Tipoffs at 9 p.m. might be a hardship for early rising Arizona basketball fans, but theyβre probably just about right for Valentina TubelienΓ©.
Instead of getting up in the middle of the night to watch the Wildcats, the mother of the UAβs Azuolas Tubelis and Tautvilas Tubelis just has to get up a little early for work. Thursdayβs late Arizona-Washington State game will start at 6 a.m. Friday in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Many of Arizonaβs games this season have been played between 3 p.m-7 p.m., forcing Valentina to wake up after midnight to watch the game and then try to fall back asleep for a while before heading to her jobs teaching high school physical education and working with a local basketball club.
βI donβt know how she feels in the day when we have our games because when we have our games set at 3 (p.m.), she needs to wake up at oneβ in the morning, Tubelis said. βA lot of times, she wakes up at 3 or 4 a.m.β
Still, Tubelisβ mother has managed to watch every game this season and send a text messages afterward, curious not so much about what he did right or wrong but simply to better soak up her sonsβ adjustment to the U.S. college game.
βShe maybe asks me one or two times, βWhy thing like that happen? Why the referee (make) that call?β Or something like that, just to make sure that she understands.β
Of course, the season has been a learning experience for Azuolas himself after he made an abrupt shift from international ball. He and Tautvilas arrived from Lithuania in late August.
In six months, Azuolas Tubelis has turned from what ESPN called the top European player to head to college this season, to a guy wondering why he was called for a technical foul for hanging on a rim against Montana, to a quickly improving player stretched out against athletic and physical Pac-12 power forwards β¦ to a likely all-freshman team honoree.
His progress reached a new peak last weekend, when Tubelis was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week after leading the Wildcatsβ to an 81-72 upset win at USC with 16 points and 15 rebounds. Tubelis averaged 17.0 points and 11.5 rebounds while shooting 48.3% from the field last weekend.
While those numbers are impressive in themselves, whatβs also particularly notable is that Tubelis recorded that double-double against USC while facing expected high NBA lottery pick Evan Mobley and his older brother, Isaiah. Tubelis also had 31 points and eight rebounds against the Trojans at McKale Center last month.
UA coach Sean Miller said after the USC game that Tubelis is more comfortable playing against big men his own size, even if they are supremely skilled β as opposed to having to deal with smaller, mobile forwards such as UCLAβs Jaime Jaquez or Oregonβs Eugene Omoruyi.
But thereβs also this: People look at NBA mock drafts over in Lithuania, too β and everybody wants to prove himself against a projected lottery pick.
βWhen I played against the Mobley brothers, they were kind of the same size and I tried to do my best and to be strong, to be tough,β Tubelis said. βAnd of course itβs more motivation to play against a top-five pick.β
While Mobley is still the frontrunner for the Pac-12βs Freshman of the Year β and maybe overall Player of the Year β Tubelis appears to have all but sewn up a spot on the five-player all-freshman team.
In conference play, Tubelis is the Pac-12βs third-leading rebounder (7.5) while heβs 10th in field goal percentage (51.1) and 15th in scoring (13.9). In offensive rebounds, Tubelis is second at 3.8, behind only OSUβs Warith Alatishe (3.2) and ahead of third-place Evan Mobley (2.5).
In other evidence of his growth in the college game, Tubelis is also drawing 4.8 fouls per 40 minutes and shooting 36.1% from 3-point range.
βHeβs much better than I thought,β said Miller, who was forced to recruit Tubelis virtually last spring thanks to COVID-19 shutdowns. His production is βnothing to gloss over. Itβs one thing if Iβm talking about his nonconference season or early January, but weβre at the very end here and heβs proven home and away, against almost every style (of opponent) that heβs a very good player.β
Plus, itβs not like Tubelis just gradually dipped his toes in the water. He had 13 points and nine rebounds in his second college game, a 23-minute effort against Eastern Washington, and broke into the starting lineup in his seventh game.
Now, over 17 conference games, Tubelis is the Wildcatsβ leading rebounder, leading percentage shooter and second-leading scorer.
βYou think about all that weβve asked him to do as a 19-year-old freshman β matching him up on the perimeter and being a little bit more basketball intelligent with certain things,β Miller said. βWeβre coaching him in that area and thatβs something that I have no doubt heβll improve on with age and experience.
βBut, look, if you would have told me in August that Azuolas would be No. 2 in offensive rebounding in the Pac-12, knowing that Evan Mobley is in our league? I mean, think about that. Heβs number two in offensive rebounding, number three in total rebounding, sixth in defensive rebounding, 10th in field goal percentage top 15 in scoring. Thatβs one heck of a freshman year.β
Not surprisingly, then, Miller says Tubelis has a βvery brightβ future.
And in what might be particularly good news for a program annually plagued with heavy roster transition, more of that future just might happen at Arizona.
Asked this week if the Lithuanian national team had asked him about playing in the FIBA EuroBasket qualifiers this month, Tubelis said it was βhard to watchβ his home country struggle to edge a weaker team from Denmark. He then made it clear his priorities were elsewhere right now.
βI donβt know what plans they have β whether they will invite me or not,β Tubelis said of his home countryβs basketball federation. βBut now Iβm here. I want to play here as much time as I can.β
Even if that means mom might have to sacrifice some more sleep in the seasons ahead.