Tomorrow, "Tsmoki-Minsk" will host the penultimate away match of the regular season within the VTB United League. In the northern capital of Russia, the team will meet at the "Sibur Arena" with one of the favorites of the season - "Zenit" St. Petersburg. The match starts at 7:30 PM.
A relatively young basketball club for 8 years of its existence was able to become a four-time bronze medalist of the Russian Championship (2016-2018, 2021), and a bronze medalist of the VTB United League (2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 , 2020/21). Not many changes have taken place on the "Zenit's" bridge over the years. From 2014 to 2018, the team was headed by Vasily Karasev, then the Spaniard Joan Plaza led the team for two years. In February 2020, Xavier Pascual became the head coach of "Zenit".
In the 2020/2021 season, "Zenit", under the leadership of Pascual, reached the Euroleague playoffs for the first time in history, and in the VTB United League took 1st place in the regular season, winning 20 victories in 24 matches. The team was also noted as the best in defense: on average, Pascual's wards conceded 71.6 points per meeting. At the end of the season, Xavier Pascual was recognized as the "Coach of the Year" of the VTB United League.
This season "Zenit" is one of the real contenders for VTB United League gold. In the regular stage, the team won 13 out of 17 games and is in 3rd place in the standings. After a recent match with the "Lokomotiv-Kuban" team, St. Petersburg extended the winning streak to 4 matches. For St. Petersburg players, the duel with "Tsmoki" will be the final one before the playoffs. Earlier in the 2021/2022 season, the teams met on February 17 on the home floor of the "Dragons", where "Zenit" won with a score of 90:74.
There have been a number of changes in the "Zenit" squad since the previous meeting — Captain Mateusz Ponitka, Conner Frankamp and Arturas Gudaitis have left the team. Maksim Karvanen joined "Avtodor" Saratov on loan, and on April 8, by agreement of the parties, forward Mindaugas Kuzminskas left the club ahead of schedule.
At the same time, "Zenit" was joined by three legends of Russian basketball: guards Vitaly Fridzon, Egor Vialtsev and forward Sergey Monia. On March 5, American forward Aaron Carver signed a contract with the club. All the key American basketball players remained at "Zenit", including Jordan Loyd, the team leader this season, Billy Baron, one of the best snipers in Europe, as well as Tyson Carter, Alex Poythress and Jordan Mickey.
At the moment, the roster of "Zenit" looks like this:
"Zenit" (Saint Petersburg, Russia)
Guards:
1. Tyson Carter 14.01.1998, 193, USA
2. Jordan Loyd 27.07.1993, 197, USA
3. Denis Zakharov 6.08.1993, 193, Russia
4. Andrey Toptunov 22.07.2022, 183, Russia
9. Dmitry Kulagin 1.07.1992, 197, Russia
12. Billy Baron 11.12.1990, 188, USA
44. Egor Vialtsev 10.10. 1985, 193, Russia
70. Vitaly Fridzon 14.10.1985, 195, Russia
Forwards:
7. Sergey Karasev 26.10.1993, 201, Russia
8. Igor Volkhin, 30.10.1997, 199, Russia
13. Aaron Carver 30.08.1996, 201, USA
20. Andrey Zubkov 29.06.1991, 205, Russia
22. Alex Poythress 6.09.1993, 206, USA
55. Jordan Mickey 9.07.1994, 203, USA
64. Sergey Monia 15.04.1983, 202, Russia
Center:
14. Anton Pushkov 22.11.1988, 208, Russia
The head coach is Xavier Pascual (Spain).