December 6, Tsmoki-Minsk will meet the leader of the VTB United League - Russian UNICS (Kazan). The game will take place at the "Minsk-Arena" and will start at 19.00
The Kazan club was founded in 1991. Its name is an abbreviation: University – Culture – Sport. The team made its way into Russian Super league 6 years later after club’s creation. It was admitted to the VTB United League since 2009.
Since 1998, Evgenyi Borisovich Bogachev - chairman of The National Bank of Tatarstan, Doctor of Sciences in Economics and the former minister of Household Services of the Republic of Tatarstan has become president of basketball club on pro bono basis. He successfully manages UNICS for 23 years, meanwhile the club has moved forward with long strides. Evgenyi Bogachev, who celebrated his 80(!) jubilee was awarded prizes “Man of the Year -2000” and “Golden Basket – 2005” for a great contribution to the development of Russian basketball. Almost all trophies UNICS won with him. There were plenty of them: the winner of Northern European Basketball League and EuroCup, two-time winner of Russian Basketball Cup, repeatedly silver and bronze medallist of VTB United League and Russian Championship, EuroCup vice-champion, quarter-finalist of Euroleague.
The team was headed by famous coaches in different years: Stanislav Yeryomin, Antanas Sereika, Aleksandar “Aco” Petrovic, Valdemaras Chomicius, Evgenyi Pashutin, Andrea Trinchieri. Dimitris Priftis who worked for 4 years in Kazan at the end of last season brought UNICS to the Euroleague (the 4th appearance for the club in this tournament), however returned home and headed “Panathinaikos”. 56-year-old Croatian Velimir Perasovich came to take his place.
The future meeting with Kazan team fit into the calendar between The Euroleague matches – home game on December 3 with “Olympiakos” and away against Israeli “Maccabi” on December 9. As you can see, the team’s game schedule looks very tight.
It is a proudly at the top of the VTB United League table. “Lokomotiv”, “Zielona Gora”, “ Enisey”, “Parma”, CSKA, “Astana” were defeated by UNICS. The only misfire happened in the away match against “Avtodor”. The “greens” worthy represents Russia in Euroleague: after 11 rounds they have a balance of wins and loses 6/5 and take 7th place among 18 participants.
In Former times Belarusians wore uniform of UNICS - Yegor Meshcheryakov (2005-07 seasons), Vladimir Veremeenko (2009-14 seasons), Artem Porohovski (2015-17 seasons).
The current squad was selected for participate in the Euroleague, therefore, there is a rather impressive representation of legionnaires – 9. 4 Americans, an Italian, a Latvian, a Croatian and a Nigerian – a true international team.
Note, that 4 of them had the experience of playing in the strongest league in the World. So, Isaiah Canaan played in 6 NBA clubs, Lorenzo Brown – 4, Mario Hezonja and O.J. Mayo – 3.
It is curious that, forward John Brow III (Lorenzo's namesake) is wearing special eyeglasses. During his school years, he played American football, probably since that period he has in the habit of acting tough, aggressive, which is especially appreciated when active on the defensive. By the way, John Brown was declared Defensive Player of the year according to the results of previous season.
If we analyze the statistics of basketball players in the league, then the team leaders are: has averaged - Mario Hezonja 18,1 ppg, rebounds: John Brown 7,9; assists: Lorenzo Brown – 4,9.
UNICS (KAZAN, RUSSIA)
GUARDS:
Marco Spissu (Italy, 05.02.1995, 184cm)
Isaiah Canaan (USA, 21.05.1991, 183cm)
Lorenzo Brown (USA, 26.08.1990, 196cm)
Vyacheslav Zaitcev( 28.08.1989, 190cm)
O.J. Mayo (USA, 05.11.1987, 196cm)
Artem Komolov (01.06.1993, 194cm)
FORWARDS:
John Brown III (USA, 28.01.1992, 203cm)
Jarrell Brantley (USA, 07.06.1996, 201cm)
Georgiy Zhbanov (10.10.1997,197cm)
Janis Timma (Latvia, 02.07.1992, 203cm)
Mario Hezonja (Croatia, 25.02.1995, 203cm)
Dmitry Uzinskii (13.07.1993, 200cm)
Evgeny Valiev (03.05.1990, 207cm)
Andrey Vorontsevich (17.07.1987, 207cm)
CENTRS:
Artem Klimenko (10.01.1994, 214cm)
Tonye Jekiri (23.07.1994, 213cm)
Head coach: Velimir Perasovic (Croatia)