Wake Forest Athletics
Leaving His Footprints
3/4/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 4, 2002
By Sam Walker
It has been quite a journey for Darius Songaila. The 6-9 senior forward from Marijampole, Lithuania, has seen it all, lived it all and survived it all. Songaila has experienced the highs of three straight winning seasons, the joy of winning an Olympic bronze medal for his homeland of Lithuania, and relished a NIT Championship. He's also survived the disappointments of not making the NCAA Tournament in his first two years and last season's disheartening first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Butler.
He has undoubtedly been one of Wake Forest's best players over the course of his career, and arguably the best player at Wake Forest since Tim Duncan. Now, in the final stretch of his final season, Songaila is finishing up a senior campaign that could earn him the first-team All-ACC honors his statistics may have suggested all along and the respect for which he has always sought.
Character is seldom evident during the good times in ones life. It's when life deals difficult choices that one's character becomes apparent. The choice to come to the United States seemed almost a no-brainer for Songaila until his father fell from a third-story construction site and broke his back about six months before he was supposed to leave. The accident left Ignas Songaila paralyzed from the waist down. Darius stayed in the hospital by his father's side, and suddenly the choice to leave Lithuania became significantly more complicated. Darius was the only one in his family who was strong enough to move his father from wheel chair to bed.
"I came home from practice, and nobody was home," Songaila said. "Mom called and told me to get my butt to the hospital because something happened, and there was dad lying in the bed. It was pretty bad.
"My dad was working construction for many years, but it was a hot summer day, and he had a heat stroke or something and fell out of a third floor and landed on his back. That happened in late spring right before I was thinking about going to the United States in the fall. Before the accident I told him I was going. Then the accident happened, and I spent a lot of days in the hospital with my dad."
Songaila made a difficult choice to pursue a college education and basketball in the United States. He still has game tapes converted from the U.S. standard to the European format and mails them home so his family can watch him play. He goes home to visit during the summer.
Songaila was recruited by two Odoms. Dave Odom's oldest son, Lane, who was then an assistant coach at East Carolina University, is credited with "finding" Songaila while he was playing for a national Lithuanian team. The New Hampton School is the same school where former Deacon Rafael Vidaurreta played his prep years, and it was the place Songaila first played basketball in the United States. Vidaurreta and Songaila didn't play together until they were both at Wake Forest. Lane quickly saw that Songaila was good enough to play in the ACC, and he knew bigger schools would recruit him. After it had been decided Songaila would not become a Pirate, Lane wanted his father to have a shot at getting Darius at Wake Forest, and he told his father he should take a look at him. New Hampton played in a tournament at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia and that's when Wake Forest got into the recruiting mix.
"He (Lane) found out about me when he came to Lithuania to see me play, and then I got offered to go to New Hampton," Songaila recalled. "I talked to Lane on the phone a few times, and he gave me some information on college in the states, mostly East Carolina. The only school I really knew was East Carolina."
By the time Songaila reached the end of his only season at New Hampton, he had received inquiries from more than 120 schools. He wanted to stay on the East Coast so he would be closer to home, and he liked the small school feel Wake Forest offered. After a few weeks of deliberation he signed with Wake Forest in the spring.
Once Songaila arrived at Wake Forest, former head coach Dave Odom realized he had a strong 6-9 forward who could run the floor, shoot jump shots with range, skillfully score in the post, and hit foul shots with deadly accuracy. "Darius Songaila has a scorer's mentality," said ESPN analyst and former Duke player Jay Bilas. "He is a very skilled post player. He has great hands. He catches everything. He's excellent at using either hand around the basket. Darius Songaila is a weapon."
Songaila has always been a physically bruising player. He admits he does not shy away from contact, and to compete in the ACC every team has to have players who can absorb the pounding inside and dish out some of their own. Songaila, however, has perhaps been unfairly scrutinized for his style of play.
Songaila became known as foul-prone his freshman season after he fouled out of eight games and picked up four fouls in 14 other contests. He amassed 118 personal fouls his sophomore season and fouled out of five games. But last year, after he ripped Virginia for then a career-high 27 points on nearly perfect shooting, Coach Pete Gillen of Virginia called Songaila "a mangler, who kills innocent bystanders in the post."
Coaches around the league began to work officials for foul calls on Songaila, and it seemed at times he was under the officiating microscope. Songaila's fouls became the focus of commentators who said that Songaila might have become a victim of his reputation. Nowhere was this more evident than during Wake's 81-71 loss at Maryland last season. Odom, so frustrated, said after the game, "Darius Songaila, my friends, if I were him I would pack up and go home. That's what I would do. I'd pack and go home." There was also a drastic disparity in Wake's 82-80 loss to Duke when Songaila was called for four fouls in 13 minutes while Duke's Carlos Boozer was called for three in 30 minutes, and Shane Battier one in 39 minutes.
Songaila said the fouls sometimes confused him because he felt the calls changed when he was in the game. He questioned himself but ultimately decided to place the blame on himself. It was the only way he felt he could deal with it.
"That's not the best thing to be known for, but somebody's going to be known for something," said Songaila. "There's been a lot of tough times, a lot of frustrating times. I've spent more time talking about my foul trouble than any other aspect of my game. There's been a lot of help (with that) from the team, the coaching staff, friends and my fianc?e. All the frustration, you want to take it out on somebody, but the more you talk about it, it helps relieve that pain, that suffering."
There hasn't been as much suffering this season. The foul calls on him are down. He's fouled out just of two contests, one of those in a double overtime game. His fouls are more within the flow and context of the game.
The Lithuanian connection will remain at Wake Forest after Songaila leaves and partially because he was there. Vytas Danelius, a freshman from Kaunas, Lithuania, joined the Demon Deacons this year, first committing to play for Odom, and later re-committing to Wake and Prosser. Songaila and Danelius did not know each other until they met when Danelius visited Wake Forest on a recruiting trip. Songaila didn't know what kind of person Danelius was but figured he must be "a pretty good basketball player" if he was being recruited by Wake Forest. And a bond existed simply because they shared a homeland.
When Odom left Wake Forest for South Carolina, Danelius relied on Songaila for guidance. He wanted to know about the new coaching staff and how Songaila felt about the change. Songaila said he talked with Danelius but left the choice up to him. Ever since his arrival, Songaila has been there for support, and Danelius is thankful.
"First of all, he is a nice guy," Danelius said. "He helps me pretty much every time I ask him for help and overall it would be pretty hard to imagine Wake Forest without him because he's like my guider. He gives me advice on what classes I should take and on the court he tells me where I should cut and gives his own experience.
"Darius (being at Wake) was some of the percentage in my decision to come to Wake," Danelius said. "I'm fortunate to have him here and without him my year here would be so much tougher. The beginning is hard everywhere, but Darius has made it easier to keep on growing." "He's not me, but he's a good kid," Songaila said with a wry smile. "He works hard for everything. I think everything he's gotten he's worked hard for. I think he appreciates things he gets from that hard work. I try to help him as much as I can. I think it was good I was here this year for him. He's a little younger than I was when I was a freshman. He turned 19, and that's two years difference. He needed somebody to show him around, him being here from another country. I had Raf (Rafael Vidaurreta). I tried to do the same thing Raf did for me to help him adjust to the culture. He'll be just fine (when I leave)."
Songaila ranks among ACC leaders in nine statistical categories and entering the Virginia game was leading the team in scoring. He has scored in double figures in every game but one this season. He ranks third all-time in games started at Wake Forest and is fifth in double-doubles and free throws. He has scored more than 1,600 points and 700 rebounds in his career. Numbers alone do not define Songaila or his worth to the 2002 Wake Forest team.
"He's selfless," Coach Skip Prosser said of Songaila. "He makes everyone else better because teams really distort toward him. He's willing to pass the ball, and he cares about winning. He's a gladiator, but he gives our guys courage and I think that's maybe his biggest contribution - that he gives our team courage.
"His ability as a player is only overshadowed by his character as a person and we're going to ride that horse all the way to Churchill Downs if we have to. He's a very, very good player." Exactly where the end will come is uncertain. With a likely NCAA Tournament bid, Wake Forest's season should continue well into March. Then there is graduation. Songaila said his mother, Eugenija Songaila, sister, and some cousins will be coming to Winston-Salem for his graduation and a wedding set for May 25. Songaila is engaged to former Wake tennis player Jackie Houston. The summer will be busy.
Songaila feels his collegiate basketball career is coming to a natural conclusion. He wants to win but then get on with the next phase of his life as a graduate, husband, and basketball player.
"I'm glad this is the year that it all came together," Songaila said. "Maybe I get a little more respect. I've been here for four years so I'm kind of sad because I've been here with these guys and we've grown to become a pretty good team and family. But I'm anxious to get out into the real world and start over, start my life.
"There's always going to part of me here. I think people will remember me for the foul trouble, but there's a story behind it. I've left my footprints at Wake Forest. Hopefully they'll remember me as part of this program, as someone who helped take the program from a mediocre one to better level."
