MINSK continues a series of home matches in the VTB United League. And this week we will have two matches in the capital of Belarus. At the first of them, on November 22, Rostislav Vergun's wards will meet Avtodor Saratov at the Minsk Arena. Read more about the opponent in the preview.
Roster
From the main squad of last season, Vitalijus Pranauskis, Marat Tsybikov and Alexandr Petenev continued to play for the club this season. Avtodor's youth team is also involved in VTB League matches: Denis Naumov, Matvey Popov, Andrey Fedorov and Stanislav Reish.
In the off-season, the Saratov club was joined by legionnaires. Synderius Thornwell played for the Turkish Bursaspor last season, but took part in only two matches of the Turkish championship due to injury. In the 2021/22 season, playing for the German “Ulm", the defender averaged 13.4 points and 5.6 rebounds in the Bundesliga.
Heavy forward Dusan Beslac since 2020, defended the colors of “Vojvodina", was recognized as the MVP of the last Serbian championship. Another Serbian player Vasile Pushica has experience playing in the championships of Serbia, Italy, Lithuania, Turkey and Poland. Last season, Pushica played in Poland as a member of “Shlensk” and won silver medals of the Polish league.
Croatian national team player Dominik Mavra scored 16.4 points, 7.3 assists and 3.6 rebounds on average per game last season, playing for the Croatian “Split”, was recognized as the MVP of the 12th round. American center Rayshon Hammonds is known in Europe for his performances for the Latvian WEF and the German “Göttingen”. As part of the latter last season, he took part in 36 German Bundesliga matches with figures of 10.9 points and 5.2 rebounds in 21 minutes on average per game.
In the summer, Avtodor signed defender Kyle Vinales, with whom the termination of the contract was announced last week.
Head Coach
The Saratov club announced the appointment of Milenko Bogichevich as head coach in June 2023. The Serbian specialist replaced Branislav Vicentic in this position.
Milenko Bogicevic started his coaching career in 2004 at Serbian Beovuk. From 2016 to 2018, he was a member of the coaching staff at Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar. In the previous season, Bogicevic was an assistant to Sasha Obradovich at Monaco, with whom he reached the Euroleague Final Four and won the French championship.
Season 2023/24
Avtodor takes the 13th place in the standings of the current season. The team has 11 matches and three victories: over Uralmash (87:77) and two in a row over Samara (86:74) and Nizhny Novgorod (75:65), which Saratov won in an away series in early November.
The most productive average statistics in the Russian team are demonstrated by legionnaires Rayshon Hammonds (16.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.3 steals in 29.25 minutes) and Dominic Mavra (10.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists).
The center of “MINSK” Vadzim Stubeda: “The team is now more united than ever. And we can say that the chemistry between the players is at a high level. We are ready to play with Avtodor. If we talk about the strong leaders of the opponent, MINSK is not inferior in every position. I think the match will be interesting.”
The roster of the opponent
Avtodor, Saratov
Guards
0. Syndarius Thornwell, 11/15/1994, 196 cm, USA,
1. Vitalijus Pranauskis, 08.12.2002, 195 cm, Russia,
4. Vasile Pushica, 12.09.1995, 196 cm, Serbia,
8. Matvey Popov, 25.01.2004, 194 cm, Russia,
30. Dominik Mavra, 15.06.1994, 195 cm, Croatia.
Forwards
3. Dusan Beslac, 06.10.1998, 206 cm, Serbia,
7. Denis Naumov, 14.05.2003, 202 cm, Russia,
9. Alexandr Petenev, 24.11.2000, 197 cm, Russia,
12. Andrey Fedorov, 19.08.2003, 200 cm, Russia,
47. Stanislav Reish, 17.04.2003, 204 cm, Russia.
Centers
11. Dmitry Khaldeev, 03.04.1999, 210 cm, Russia,
13. Rayshon Hammonds, 10.11.1997, 206 cm, USA,
33. Marat Tsybikov, 18.07.2001, 215 cm, Russia.
The head coach is Milenko Bogicevic, Russia.
The game starts at 19:30. Entrance to the arena will be from 18:00. Tickets are available on the kvitki website and at points of sale.by and also at the box office of the arena 1.5 hours before the start of the match. The broadcast of the match will be available on the VTB United League website, Belarus 5 TV channel and Belarus 5 Internet. Let's support our team together!