Already this Sunday, October 1, the long–awaited autumn event will take place within the walls of the Falcon Club Arena - the first home match of MINSK in the VTB United League of the 2023/24 season.
New members and format
The 15th anniversary season of the VTB United League will delight basketball fans with even more games. Two newcomers joined the participating teams: Runa (Moscow) and Uralmash (Ekaterinburg).
The format of the matches has been preserved: in the first stage, 14 clubs will play 2 rounds (home-away), and in the second they will be divided into 2 groups. The top six teams will be in pool “A”, the remaining 8 teams will be in pool “B”.
The teams of group “A" directly qualify for the playoffs. According to the results of the second stage, the four best teams of group “B” will compete in a new stage of the championship for the League — the play-in — for the two remaining places in the playoffs. According to the results of the regular season and the play-in, the eight will be determined, which will go to the final stage.
Offseason
As in all the clubs of the League, the croster of “Pari Nizhny Novgorod" has changed by the autumn. Guards Yuri Umrikhin (Samara, end of lease), Nikola Rebic (Samara), Jermaine Love (Elan Chalon), Anton Ponkrashov (without a club), forwards Daniil Sinegubov (Temp-SUMZ), Maxim Salash (Burg), Maxim Karvanen left the roster (“University-Ugra”), Vitaly Lyutych (Zlatibor), and center Stepan Gontar (МBA-MAI).
The opponent's coaching staff will continue to be headed by Serbian specialist Zoran Lukic. In the 2022/23 season, Nizhny Novgorod won the Cup of Russia under the leadership of Lukich. In May 2023, Lukic signed a new 2-year contract with the club.
Experienced League players Andrey Vorontsevich (UNICS) joined the Nizhny Novgorod team and Vladimir Ivlev (Samara). Also for Nizhny Novgorod in the upcoming season will play legionnaires Glenn Cosey (WEF), Aleksandar Zechevic ("Zelena Gura"), Alexa Novakovic (“Borac"). The club signed contracts with Pavel Gankevich (Runa), Sergey Zotkin (Novosibirsk, rent) and Timofey Rudovsky (Dream City Christian).
Preseason
The Russian team's pre-season training turned out to be intense. In the Khayretdinov Cup, Nizhny Novgorod parted with the home trophy for the first time, losing in the final to the current champions of the League – UNICS (59:69).
In the Kondrashin and Belov Cup, Zoran Lukic's wards met MBA in the third place match and won the bronze medal of the competition.
Another large-scale tournament for Pari NN was the VTB United League Super Cup. 8 teams took part in it: UNICS, Lokomotiv-Kuban, CSKA, Zenit, Pari Nizhny Novgorod, MBA, as well as Turkish Fenerbahce and Besiktas. In the final match of the pre-season tournament, Nizhny Novgorod lost minimally to Fenerbahce (80:82) and took 4th place.
MINSK head coach Rostislav Vergun: “First of all, I would like to congratulate all basketball fans and our fans on the start of the season. It's always new emotions, a new story and new expectations. I want us to bring the most positive emotions with our game and upset our viewers as little as possible. We are very grateful for their dedication, support and are waiting for them at every game. As for the first match: we understand the level of the League, the level of our opponent. They recently demonstrated their skills and ambitions at the Super Bowl in Moscow. For us, the most important task is to show our best basketball for 40 minutes. This will give us the opportunity to stay in the game and fight for a positive result.”
The roster of the opponent
Pari Nizhny Novgorod
Guards
0. Glenn Cosey, 02.17.1992, 183 cm, USA;
13. Dmitrii Khvostov, 21.08.1989, 190 cm, Russia;
19. Ivan Strebkov, 27.07.1991, 190 cm, Russia;
22. Mikhail Belenitskii, 12.09.2002, 205 cm, Russia;
44. Evgenii Baburin 04.07.1987, 190 cm, Russia;
55. Sergey Zotkin, 09.09.2003, 190 cm, Russia.
Forwards
4. Pavel Gankevich, 22.04.2003, 201 cm, Russia;
5. Alexandr Gankevich, 05.08.1995, 201 cm, Russia;
8. Dragan Apic, 03.10.1995, 207 cm, Serbia;
10. Alexandr Chadov, 20.11.2001, 204 cm, Russia;
15. Aleksandar Zecevic, 03.10.1996, 207 cm, Serbia;
17. Aleksa Novakovic, 30.08.1996, 200 cm, Serbia;
24. Timofey Rudovsky, 29.10.2004, 205 cm, Russia;
33. Andrey Vorontsevich, 17.07.1987, 207 cm, Russia.
Center
11. Vladimir Ivlev, 02/28/1990, 207 cm, Russia.
The head coach is Zoran Lukic (Serbia).
The doors of the Falcon Club Arena will open for everyone at 12:30. The starting face-off is at 14:00. Tickets for the first match of the season can be purchased on the website and at points of sale kvitki.by , as well as in the lobby of the arena an hour and a half before the start of the game. For those who will not be able to attend the game, a live broadcast of the match will be available on the Belarus 5 TV channel and the official website of the VTB United League. We believe in the team!