REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - Zalgiris Kaunas continued their reign over the Adidas Next Generation Tournament (ANGT) qualifying event in Kaunas as the Lithuanian giants beat VEF Riga to reach the ANGT Finals at the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four in Madrid in May.

Zalgiris jumped ahead early and breezed to an 87-65 win over VEF in a re-match of the 2014 ANGT Kaunas qualifier final. Power forward Martynas Echodas won the MVP trophy from the tournament while point guard Laurynas Beliauskas was also named to the All-Tournament Team, which included Fenerbahce center Omer Yurtseven, INSEP's Bathiste Tchouaffe and VEF's Rodions Kurucs.

By completing their third undefeated run at the ANGT qualifier in Kaunas - they achieved the feat in 2012 and 2014 as well - Zalgiris booked their spot in the Finals for the 11th time in 13 events. That hasn't translated into much success of late however as Zalgiris' two titles came in 2003 and 2007 and the club's most recent of three finals appearance came in 2011 following 2005 and 2006.

Zalgiris is the third club to book a spot in the eight-team field in Madrid in May alongside Stellazzurra Basketball Academy Rome, who won the ANGT Rome qualifier; and Real Madrid, who took the title in the L'Hospitalet event. The fourth and final qualifying tournament will run February 27-March 1 in Belgrade.

Given that the defending champion is guaranteed a spot, that means Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade will also be in Madrid, regardless of whether or not they win their fifth straight Belgrade tournament. The other four spots are wild cards and it would seem that VEF Riga have a great shot to receive one of them, especially since they reached the Kaunas final two years in a row and they have one of the most exciting players in the 1998-born age group in Kurucs; and they play an entertaining style of basketball.

While Kurucs did have help with other solid players - such as Verners Kohs and Zigmars Raimo, Zalgiris were clearly the best, most complete and deepest team. Echodas was named to the All-Tournament Team in the ANGT Finals last spring in Milan and he lived up to expectations by averaging 22.0 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists.

In addition, Martynas Varnas has an exciting all-around game; Laurynas Birutis is a big man who has made major steps forward since playing for Lithuania last summer at the U18 European Championship, there is the solid playmaker Beliauskas; and the team-orientated Mykolas Dieninis. 

So it's no surprise that Zalgiris were celebrating again at Zalgirio Arena. 

But it was disappointing to see VEF not be able to give Zalgiris a better game, especially after beating Fenerbahce in the decider for the top spot in Group B.
Fenerbahce big man Yurtseven put up a serious case to be the tournament's MVP, leading the Kaunas ANGT in scoring (24.8 points per game) rebounding (14.8) and blocked shots (3.0), while shooting 56 percent from the field and collecting 1.5 steals and 1.3 assists.

The only negatives were that he shot just 59 percent from the free-throw line - and that Fenerbahce ended up losing to INSEP in the game for third place as well.

Fenerbahce did have other intriguing players, including lefty guard Egehan Arna, who was slowed by an injury over the course of the tournament after a great opening game of 31 points, nine assists, six steals and four rebounds. Another name to watch is Ahmet Duran, who will not turn 16 until January 28 but collected a monster 16-point, 16-rebound double-double in the first game and had six points and 10 rebounds in his second game before falling off a bit.

INSEP ended up in the third place game after losing in the Group A decider to Zalgiris. In addition to the sharpshooter Tchouaffe, INSEP had Stephane Gombauld, who remains a strong presence inside but has yet to really develop his game outside.

But the player who garnered the most attention - and not just because he's 2.15m tall - is Jonathan Jeanne. The big man took a big step in his development since playing for France at the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship. He still needs to add mass to his extremely long frame, but he moves well, has worked on adding to his game around the basket and he remains a disturbance at the defensive end.

Here is a quick rundown of the other teams at the Kaunas ANGT:
Ondrej Sehnal was clearly the top man for a weak USK Future Stars Prague team as he finished with averages of 13.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.0 steals and a wildly impressive 9.7 fouls drawn per game - though with that number he must shoot better than 65 percent from the line as a point guard.

For as good and deep as Zalgiris is, Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius did not really have much high-level talent. Jokubas Svambaris was the team's main weapon. Alexander Kurbatov was one of the few highlights for a lackluster CSKA Moscow team while Richard Freudenberg struggled a bit as the main option for Bayern Munich as teams tried to take him out of the game for a German side which lacked talent depth.

All-in-all, it was a strong tournament and Zalgiris deservedly returns to the ANGT Finals.

David Hein

FIBA

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