On Saturday, November 18, after returning from Kazakhstan, Rostislav Vergun's team will hold a duel against Zenit St. Petersburg at the Falcon Club Arena. Read more about the guests from the northern capital of Russia in our preview.
Roster
In the off-season, the Russian club retained a significant part of the players and the head coach. In the summer of 2023, Zenit announced the transfer to the team of Timofey Gerasimov, who spent the previous two years in the Krasnoyarsk Yenisei, and Georgy Zhbanov (ex-UNICS player). Bojan Dublevic, Kyle Kurich and Vince Hunter joined the squad of legionnaires.
Vince Hunter spent the 2022/23 season at UNICS, where he became the champion of the United League. Boyan Dublevich has been playing for Valencia since 2012, with which he became a two-time European Cup champion (2014, 2019), Spanish champion (2017) and winner of the Spanish Super Cup (2017). The center was also twice included in the symbolic five of the European Cup (2017, 2019) and the Spanish Championship (2017, 2019).
Kyle Kuric has already played for the blue-white-blues in the 2017/18 season, after which he spent five seasons at Barcelona, twice becoming the champion of Spain during this time (2021, 2023) and three times the winner of the national Cup (2020-2022). In addition, Kurich has a victory in the Spanish Super Cup in 2016 with Gran Canaria and the title of MVP.
Head Coach
In the current season, Xavier continues to cooperate with the club on the basis of an existing contract. In the 2020/21 Zenit season under Pascual's leadership, he reached the Euroleague playoffs for the first time in history. The team also took 1st place in the regular season, winning 20 victories in 24 matches. Zenit also became the best team in defense: on average, Pascual's wards conceded 71.6 points per meeting. At the end of the season, Pascual was recognized as the "Coach of the Year" of the VTB United League.
Personal awards and achievements
Euroleague Coach of the Year (2010),
VTB United League Coach of the Year (2021),
Head Coach of the VTB United League All-Star Match (2021),
The best coach of the Greek Championship (2017, 2018),
Coach of the Year of the Spanish Championship (2010, 2011, 2012, 2016).
Season 2023/24
Unexpected for the viewers of the VTB United League was the defeat of Xavier Pascual's wards in the first match of the season against newcomers from Ekaterinburg. The Petersburgers also lost to the leading teams of last season: CSKA, Lokomotiv-Kuban and UNICS. Now the St. Petersburg squad closes the TOP 5 of the standings. In the last 10 matches of the season, the blue-white-blues won 6 victories, and 2 of them in the last two matches in a row against PARMA and Avtodor. Also in Zenit's piggy bank are victories over Enisey, MBA, Astana and Samara.
Vince Hunter looks confident at the start of the season as part of our opponent. The center twice got into the symbolic five rounds of the VTB League. Hunter's average stats in 10 games: 12.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 2.0 steals, 1.2 blocks. The best result in several indicators in Zenit is already demonstrated by an experienced team player Trent Fraser. On average, the point guard scores 14.5 points per game, makes 2.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.0 steals.
Defender of MINSK Daniil Borisevich: “The team is returning to Minsk, where we will have a series of home matches. On Saturday, we host Zenit – this is a strong opponent with whom you need to keep your concentration throughout the match. We will try to maintain the quality of team play that we demonstrated in the last match.”
The roster of the opponent
Zenit, Saint Petersburg
Guards
0. Trent Fraser, 08.09.1998, 188 cm, USA,
5. Timofey Gerasimov, 15.05.1997, 197 cm, Russia,
11. Georgy Zhbanov, 10.10.1997, 197 cm, Russia,
13. Thomas Ertel, 10.04.1989, 189 cm, France,
16. Konstantin Shevchuk, 11.01.2000, 188 cm, Russia,
24. Kyle Kurich, 25.08.1989, 193 cm, USA.
Attackers
7. Sergey Karasev, 26.10.1993, 201 cm, Russia,
8. Igor Volkhin, 30.10.1997, 199 cm, Russia,
17. Pavel Zemsky, 25.06.2004, 202 cm, Russia,
18. Adrien Moermann, 07.08.1988, 203 cm, France,
20. Andrey Zubkov, 29.06.1991, 206 cm, Russia,
21. Sergey Toropov, 5.10.1989, 205 cm, Russia.
Centers
12. Artem Klimenko, 10.01.1994, 214 cm, Russia,
14. Boyan Dublevich, 24.10.1991, 205 cm, Montenegro,
32. Vince Hunter, 05.08.1994, 203 cm, USA.
The head coach is Xavier Pascual, Spain.
The meeting starts at 15:00. Entrance to the arena and ticket sales in the lobby will be carried out from 13:30. Tickets are also available on the website and at points of sale kvitki.by . We also remind all participants of the advertising game not to forget to put seals in the booklets in the lobby of the arena. Let's support MINSK!
Photo: VTB United League