Matt Lojeski

Matt Lojeski
Player information
Full name	Matthew Thomas Lojeski
birthday	July 24, 1985
place of birth	Racine (WI), USA
size	198 cm
position	Small forward
college	Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Club information
society	AEK Athens
league	Basket League
Clubs as active
2003–2005 EWC CC Lancers 2005–2007 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 2007–2009 Okapi Aalstar 2009–2013 Telenet Oostende 2013–2017 Olympiacos 2017–2019 Panathinaikos Athens 2019–2020 Tofaş Spor Kulübü 2020– AEK Athens 0000
National team
Since 02013	Belgium

Matthew Thomas Lojeski (born July 24, 1985 in Racine , Wisconsin ) is an American - Belgian basketball player . After studying in his native country, Lojeski played for six years in Belgium, where he won the championship and the national cup competition twice. After Lojeski took Belgian citizenship in 2013 , he became a national player in his adopted country.

Career

Lojeski graduated from St. Catherine's High School in his hometown on Lake Michigan . He then began in 2003 to study at Eastern Wyoming Community College in Torrington, Wyoming , where he played for the Lancers college team in the National Junior Collegiate Athletic Association (NJCAA). After two years he got a place for further studies at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa , where he played for the college team Rainbow Warriors in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) of the NCAA . However, the team did not achieve any particular success within the WAC, nor did they qualify for a " postseason " tournament.

After Lojeski was not considered in the NBA Draft 2007 by any club in the highest endowed professional league NBA , Lojeski started a career as a professional player in Europe. He signed his first contract with Okapi Aalstar from Aalst in the Belgian Ethias League . In the play-off semi- final series, the team lost to former runner-up Euphony Bree . Also in the following season, in which Lojeski could become top scorer of the league for the first time with an average of more than 18 points per game, they lost in the play-off semi-finals. For the 2009/10 season Lojeski moved to league rivals from Ostend , who had played two very mediocre seasons after the last championship in 2007. After the final game in the Belgian Cup competition had clearly won against champion Spirou BC Charleroi and won the title, Lojeski lost with Ostend in the play-off semi-final series as well as in the following season against the defending champion. Only in the 2011/12 season was Ostend able to turn the tables again and wrest the championship title from Spirou in a final series of five games. In the following season, Ostend even won the national double from championship and cup competition, among others in a team with the German-Croatian player Mario Stojić and Lojeski's compatriot Jamel McLean , who then moved to the German basketball league .

After Lojeski was able to obtain Belgian citizenship in July 2013, he immediately used the new possibilities of his European passport and finally left his adopted Belgian home. He moved to the Greek club Olympiacos from Piraeus , which a few months earlier had successfully defended his title in the top European club competition ULEB Euroleague . Before that, however, Lojeski had been active as a national player for his new adopted home in preparation for the 2013 European Championship finals , but shortly before the tournament actually began, he had to cancel his participation due to treatment. In the ULEB Euroleague 2013/14 Olympiakos was unable to defend its title and was eliminated in five games in the quarter-final play-offs against last year's final opponent Real Madrid . After losing the final in the national cup competition against national arch rivals Panathinaikos Athens , Olympiakos could not regain the title in the final series for the championship and had to admit defeat to the defending champion in five games.

successes

• Belgian champion: 2012, 2013
• Greek champion : 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019
• Greek Cup Winner : 2019

Web links

• Matt Lojeski Official Home Page - The Official Website ( English )
• Matt Lojeski, Olympiacos Piraeus - Interview by Frank Lawlor on euroleague.net, published on March 26, 2014 (English)
• LOJESKI, MATT - player profile on the ULEB website (English)
• archive.fiba.com: Players - Matthew Thomas LOJESKI (BEL) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)
• Hawaii Athletics - Matt Lojeski - Profile on the sports websites of the University of Hawaii (2007)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ OLYMPIACOS acquires Lojeski from Oostende. (No longer available online.) ULEB , July 31, 2013, archived from the original on August 8, 2014 ; accessed on August 5, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Roundup: Mancinelli, Lojeski Ruled Out: No Belgium Debut for Lojeski. (No longer available online.) FIBA Europe , August 29, 2013, archived from the original on August 10, 2014 ; accessed on August 5, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.