On October 16, a VTB United League match between MINSK and UNICS will take place within the walls of the Minsk Arena. After a busy pre-season and a victorious opening game of the season, the Kazan team will arrive in Minsk. Read more about the opponent in our preview.
Offseason
The 2022/23 season was a historic one for UNICS – the team won the gold medals of the tournament for the first time. During the summer, several players left the championship squad: Andrey Vorontsevich (Pari Nizhny Novgorod), Stanislav Ilnitsky (PARMA), Georgy Zhbanov (Zenit), Mikhail Kulagin and Alexandr Razumov (both Samara) moved to other League clubs. Also, point guard Maxim Tkachenko, heavy forward Vince Hunter, center Artem Zabelin and guard Daryl Macon left the club.
The MVP of the final series of last season, point guard Nenad Dimitrijevic, remained in the Kazan team. The club extended its cooperation with Jalen Reynolds, Louis Labeyrie and with the point guard of the Russian national team Vyacheslav Zaitsev. Guards Marcos Knight, center Ivan Lazarev and forward Vladislav Odinokov will also play for UNICS.
Newcomers
No less experienced basketball players of the League came to replace the departed players. Until the end of the season, the club signed an agreement with the ex-captain of Avtodor, defender Evgenii Kolesnikov (among the main titles in Evgeni's track record is a two–time finalist of the European Cup with UNICS (2014, 2021), a two-time winner of the FIBA Challenge Cup (2006, 2013), a three-time winner of the Russian Cup, twice a participant in the VTB League Stars Match).
The attacking defender Artem Komolov, who came to the club, has already played at UNICS in the 2021/22 season, when he helped the Kazan team win bronze medals of the VTB United League and the Russian Championship. Komolov spent the past year in CSKA Moscow, where he became the bronze medalist of the two aforementioned tournaments for the second time in his career.
UNICS also signed a contract with the Euroleague champion and three-time winner of the VTB United League, attacking defender Dmitriy Kulagin (Zenit) and heavy forward Mark Tikhonenko (in the season that ended, Mark helped MBA become the bronze medalist of the Russian Cup and finish in the top six of the country's strongest clubs following the results of the VTB United League 2022/23 regular season). From the “Super League-1” forward Alexander Stulenkov has moved to the Kazan club.
In the summer, BC UNICS announced the signing of Belgium national team center Ismael Bako. Last season, Bigman defended the colors of the Italian Virtus in the Euroleague. In 2023, Bako won the Italian Super Cup as a member of the Bologna club, and also became a finalist of the national Cup and vice-champion of the country.
Erick Green, who has 52 NBA games and 102 Euroleague games, became another UNICS rookie. Green started last season in Israel's Hapoel from Holon. At the end of December, the defender moved to Buduchnost, which he helped to become the champion of Montenegro and win the Cup of the country.
Head Coach
Velimir Perasovic headed the Kazan team in June 2021. Last season, under the guidance of the Balkan coach, UNICS became the champion of the VTB United League and Russia for the first time. A year earlier, the team led by Perasovic won the bronze medals of the VTB United League and claimed entry into the Euroleague playoffs.
The basketball club has reached an agreement to continue cooperation with the head coach under the “1+1" scheme.
At the start of the season
In pre-season friendly matches, UNICS beat Samara twice (91:77), (88:63), and lost in one of the meetings (81:84).
In the final of the Khayretdinov Cup, Velimir Perasovic's wards defeated Pari Nizhny Novgorod (69:59), taking the trophy home. Following the victory in the Khayretdinov Cup, the basketball players of UNICS took away the silver medals of the Kondrashin and Belov Cup from St. Petersburg.
In the VTB United League Super Cup, UNICS failed to get to the top of the standings, ending the preseason by defeating MBA in the match for 7th place with a score of 83:64.
So far, Kazan has played only 1 game in the new season against the Krasnodar team “Lokomotiv-Kuban” and won with a score of 91:73. Taking into account the busy pre-season and the demonstration of confident basketball in the opening match, Minsk residents should expect a strong and persistent fight on the floor from the opponent.
The captain of MINSK Uladzislau Mikulski: “The champion of the VTB United League — Kazan UNICS is coming to us. This is always an additional motivation, and in order to show a good game, each of us needs to play and give everything even more than 100%. We invite all our fans to the Minsk Arena, we need your support!"
The roster of the opponent
UNICS, Kazan
Guards
1. Nenad Dimitrijevic, 23.02.1998, 190 cm, North Macedonia;
4. Artem Komolov, 01.06.1993, 193 cm, Russia;
5. Dmitriy Kulagin, 01.07.1992, 197 cm, Russia;
8. Vyacheslav Zaitcev, 28.08.1989, 190 cm, Russia;
9. Marcos Knight, 09.24.1989, 191 cm, USA;
24. Evgeniy Kolesnikov, 26.12.1985, 195 cm, Russia;
32. Erick Green, 09.05.1991, 190 cm, USA.
Forwards
7. Louis Labeyrie, 11.02.1992, 208 cm, France;
13. Mark Tikhonenko, 13.03.1998, 203 cm, Russia;
22. Alexandr Stulenkov, 09.08.1992, 206 cm, Russia;
25. Vladislav Odinokov, 22.03.2000, 202 cm, Russia.
Centers
3. Jalen Reynolds, 30.12.1992, 208 cm, USA;
21. Ismael Bako, 10.10.1995, 208 cm, Belgium;
31. Ivan Lazarev, 31.01.1991, 210 cm, Russia.
The head coach is Velimir Perasovic, Croatia.
We are waiting for all basketball fans on October 16 at the Minsk Arena! Entrance to the arena will be carried out from 17:00. Tickets for the game can be purchased at the box office of the arena an hour and a half before the start of the game, as well as on the website and at points of sale kvitki.by The broadcast of the game will be available on the Belarus 5 TV channel and the VTB United League website. Your support is important to us!