On November 12, Rostislav Vergun's wards will play against MBA in the Moscow Basket Hall. Read more about the changes in the composition of the opposing team and the results at the start of the season in our preview.
Composition
Having debuted last season, MBA differed from other League teams in that only Russian basketball players played in its roster, and the average age was 24.4 years. Muscovites did not change the principles in the 2023/24 season either – Russian players who already have experience of playing in the VTB United League joined the team. Evgeniy Minchenko moved from Avtodor to the MBA, Maksim Barashkov from Samara. The club also signed contracts with Vladislav Trushkin (Enisey) and Gleb Sheiko (PARMA).
Head Coach
Vasily Karasev took over as the head coach of the MBA men's team in 2022, and last season his name was immortalized in the VTB United League Hall of Fame. In each of his 7 seasons, the Russian coach led the teams to the playoffs and led Zenit to the bronze medals of the championship three times (2016-18). At the time of his inclusion in the Hall of Fame, Vasily Karasev was in the Top 5 coaches of the League in terms of the number of matches played (183) and was the fourth in terms of the number of tournament wins (122).
Season 2023/24
If last fall, at the start of their debut season, Muscovites won 4 victories in the first 5 matches, and even managed to cross the 100-point line in the match against Astana, then this season MBA still occupies the 12th place in the standings with three wins in nine games.
Earlier, Muscovites lost in matches against CSKA (72:76), Loko (71:79), Samara (65:77), Zenit (74:85), PARMA (79:83) and defeated Avtodor (87:73). The last 4 MBA games were held on the home court, and in two of them they won over Runa (86:86) and Astana. The team's performance at the moment can be called undulating: if in the match with the Kazakh team, MBA scored the first three–digit figure on the scoreboard in the season - 101:78, then just a couple of days later they lost to Enisey with a score of 80:85.
According to individual statistics, there are several young players in the team of Vasily Karasev. The symbolic five rounds of the VTB United League included MBA forward Andrey Lopatin and defender Timofey Yakushin. In terms of the number of points scored on average per game in the Russian team, Evgeniy Minchenko is in the lead – 11.3. The center also demonstrates averages of 5.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks.
MINSK forward Dzmitry Kuratnik: “We have a series of away matches ahead of us and the first of them will be held in Moscow. We need to concentrate from the first seconds of being on the floor and try to make fewer mistakes. There are a lot of young ambitious players in MBA, as well as in our team. We will strive to get the victory.”
The roster of the opponent
MBA, Moscow
Guards
7. Alexander Khomenko, 25.01.1999, 189 cm, Russia,
9. Daniil Kasatkin, 25.01.1999, 198 cm, Russia,
18. Evgeniy Voronov, 07.05.1986, 192 cm, Russia,
23. Maxim Lichutin, 14.06.2000, 190 cm, Russia,
33. Timofey Yakushin, 16.01.1997, 195 cm, Russia,
38. Makar Konovalov, 06.12.2000, 187 cm, Russia,
63. Daniil Aksenov, 11.07.1995, 183 cm, Russia.
Forwards
8. Gleb Goldyrev, 19.04.1993, 199 cm, Russia,
11. Maksim Barashkov, 10.07.1998, 201 cm, Russia,
16. Vladislav Trushkin, 05.05.1993, 201 cm, Russia,
22. Gleb Sheiko, 19.11.1996,200 cm, Russia,
28. Andrey Lopatin, 27.08.1998, 208 cm, Russia,
31. Evgeniy Valiev, 03.05.1990, 203 cm, Russia.
Centers
14. Evgeniy Minchenko, 13.12.1994, 215 cm, Russia,
27. Sergey Klyuev, 13.05.1998, 208 cm, Russia,
71. Vladislav Sharapov, 17.11.1999, 201 cm, Russia,
77. Maxim Savchenko, 09.02.2004, 208 cm, Russia.
The head coach is Vasily Karasev (Russia).
The live broadcast of the game will begin at 19:30 on the VTB United League website and the Belarus 5 TV channel. We are rooting for MINSK!