Our men's team went to Perm, where they will play the third match of the week against PARMA as part of the VTB United League championship. Read more in the preview.
Off-season transfers
By the start of the new season, defender Justin Roberson (Samara), forwards Gleb Sheiko (MBA) and Danila Pokhodyaev (Runa) moved to other VTB League clubs. PARMA also said goodbye to defenders Ryan Boatwright (Bnei Herzliya, Israel), Kirill Budin (University-Ugra, Russia), center Malik Dime (Gladiadores de Anzoategui, Venezuela), Joel James (Freseros de Irapuato, Mexico), Kirill Popov (Temp-SUMZ-UMMC, Russia), and forwards Alexander Kurov (Kupol-Rodniki, Russia) and Tylor Ongwae.
The club continued its cooperation with head coach Evgeny Pashutin, and defenders Isaiah Reese (MVP of the VTB United League March 2022/23 season), Alexandr Platunov and the club's youth players: Grigory Tuchkov, Vladislav Perevalov, Gleb Firsov, Ivan Egorov and Pavel Morozov remained in the roster.
Stanislav Ilnitskiy moved to PARMA from UNICS and Richard Solomon from Zenit. Dmitry Khalturin (CSKA Junior) and Ruslan Abdulbasirov (Novosibirsk) made their debuts for PARMA. Also, for the first time in the new season, legionnaires with consonant names, C. J. Bryce (Wurzburg, Germany) and B. J. Johnson (Real Betis, Spain), who have already declared themselves for the Perm club, performed for the Perm club.
Start of the season
Minsk residents should tune in to a serious duel, since Evgeny Pashutin's team has already thundered with two bright news – they won over the silver medalists of last season – Lokomotiv Kuban (87:85), and had every chance to defeat CSKA Moscow, losing with a difference in the score of only 1 point (76:77). The Permians failed to defeat Pari Nizhny Novgorod (61:67) and the newcomers of the League — Runa Moscow (64:70) in previous meetings.
The leaders of the opposing team are three foreign players, the average statistics of basketball players: CJ Bryce – 17.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.0 steals, Isaiah Reese – 16.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 3.3 steals, 0.7 blocks, B. J. Johnson – 13.7 points, 2.0 rebounds, 0.7 blocks.
The upcoming game will be the second for the Permians on the home court. Our team should be psychologically prepared for the pressure from the fans of PARMA, as their arena is famous for the highest attendance and powerful atmospheric support for its own for more than a season.
MINSK point guard Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson: ”I'm looking forward to the next match with PARMA. I believe it will be an interesting and worthy game. PARMA is a really capable team, they have a lot of good players and a great atmosphere at home in the arena. So it's not going to be an easy match for us, we just have to focus on ourselves, on our principles in attack and defense. In the last match against Samara, we showed struggle and are getting better with every game, with every training session, with every week. We have to improve and focus on what makes us a good team. There is a great opportunity for rivalry ahead, I hope we will show a decent result in Perm.”
The roster of the opponent:
"PARMA" (Perm Region)
Guards
0. C. J. Bryce, 30.10.1996, 196 cm, USA
12. Vladislav Perevalov, 21.10.2001, 191 cm, Russia
13. Isaiah Reese, 13.12.1996, 196 cm, USA
28. Alexandr Platunov, 06.07.1997, 192 cm, Russia
31. Grigory Tuchkov, 18.03.2003, 183 cm, Russia
70. Ivan Egorov, 18.06.2005, 189 cm, Russia
Forwards
2. B. J. Johnson, 21.12.1995, 201 cm, USA
11. Stanislav Ilnitsky, 24.02.1994, 200 cm, Russia
15. Ruslan Abdulbasirov, 05.12.1993, 211 cm, Russia
20. Pavel Morozov, 06.06.2003, 199 cm, Russia
53. Dmitry Cheburkin, 06.16.1997, 200 cm, Russia
Centers
6. Richard Solomon, 06.18.1992, 208 cm, USA
19. Dmitry Khalturin, 13.01.2002, 213 cm, Russia
61. Gleb Firsov, 17.01.2005, 208 cm, Russia
The head coach is Evgeny Pashutin.
The live broadcast of the game will be available on the VTB United League website, as well as on the Belarus 5 TV channel. The meeting starts at 15:00. We are rooting for MINSK!