. Last season VEF was rewarded with a wild card. This season's team doesn’t have the same level of talent as last year. One of the names to watch is Karlis Garoza.

So, who wins and books their ticket to Kaunas?

Let's say it this way, Hartenstein and Velicka keep the winning streak going as they prevail the battle for Lithuania in the final over Lietuvos Rytas. And INSEP beat Cibona in the Third Place Game.

David Hein

FIBA

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