European Prospects

We start the Living in America season again this winter and we present some European-born NCAA College Freshmen that have arrived in the United States this summer. To start the series, we take a look at one of the more unknown players, the 1990 born Lithuanian Forward Eividas Petrulis.

Petrulis was one of the last Europeans that we heard about to settle down in the US for playing College Basketball. The new St. Mary’s Gael was rather unknown in Europe and even in Lithuania despite having been a member of the U16 National Team that played the European Championship 2006 in Spain. Back then, Petrulis played however only 5 games to come up with an average of 2.2ppg and 2.2rpg.

The Kupiskis-native is mainly a scorer from the wing, especially with his three-point shot. He is not particularly athletic but has a good sense for grabbing some boards. The Small Forward admits that he has to work both on his defense and his athletic abilities to become a better player in the future. A future that will probably be a 5 year journey with the Californian College that is known for his preference for talent from overseas (4 Australians and 1 Lithuanian in the roster for 2010/2011).

This year, I will probably red-shirt so that I will probably be in college basketball for 5 years. In these years, I think I will improve a lot. I am getting already better on defense and getting tougher in general.

We also wanted to know from Petrulis why he chose St. Mary’s as his future Basketball destination coming out of the Sarunas Marciulonis Basketball Academy; the academy which is named after the Lithuanian legend that played a lot of years in the Bay Area as well with the Golden State Warriors. In fact, Petrulis wanted to come to the United States already last season but it did not work out.

I spent last year in this area. It was too late to join a team, so I was practicing on my own a lot. I came here because I wanted to get a scholarship. However, a day before I had to show up, I got injured (twisted my ankle’s ligaments and broke a chip of bone). So I walked on here as I played some pick up games with these guys before.

I love this team because they are playing good team basketball, lots of passes and they are taking a lot of three point shoots. I was playing such a basketball for almost all my life, so it is handy for me.

The 20-year old Lithuanian also gave us more details on his role with the team and how he sees his personal future in the next years.

Now, I am only practicing with the team because I am going to be a red-shirt this year. I got cleared by the NCAA too late. So I just will help the team on practices, keep improving myself and wait for next year.

Petrulis also puts a lot of importance to the studies. He considers himself as a real student-athlete who has the goal to earn a degree. He focuses on his professional future which might be even outside of Basketball.

I am planning to major in Business. I am thinking on majoring in International Business because I am thinking on living in Lithuania in the future and I would love to work for an international corporation in my home country. I do not know what I am considering as main thing while playing in college, if it is basketball or the education. Education is very important to me, but I still want to play basketball in the future. So I will see what the time will show.

We wish Eividas a great future with his new situation in Moraga and hope to hear a lot of positive things on him in the future.