Ąžuolas Tubelis (born 22 March 2002) is a Lithuanian professional basketball player for the

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eas ...

of the National Basketball Association (NBA), on a two-way contract with the Delaware Blue Coats of the NBA G League. He played college basketball player for the

Arizona Wildcats The Arizona Wildcats are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of Arizona, located in Tucson, Arizona, Tucson. The Wildcats compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I (NCAA Divis ...

of the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

. A power forward, he was named first-team All-Pac-12 twice with the Wildcats.

Youth career

In May 2018, Tubelis won the 2017–18 Adidas Next Generation Tournament (ANGT) with the U18 team of

Lietuvos rytas Vilnius Rytas Vilnius is a Lithuanian professional basketball club based in Vilnius, Lithuania. The club was founded in 1997 from another club, Statyba, and has become one of the most successful Lithuanian basketball clubs. Rytas have won two EuroCup t ...

. On 18 October 2018, he signed a long-term contract with Rytas Vilnius. In the 2018–19 season, he played for Perlas in the National Basketball League (NKL), the second-tier league of Lithuania. He averaged 9.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game. In February 2019, Tubelis played for Rytas' U18 team at ANGT Kaunas, where he was named to the all-tournament team after averaging 15.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, three steals and 2.8 blocks per game. In June 2019, Tubelis took part in the Basketball Without Borders Europe Camp in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

. In 2019–20, Tubelis split playing time between Perlas and Rytas' senior team, emerging as one of the top players in the NKL. He debuted for the senior team in a 6 October 2019 win over

Juventus Utena BC Juventus ( lt, Krepšinio klubas Juventus), also known as Uniclub Casino Juventus for sponsorship reasons, is a Lithuanian professional basketball club based in Utena, Lithuania. Founded in 1999, the club currently plays in the Lithuanian B ...

. Tubelis scored an LKL season-high 11 points in a victory over Šiauliai on 1 February 2020. At ANGT Kaunas in February 2020, he averaged 20.5 points and 12.5 rebounds, leading Rytas' U18 team to first place and earning tournament

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

honors. Later that month, Tubelis participated in the Basketball Without Borders Global Camp at

2020 NBA All-Star Weekend The 2020 NBA All-Star Game was an exhibition basketball game that was played on February 16, 2020, during the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2019–20 season. It was the 69th edition of the NBA All-Star Game, and was played at the United ...

in Chicago. In 25 NKL games, he averaged 16.4 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks per game.

College career

On 27 May 2020, Tubelis committed to play college basketball for Arizona. He joined the team with his twin brother, Tautvilas. Tubelis was considered a four-star recruit by

247Sports 247Sports is an American network of websites that focus mainly on athletic recruitment in college football and basketball. It is owned and operated by Paramount. The website hosts a large network of team-specific subsites, with each subsite b ...

. On 2 February 2023, Tubelis posted a career-high 40 points and nine rebounds in an 91–76 win over Oregon. As a freshmen, he averaged 12.2 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, and was named to the All-

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

honorable mention and All-Freshman Team. Tubelis was named first-team All-Pac-12 as a sophomore and a junior. He declared for the NBA draft, but was not widely projected to be selected. According to Seth Davis of '' The Athletic'', there were questions on his ability to switch onto smaller players away from the basket. '' ArizonaSports.com'' wrote that his slow footspeed could be a concern.

Professional career

After going undrafted in the 2023 NBA draft, Tubelis joined the

for the

NBA Summer League The NBA Summer League, also known as the Las Vegas Summer League, is an off-season competition organized by the National Basketball Association. NBA teams come together to try out different summer rosters instead of their regular season line-ups ...

. Afterwards on July 17, he signed a two-way contract with the 76ers and their NBA G League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats.

National team career

Tubelis played for

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

at the

2016 FIBA U16 European Championship The 2016 FIBA U16 European Championship was the 30th edition of the European Under-16 Basketball Championship. Sixteen teams participated in the competition, held in Radom, Poland, from 12 to 20 August 2016. Bosnia and Herzegovina, the defending ...

in Radom, where he averaged 4.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. At the

2018 FIBA U16 European Championship The 2018 FIBA U16 European Championship was the 32nd edition of the Under-16 European Basketball Championship. The competition took place from 10 to 18 August 2018 in Novi Sad, Serbia. Sixteen (16) teams are participating, including 2017 Divisio ...

in Novi Sad, he averaged 14.3 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game. Tubelis represented

at the

2019 FIBA U18 European Championship The 2019 FIBA U18 European Championship was the 36th edition of the FIBA U18 European Championship. The competition took place in Volos, Greece, from 27 July to 4 August 2019. Participating teams * * * * * * ''(Automatically qualified as host)' ...

in Volos, averaging 14.9 points, 12.6 rebounds and 3.4 blocks per game.

Career statistics

College

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2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, style="text-align:left;", Arizona , 26 , , 20 , , 26.7 , , .498 , , .310 , , .692 , , 7.1 , , 1.2 , , .6 , , .6 , , 12.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;", Arizona , 36 , , 35 , , 24.6 , , .540 , , .263 , , .669 , , 6.2 , , 2.3 , , 1.1 , , .7 , , 13.9 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", Arizona , 35 , , 34 , , 30.1 , , .570 , , .313 , , .764 , , 9.1 , , 2.0 , , 1.1 , , .7 , , 19.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 97 , , 89 , , 27.1 , , .544 , , .295 , , .714 , , 7.5 , , 1.9 , , 1.0 , , .7 , , 15.6

Personal life

Tubelis has a twin brother, Tautvilas, who also currently plays basketball for the Arizona Wildcats and has represented Lithuania at the international level. Tubelis' first name, Ąžuolas, translates to oak in

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

and was given to him by his grandfather.

References

External links

Arizona Wildcats bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tubelis, Ažuolas 2002 births Living people All-American college men's basketball players Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players Basketball players from Vilnius BC Rytas players Lithuanian expatriate basketball people in the United States Lithuanian men's basketball players Lithuanian twins Power forwards (basketball) Twin sportspeople