The next VTB United League game Tsmoki-Minsk will play in Poland: Sunday, October 31, our team will play with the Zielona Gora club. The match will start at 17:00 Belarusian time.
In the 2018/19 season, the Polish team entered the VTB United League. It made the playoffs twice (2020, 2021), but, however, lost at the quarterfinals stage.
This year Zielona Gora celebrates its 75th anniversary. Of course, the club would like to mark it with some significant achievement. But it is not successful so far. In the Polish championship, Zielona Gora is in 9th place with 4 victories after 8 rounds. And in the VTB United League theyr'e the last, having 12th place, with losses to CSKA, UNICS, Astana and Nizhny Novgorod.
The reason for this failure is a consequence of the fact that in the offseason the team roster has changed a lot. So, it’s head coach Jan Tabak accepted an offer of the Spanish club San Pablo Burgos, for which, by the way, stands Tsmoki-Minsk ex-forward Maxim Salash. 43-year-old Serbian specialist Oliver Vidin became the coach of Zielona Gora. It is curious that he began his coaching career very early - at the age of 22. In addition to his homeland, he worked in various countries - in Slovakia, Finland, Poland. And he achieved considerable achievements: Vidin is a 2-time champion of Slovakia, he was recognized as the best coach of the year in Slovakia (2010, 2017) and in Finland (2016). Since the 2019/20 season, he worked as the head coach of the Polish Slask, he won bronze medals in the last championship with them.
As for the Zielona Gora roster, almost all leading players left it during the previous season and off-season: Iffe Lundberg, Roland Freimanis, Jeffrey Grosell, Adam Smith, Chris Richard, Marcel Ponitka, Skyler Bowlin, Janis Berzins.
They were replaced by other legionnaires: american Branden Frazier, canadian Devoe Joseph, serbs Dragan Apic and Nemanja Nenadic, german David Brembli.
It is significant that in the last meeting of VTB United League against Nizhny Novgorod, 67 out of 77 team points were scored by 4 leaders of Zielona Gora: Nenadic - 20 PTS + 9 REB + 6 AST + 3 STL, Zyskowski - 20 PTS + 6 REB, Apic - 16 PTS + 9 REB, Frazier - 11 PTS + 4 AST.
This season Zielona Gora is performing in the following lineup:
Guards:
2. Andy Mazuerczak (27.12.1993, 183)
3. Kacper Traczyk (2503.1998, 185)
10. Nikodem Klocek (20.10.1999, 188)
17. Branden Frazier (USA, 23.07.1992, 191)
18. Konrad Szymanski (11.01.2002, 190)
20. Nemanja Nenadic (Serbia, 02.01.1994, 193)
34. Devoe Joseph (Canada, 21.06.1989, 193)
Forwards:
1. Jaroslaw Zyskowski (16.07.1992, 203)
6. David Brembli (Germany, 10.02.1993, 197)
7. Krzysztof Sulima (cap, 05.01.1990, 2002)
21. Tony Meier (USA, 03.06.1990, 204)
28. Przemysław Zolnierewicz (03.07.1995, 196)
Center:
8. Dragan Apia (Serbia, 03.10.1995, 206)
Head coach - Oliver Vidin.