CONFERENCE
It is clear that the last year’s success caused a great stir: in the playoff first-round series until 2 wins, the UL team defeated one of the strongest Latvian basketball teams, Valmiera, with 2-1 and got into the semi-finals of the championship along with such teams as VEF Riga, BC Ventspils and Liepājas Lauvas. No comments on these teams’ names are needed even for people who have little to do with sports and especially basketball.
This year, students have taken a similar course, first entering the championship quarter-finals (winning the high 6th place in regular-season series) and then meeting Valmiera again. Getting into the playoffs was hardly a surprise to anyone, but meeting Valmiera once again drew close attention to both teams. Already before matching forces in the game, which also lasted until two wins, Valmiera players weren’t shy to express confidence in their triumph to the mass media, adding that they would not make the same mistake twice. In the first game of the series that took place in Valmiera city, Valmiera team experienced déjà vu when the UL team won 94-93, and the return game in the Olympic Sports Centre in Riga could have ended the series. Almost 800 people came to this game, setting up the record in games attendance over the last three years, but their anticipation failed: the game was lost and the fate was sealed in Valmiera city. It hurts for everyone who supported the team to remember the final game. One more precise three point shot, and everything could be totally different. This year our team had to deal with not getting into quarter-finals, but this is sports and its magic: someone wins and someone loses. This time the strongest won.
Sports and education
Many people may wonder why our university’s team is so strong. Maybe it’s because of the team’s head coach Artūrs Visockis‑Rubenis, who is a highly respected and strong personality; maybe it’s because of the team’s captain Žanis Peiners, who is one of the most talented young basketball players in Latvia; or maybe it’s because of such a strong legionary as Kristaps Dārgais, Riga Technical University’s (RTU) student, one of the best players in the world and Latvia’s best slam-dunk master. Anyway, it is absolutely clear that they are so strong because they are a real team, which cohesion has been certainly inspired by the presence of Visockis‑Rubenis.
The aim of the UL basketball system has been clearly defined: to be an intermediate between the Latvian Youth Basketball League (LYBL) and a professional basketball career, helping players to grow into strong and intelligent personalities for whom high achievements in sports are only of secondary importance. But success comes when you believe in your own strengths. Therefore, nothing can be permanent in a team with such an aim, and the first graduates are expected already this year. Žanis Peiners will graduate from the Faculty of Economics and Management, Harijs Rubenis from the Faculty of Law, and Kristaps Dārgais will graduate from the RTU Faculty of Civil Engineering. This will be the first real team graduation because these players have completed a full student basketball cycle and are now going to complete their Bachelor’s programs. Of course, our gratitude will not be less if they stop playing basketball and make a career in their chosen specialities, in which, by the way, Harijs and Kristaps are already actively involved. The UL has a reason to be proud.
Historic success
Basketball started to be played in Latvia at the beginning of the last century, which is also the time when the UL was founded. Over the first decade of its existence, the UL successfully participated in the Latvian basketball championships, and the advocates of the UL values back then were the same as in today’s team, the students.
No one can deny that the UL students headed by their public organization University Sports have put a lot of energy in the development of basketball in Latvia, especially during the first independence years. One could even say that the students controlled the basketball life in Latvia at that time because even the Latvian Basketball Union (LBU, founded in 1923) was mostly under the UL students’ control. Some of those outstanding personalities are depicted in Dream Team 1935, the latest film of Andrejs Ēķis and Aigars Grauba about the Latvian national team’s victory in the first European basketball championship.
Throughout its existence, the UL team has won a total of nine gold, six silver and four bronze medals in domestic championships, which makes it the all-time most distinguished team in Latvia. The Ventspils team is only one gold medal behind.
Raising new players
This year, the graduates will leave the university and the team, but basketball in the UL will not stop; it will face new challenges, and the team’s coaches and the university’s administration are looking forward to throwing themselves into them. As Artūrs Visockis‑Rubenis said, ‘We are determined to raise the next Žanis Peiners, Kristaps Dārgais and Harijs Rubenis!’
The basketball season is over now, but in September, the team will start the next season that is likely to be no less strenuous and exciting. Let’s be patriots of our university and meet at every basketball game!
Background information
Founded in the early 1920s.
The team has its own fan club and cheerleading team.
The basketball team University of Latvia is one of the few sports organizations in the Baltic countries that allow players to receive a higher education while playing sports professionally.
The team’s structure includes two men’s teams and one women’s team.
The UL has the largest domestic basketball league in the Baltic countries.
Translated by students of the professional study programme Translator of the University of Latvia., which has won a place among the six strongest teams in the 1st division of the Latvian Basketball League (LBL) for the second year in a row, thus getting into the playoff games.){kind=link}