Arizona men’s basketball begins upcoming season’s journey in Lithuania

Tommy Lloyd is big on culture.

For two decades at Gonzaga he was part of a program that became—and still is—the best in the country outside of the power conferences. And while the talent on the roster and coaching acumen of Hall of Famer Mark Few had a lot to do with that so did the culture that Few, Lloyd and the rest of the staff cultivated with each set of players.

Since coming to the UA just over five years ago, Lloyd has sought to establish his own program culture, a set of values and beliefs that bridge one team to the other no matter how much roster turnover there is. It has contributed to the most successful 5-year run for the Wildcats since the peak of the Lute Olson era, and it’s come at a time when so much change in college sports has tested the ability to have consistency.

Arizona’s 2026-27 team only returns six players from the team that ended a 25-year Final Four drought, only two of whom played. There are 10 newcomers, a mix of domestic and international freshmen and Division I transfers, all of whom must assimilate to the Wildcat culture.

That’s where the visit to Lithuania comes in. While the UA will play a trio of exhibition games, including against the national teams of Lithuania and Ukraine, those competitions aren’t the top goal of the international trip.

“I think the number one goal is to kickstart your culture and spend time together, and kind of our journey starts now,” Lloyd said last month. “Every team has its own journey, and making sure that’s clear. Last year has nothing to do with this year, and the year in the future has nothing to do with what we’re trying to do this year. So just kind of understanding that and start this group’s experience. We want to have a great experience as a group and we’re excited. We’re open-minded heading over to Europe.”

Arizona arrived in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, this past Friday. Its first game is Wednesday, in Jonava against the Lithuania ‘B’ Team, followed by a matchup Thursday vs. Ukraine’s Senior National Team in Kedaninai. The final game is Saturday vs. Lithuania’s top squad, headlined by former UA forward Azuolas Tubelis, in Alytus.

Alytus is the hometown of UA newcomer Ugnius Jarusevicius, a transfer from Nebraska. Along the way the team will do plenty of sightseeing, including around Motiejus Krivas‘ hometown of Siauliai and take a day trip to the seaside town of Palanga where they’ll be hosted by the Sabonis family. NBA star Domantas Sabonis was recruited to Gonzaga by Lloyd.

Jarusevicius and Krivas will be unofficial tour guides, since most of their teammates have never been to Lithunia or Europe in general. There has been talk of getting the team to try out a local culinary treasure, pink soup.

“It’s very refreshing,” Krivas said of the dish, which is made of beets and kefir and served cold.

Jarusevicius, Krivas and incoming freshman Maksim Brnovic each played in Lithuania before entering the college game. They’re well aware of how the country treats the sport, which is far more important than soccer like in other European countries.

“Most of the people in Lithuania see that basketball is like a second religion, especially when the national team plays,” Krivas said. “We’re really bad in soccer.”

There should be packed houses for all three games, but Krivas said he doesn’t expect Arizona to get booed since these are exhibitions. There will be plenty of cheering for the native Wildcats, but he doesn’t think he’ll be the main attraction.

“I think the news that Bryce (James) is coming is more,” he said.

As for the games themselves, the competition Arizona is set to face will be far tougher than three years ago, when a trip to the Middle East saw it easily win exhibitions against teams from Israel, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates by an average of 32 points.

Lithuania, ranked No. 10 by FIBA, isn’t using any of its players with NBA experience as it prepares for upcoming World Cup qualifying games, but Lloyd is still expecting battles each day.

“Obviously, we have a massive amount of respect for the level of competition we’re stepping up,” Lloyd said. “These are going to be elite, elite teams. They compete at the highest level of Europe. The opportunity was presented to us, and I thought it’s really cool. I mean, I don’t I want to get on a plane and go to Europe—and I would do that any time to hang out—but I don’t want to do that and go win a basketball game by 50 points. I want to go over there and I want our guys to kind of appreciate the experience for one, but two, like appreciate the level of competition and see what we can get out of it.”

The UA will return home on Aug. 23 and, after starting fall classes, get back to action in September. The first opportunity to see the latest Wildcat squad in person is at the annual Red-Blue Showcase on Sept. 26.