Tomorrow, November 13, Tsmoki-Minsk will play another VTB United League game in Nizhny Novgorod against the Russian club with the same name. The meeting will take place at the Nagorny Arena and starts at 16:00 Belarus time.
The club from Nizhny Novgorod was founded in 2000 on the base of the Volga Engineering Pedagogical University team. Under the name VGIPI, it began to play at the regional level. A year later, the team changed its name to the NBA (Nizhny Novgorod Basketball Academy) and advanced to the highest league of Russia. It was headed by Alexander Khairetdinov. It is curious that was performing three functions at once - the general manager of the club, the head coach and the doctor. The name of this man has forever gone down in the history of Nizhny Novgorod: the number 13, he played with, was taken out of circulation and forever assigned to him. In September, this city was hosting a tournament in memory of Khayretdinov, in which our team was participating.
Unlike other Russian clubs, who change coaches often, Nizhny Novgorod looks like an island of stability. In 2006, Serbian specialist Zoran Lukic was invited to the club system by Sergei Panov (the current general manager of NN). At first he was working with the youth team and at the same time leading the Russian U-16 team. And since 2008 he has been the head of the main team. Under his leadership, the most remarkable events in its history took place. He left Nizhny for only a year - he was invited to the Turkish club Banvit. However, it did not work out there, and Lukich again returned to the team that became his home.
Interestingly, at the age of 50, Zoran Lukic has a huge coaching experience of 27 years. Being 23 tears old he stopped playing and started coaching. First he was coaching teenagers, then the Serbian teams Beopetrol and Atlas, and over the past fifteen years has been closely associated with Russia.
By the way, in October the Serb received a prestigious offer to head the Russian national team and accepted it with pleasure. By the way, in October the Serb received a prestigious offer to head the Russian national team and accepted it with pleasure. At the end of the month, he will make his debut in the qualification of the European Championship in games against the Italians and Icelanders.
It is clear that the coach will rely in his work on players he knows well, therefore five players of Nizhny Novgorod were invited to the expanded national team: Ivan Strebkov, Mikhail Kulagin, Sergei Toropov, Alexander Gankevich and Anton Astapkovich (born Belarusian, but took Russian citizenship). Surely, the team captain Yevgeny Baburin would have received a call, but now he is recovering from back surgery.
The Nizhny Novgorod club is very selective in inviting legionnaires, and pays special attention to team chemistry. As for today, there are only two foreigners in the roster - Zoran’s compatriot Nikola Jovanovic and Latvian Rolands Freimanis. The contract with the third legionnaire, guard Lazerik Jones was recently terminated: for the five matches he played in the Champions League and VTB United League, the American did not impress Zoran Lukic.
However, the coach is hardly satisfied with the performance of his team this season. In the Champions League, it still closing the bottom of the table in group C: lost to the Spanish Unicaja (62:79), the French Dijon (75:89) and the Greek Megabolt (86:95). Things are going better in the VTB United League: after five meetings, Nizhny Novgorod, with three victories, is in 5th place. Last Monday, the Volzhans hosted Parma at home and confidently beat it (the most productive players were: Ivan Strebkov - 23 + 9 REB + 3 STL, Ilya Platonov - 16 + 3 REB + 2 STL, Sergey Toropov - 12 + 4 AST + 3 REB + 1 BLK, Anton Astapkovich - 10 + 5 REB + 2 STL).
Previously, three Belarusians played for Nizhny Novgorod: Alexander Pustogvar (played in the 2011/12 season), Artem Parakhovsky (2014/15) and Vladimir Veremeenko (2017/18).
An interesting fact, the game against Tsmoki-Minsk Nizhny Novgorod will play in a special form. In honor of the 800th anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod three most popular clubs in the city, basketball and football Nizhny Novgorod, as well as hockey "Torpedo" will put on a new uniform, which was shown at the presentation on November 4. It is made in the same style with a combination of the three main symbols of the ancient city - the Chkalovskaya Stairs, the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin and Strelka. It was developed by the sports design studio "Quberten".
This season, Nizhny Novgorod is performing in the following lineup:
Guards:
2. Egor Sytnikov (20.05.2002, 193)
3. Maxim Lichutin (14.06.2000, 190)
4. Anton Kardanakhishvili (19.03.2002, 195)
19. Ivan Strebkov (27.07.1991, 192)
23. Mikhail Kulagin (04.08.1994, 191)
44. Evgeny Baburin (cap) (04.07.1987, 190)
Forwards:
5. Alexander Gankevich (05.08.1995, 197)
8. Anton Astapkovich (29.01.1994, 202)
9. Ilya Platonov (31.07.1998, 201)
10. Alexander Chadov (20.11.2001, 206)
21. Sergey Toporov (15.10.1989, 206)
22. Pavel Antipov (19.09.1991, 204)
24. Rolands Freimanis (Latvia, 21.01.1988. 208)
Cener:
32. Nikola Jovanovic (Serbia, 06.01.1988, 208)
Head Coach - Zoran Lukic (Serbia)