“Tsmoki-Minsk” will play the next VTB United League game away: on Saturday, December 18, in Krasnoyarsk will play with local “Enisey”.
The history of the Siberian team has been written since 1981. It was created on the basis of the Krasnoyarsk Polytechnic Institute and therefore originally received the name “Polytechnic”. In Soviet time, played in the minor leagues. The team proved itself on the All-Russian arena since 1993. Gradually advanced from league to league, until finally, in 2007, winning Superleague B, received the right to make into the elite basketball division. The team didn’t take high places, but it excelled in Russian Cup – becoming the bronze medalist in 2011.
Made their international debut in 2009/2010 season. The highest achievements: FIBA Euro Cup semi-final in 2015/16 and quarter-finalist in FIBA EuroChallenge Cup in 2014/15.
This season, “Enisey” tried his luck in the FIBA Europe Cup, but already lost to the Israeli Maccabi (Haifa) at the qualification stage and did not get into the main stage of the European cup. Therefore, the Siberian team gains international experience in the Northern European League, where, by the way will compete with the Belarusian vice-champion “Borisfen” from Mogilev.
“Enisey” was admitted to the VTB United League ten years ago. The Siberians achieved the highest result in the 2016/17 championship: they finished 6th in the regular season, which allowed them to play in the quarterfinals for the first time. There, however, the team lost three times to “Khimki” Moscow region and dropped out of the competition. The team ranked 11th out of 13 with a 6 wins and 18 losses in the last season.
In the current championship, the team started with an away victory over the Estonian “Kalev” (87:80). However, then came a series of misfortunes of five defeats in a row – from “UNICS”, “Lokomotiv”, “Avtodor” and twice from “Zenit”. And only on December 10, Krasnoyarsk team managed to break out from the vicious circle: on the road, the team gained the upper hand over “Astana” in an overtime – 87:80. Thanks to this success, “Enisey” moved up to 9th place in the fixture list.
Belarusian forward Vitaly Lyutych played for “Enisey” in the season 2017/18.
For today’s game plan, the most significant roles are played by four American legionnaires: Casper Ware jr (averaged 18,5 PTS per game + 1,5 REB + 3,2 AST, PER – 16,3), Darrlyn Willis jr (15,6 PTS, + 6,7 REB, + 1,6 AST, + 1 STL, PER – 17,7), Rion Brown (12,3 PTS, + 4,6 REB, + 2,7 AST, + 1,6 STL, PER - 14,7) and Brynton Lemar (8,9 PTS, + 2,1 REB, + 3,1 AST, PER - 6,9).
“Enisey” is headed by 54 years old Croatian specialist Drazen Anzulovic. His coaching career began twenty years ago in his native Cibona, with which he had won the Euroleague during his playing career. The he traveled around Europe, worked in Russia (Ural Great), in Ukraine (BC Donetsk). He took up his post as a head coach of the Croatian national team from 2018 to 2019. He was recognized as the best coach of Croatian championship four times (2003-04, 2006-07). He headed “Enisey” in 2019, replacing Oleg Okulov in this post.
The Siberians team roster for this season:
“ENISEY” (KRASNOYARSK, RUSSIA)
Guards:
2. Ware jr Casper (USA, 17.01.1990, 178cm)
10. Viktorov Ivan (Russia, 01.11.1995, 196cm)
13. Sonko Dmitry (Russia, 08.05.2001, 197cm)
16. Yakushin Timofey (Russia, 16.01.1997, 195cm)
22. Ershov Aleksandr (Russia, 28.08.2000, 197cm)
24. Gerasimov Timofey (Russia, 15.05.1996, 197cm)
77. Mitusov Sergei (Russia, 19.10.1996, 193cm)
Forwards:
3. Lemar Brynton (USA, 23.01.1995, 191cm)
5. Trushkin Vladislav (Russia, 05.05.1993, 201 cm)
9. Babushkin Aleksei (Russia, 04.04.1994, 197cm)
15. Brown Rion (USA, 03.09.1991, 198cm)
Centers:
6. Gudumak Aleksandr (Russia, 03.07.1993, 203cm)
11. Balashov Sergey (Russia, 20.07.1996, 206cm)
21. Willis jr Darrlyn (USA, 21.01.1996, 207cm)
89. Vinnik Aleksandr (Russia, 28.09.1989, 2015cm)
Head Coach - Drazen Anzulovic (Croatia)