Tomorrow, the MINSK men's team will play the first match in its history with the Moscow MBA team in the VTB United League 2022/23. This year's debutants of the League have already loudly declared themselves: the MBA has become the fifth team to make its debut in the tournament with at least two consecutive victories.
The history of the club's creation began in 2013, in the 2013/2014 season, the MBA started in the High League. The team was tasked with entering the Super League, and at the end of the regular season, the MBA took 1st place in its division.
The first test in the 2015/2016 season for the team was participation in the Cup of Russia. Having won against Dynamo-CBK and lost to Ryazan and Tambov, MBA took 3rd place in the group and completed its performance in this tournament. In the 2017/18 season, the MBA men's team made it to the Super League-1 playoffs for the first time, and in 2017 Muscovites became silver medalists of the RFB Cup.
Along with the news of participation in the VTB United League of the 2022/23 season, the club announced the appointment of Vasiliy Karasev as head coach. Vasiliy has a rich gaming experience: an honored master of sports, one of the best point guards in Russia and Europe of the 90s. As a player of the Russian national team, he twice became the silver medalist of the World Championship, silver and bronze medalist of the European Championship.
Karasev began his coaching career in the 2009/10 season, leading the Triumph-2 team. In parallel, the coach worked for the Russian national team at the U20 European Championship in 2010 and 2011, in 2011, the Russian national team won bronze medals at the U19 World Championship. In 2013, the national team led by Vasiliy Karasev won the Universiade. In the same year, he led the main Russian national team at the European Championship.
As the head coach of Triumph in 2012, Vasiliy led the team to third place following the results of the PBL regular season, as well as to the “Final Four” of the FIBA Challenge Cup. In the summer of 2014, Triumph moved from Lyubertsy to St. Petersburg and changed its name to Zenit. Vasiliy Karasev led the team from 2014 to 2018. During the years of the specialist's stay on the coaching bridge, Zenit became the bronze medalist of the VTB United League three times, and in the 2015/16 season reached the final of the Russian Cup. In the same season, Vasiliy Karasev was recognized as the best coach of the VTB United League. In 2022, the coach's name was inscribed in the VTB United League Hall of Fame. He spent the 2020/21 game season in the coaching staff of the Kursk Dynamo women's team, which he headed in the 2021/22 season.
In the summer of 2022, the MBA strengthened the roster with Russian players – Gleb Goldyrev, Timofey Yakushin, Ilya Platonov, Evgeniy Valiev, Alexander Ershov, Alexander Khomenko. The last one, playing for CSKA, became the winner of the VTB United League 2021/22. Anton Pushkov (winner of the VTB United League of the 2021/22 season with Zenit), Mark Tikhonenko and Andrey Lopatin also joined the team.
In August, MBA signed a contract with the bronze medalist of the Olympic Games in London, Eugeniy Voronov, who later became the captain of the Moscow team. Previously, Eugeniy was already a captain: after moving to Zenit St. Petersburg in 2017, he immediately received this title. Last season, Eugeniy was selected as the captain of PARMA-PARI.
The team marked the high-profile start of participation in the VTB United League with two victories in away matches over Lokomotiv-Kuban (86:73) and Astana (103:69). According to the "+/-" indicator, the MBA demonstrated the best result in the history of the tournament among all debutants of the United League (+47). Forward Evgeny Valiev and defender Daniil Kasatkin managed to enter the symbolic top five of the first two weeks of the League.
The roster of the MBA team:
Guards:
3. Nikita Remizov (13.08.2000, 197 cm, Russia),
7. Alexander Khomenko (25.01.1999, 189 cm, Russia),
9. Daniil Kasatkin (25.01.1999, 198 cm, Russia),
18. Eugeniy Voronov (07.05.1986, 192 cm, Russia),
22. Alexander Ershov (27.08.2000, 195 cm, Russia),
33. Timofey Yakushin (16.01.1997, 195 cm, Russia),
38. Makar Konovalov (06.12.2000, 187 cm, Russia),
Forwards:
8. Gleb Goldyrev (19.04.1993, 199 cm, Russia),
11. Ilya Platonov (31.07.1998, 199 cm, Russia),
13. Mark Tikhonenko (13.03.1998, 203 cm, Russia),
20. Daniil Kochergin (29.10.1999, 207 cm, Russia),
25. Vladislav Odinokov (22.03.2000, 202 cm, Russia),
28. Andrey Lopatin (27.08.1998, 207 cm, Russia),
31. Evgeniy Valiev (03.05.1990, 204 cm, Russia),
Centers:
14. Anton Pushkov (22.11.1988, 208 cm, Russia),
27. Sergey Klyuev (13.05.1998, 208 cm, Russia),
71. Vladislav Sharapov (17.11.1999, 201 cm, Russia),
The head coach is Vasiliy Karasev (Russia).
The broadcast of the match will be available on the Belarus 5 TV channel, on the VTB United League website, ‘TV Start’ and ‘Match!The game’. The game will take place at the opponent's home court in the “Basket Hall”, starting at 8:00 PM. Let's support our guys!