On November 2, MINSK will host an away match of the VTB United League against Runa for the first time. The opponent made his debut quite confidently in a new championship for himself and now closes the top 3 of the League standings. Read more about the Moscow team in our preview.
History and achievements
The club was founded in 2004 with the status of a youth club, and in 2013 a basketball club Runa-Basket appeared on the basis of YBC, whose men's team competed in the First League of the Russian Championship.
In 2016, the club began its performance in competitions under the auspices of the Russian Basketball Federation — the second division of the Super League, a year later Runa received the status of a Professional basketball club.
In the 2018/19 season, Runa won the bronze medals of the Super League-2, and already in 2019 the main team began its performance in the men's Super League-1.
Achievements:
Super League-1 – silver medalist: 2021/22, 2022/23.
Super League-2 – bronze medalist: 2018/19.
Russian Cup – bronze medalist: 2021/22.
Head Coach
In the summer of 2023, VTB United League newcomer Runa announced the appointment of Erturul Erdogan as head coach.
The Turkish specialist was a member of Fenerbahce's coaching staff for 13 years (2000-2013), worked with the team in the Euroleague and won the Turkish Championship three times. After that, he headed Turk Telecom, Istanbul BB and Galatasaray, and last season led Shlensk to the silver medals of the Polish championship.
Erdogan was also a member of the coaching staff of the Turkish national team, which won silver at the 2010 World Championship.
Season 2023/24
Muscovites made a loud debut on October 1, beating Avtodor with a score of 87:79. After that, in five more matches, Rune managed to win 3 victories over Samara (85:74), PARMA (70:64) and another newcomer of the League – Uralmash (85:78). Erdogan's wards failed to prevail over Pari Nizhny Novgorod (78:82) and МBA (84:86). However, in these two fights, the final small difference in the score may indicate that Runa is able to take revenge in the next meetings.
Among the team's players, legionnaires stand out in terms of performance. At the start of the season, Cameron Young was in the symbolic top five of the round with an average of 21 points and 2.5 rebounds. However, the leaders Cameron Young, Juwan Morgan and Nikola Ivanovic missed the last few fights.
Now the average statistics of legionnaires looks like this: Young Cameron – 18.3 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists; Jeremiah Hill – 15.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.5 steals, Nikola Ivanovich – 14.3 points, 2.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.5 steals.
Guard of MINSK Ivan Aladka: “Our next opponent is Runa. This team is the first year in the VTB United League and already at the start of the season shows good basketball. I believe that we have a good chance of winning, but for this we need to be a single entity, one mechanism, be a team!”
The roster of the opponent
Runa, Moscow
Guards
1. Cameron Young, 03.24.1996, 198 cm, USA,
3. Andrey Sopin, 07.07.1997, 186 cm, Russia,
5. Jeremiah Hill, 04.09.1995, 188 cm, USA,
15. Kirill Savin, 12.01.2000, 196 cm, Russia,
18. Nikola Ivanovic, 19.02.1994, 190 cm, Montenegro,
99. Ivan Samoylenko, 23.08.2003, 195 cm, Russia.
Forwards
7. Nikita Malofeev, 12.02.2003, 203 cm, Russia,
8. Artem Komissarov, 11.12.1990, 200 cm, Russia,
12. Alexa Radanov, 01.02.1998, 201 cm, Serbia,
13. Juvan Morgan, 17.04.1997, 202 cm, USA,
30. Danila Pokhodyaev, 04.02.2001, 204 cm, Russia,
43. Nikolay Zhmako, 09.04.1989, 195 cm, Russia.
Centers
9. Alex Tayus, 08.01.1988, 204 cm, Israel,
11. Boris Mitkin, 25.12.2002, 208 cm, Russia,
37. Ilya Popov, 04.04.1995, 210 cm, Russia.
The head coach is Erturul Erdogan, Turkey.
The game will start on November 2 at 20:00, the broadcast will be available on the website of the VTB United League and Belarus 5 Internet. We are rooting for MINSK!