On February 14, Minsk residents will have an away match against Avtodor at 18:00 Minsk time. The last time we met with a rival from Saratov was back in 2022 in the first stage of the VTB United League regular season. Learn more about the changes in the composition “Avtodor” for the past two months in our preview
Season 2022/23
Perhaps the main change affected the coaching staff of the Saratov team. Serbian specialist Branislav Vicentic replaced Darko Russo as head coach. Also, Deyan Parezhanin, who previously worked at BC Astana, joined the coaching staff. Branislav Vicentic started his coaching career in the youth team of Crvena Zvezda, from where he was promoted to assistant head coach of the main team. After that, over the years, he worked in the Serbian teams Mega and Beograd, Bosnian Radnik Bijelina, Latvian Liepajas Lauvas, Japanese San-en NeoPhoenix, as well as the Bahrain national basketball team among boys under 16 and 18. The coach's last place of work was the Earth Friends Tokyo Z team, which plays in the Japanese basketball league.
In January, Avtodor terminated the contract with heavy forward Christian Jones by mutual consent of the parties. The 29-year-old American will continue his career in the Adriatic League. There was no news about the signing of new players from the Saratov team.
Now Avtodor occupies the 3rd place in the standings of pool ”B". In five extreme duels, the opponent won two victories over Enisey (86:82) and Samara (93:83). The leader in scoring from Saratov is Malik Newman – 19.4 on average per game. To them, the American defender adds 3.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists. The best average result in rebounds is demonstrated by Danilo Nikolic – 6.1. The Serbian forward also demonstrates average statistics of 13.7 points and 1.3 assists. The average age of the team is 25 years. The average height is 201.2 cm .
MINSK head coach Rostislav Vergun: ”In recent games we have shown better basketball compared to the first half of the season. I am glad that the guys find the right motivation for themselves to progress both individually and as a team, regardless of the tournament position. We feel the support of our fans and we want to do everything possible to give them positive emotions. Avtodor has a number of high–level players, and our main task is not to let them prove themselves as effectively as possible. In turn, it is necessary to preserve the game order and high-quality decision-making demonstrated in recent matches.”
The opponent 's pre-match roster:
Avtodor (Saratov)
Guards:
1. Vitalijus Pranauskis (195 cm, 08.12.2002, Russia),
4. Malik Newman (02.21.1997, 190 cm, USA),
8. Scott Machado (08.06.1990, 187 cm, Brazil)
9. Alexandr Petenev (197 cm, 24.11.2000, Russia),
10. Nikita Mikhailovsky (203 cm, 10.09.2000, Russia)
11. Andrey Ivanov (200 cm, 23.07.2003, Russia),
24. Evgeny Kolesnikov (195 cm, 12/26/1985, Russia).
Forwards:
12. Andrey Fedorov (200 cm, 19.08.2003, Russia),
15. Brandon Garrett (206 cm, 30.08.1990, USA),
23. Andrey Pechkin (206 cm, 12.02.2002, Russia),
25. Rade Zagorac (204 cm, 12.08.1995, Serbia),
34. Danilo Nikolic (08.04.1993, 207 cm, Montenegro),
Centers:
14. Evgeniy Minchenko (215 cm, 13.12.1994, Russia),
33. Marat Tsybikov (215 cm, 18.07.2001, Russia).
The head coach is Branislav Vicentic (Serbia).