BC UNICS

UNICS Kazan
Leagues PBL
Euroleague
VTB United League
Founded 1991
History 1991 - present
Arena Basket Hall Arena
(capacity: 7,500)
Location Kazan, Russia
Team colors Green and White
         
President Yevgeny Bogachev
Head coach Evgeniy Pashutin
Championships 2 Russian Cups
(2003; 2009)
1 North European Basketball League
(2003)
1FIBA Europe League
(2004)
1 Eurocup
(2011)
Website unics.ru
Uniforms
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UNICS Kazan is a professional basketball club in Kazan, Russia playing in the PBL. Their home arena is Basket Hall Arena. Though officially the professional club was founded in 1991 (when began its appearance at the lowest of pro leagues), UNICS traces its origin back to KSU's college team Burevestnik which participated in USSR student championships since 1957 winning all-Soviet college title twice - in 1965 and 1970. Because of this the name 'UNICS' is quite an abbreviation - UNI(versity), C(ulture), S(port).

In 1997 it was promoted to the Russian Basketball Super League 'A', the top Russian league. A year later Yevgeny Bogachev, the chairman of the National Bank of the Republic of Tatarstan, became the President of the club.

Contents

History

UNICS Kazan has gone a long way towards helping Russian basketball since the club was established in 1991. Between 1994 and 1997, UNICS secured a berth in Russia's first division, and then made a smashing debut, establishing itself among the top five teams in the country. UNICS already played European competitions in 1997, but the new millennium happened to be a turning point for the club. The team placed second to CSKA in the Russian Basketball Super League in 2001 and 2002, the year in which it also reached the Saporta Cup semifinals, losing against Maroussi in the semifinals. UNICS first title was the Russian Cup in March 2003, with an electrifying 81-82 overtime victory over CSKA. UNICS fans did not have to wait long to see their team win a European title, too. Kazan hosted the FIBA Europe League final four, named now FIBA EuroCup, in April 2004 and UNICS made sure of its opportunity. UNICS signed Saulius Štombergas, Eurelijus Žukauskas or Chris Anstey, won its regular season group and advanced to the final four on its own floor, where it was crowned the FIBA Europe League champion as MVP Martin Müürsepp scored 22 points in an 87-63 win over Maroussi in the title game. By 2005-06, UNICS went one level up and made its ULEB Cup debut, tying the best regular season record in the competition's history. Things turned south quickly, as it lost at home against Roma for the only time all season in the eighth finals’ second leg and crashed out earlier than expected. UNICS got stronger for last season, keeping the core group of the previous seasons side while adding Darjuš Lavrinovič to reunite with twin brother Kšyštof Lavrinovič in a twin towers set full of talent. The team made it to the ULEB Cup semifinals before losing to eventual champs Real Madrid. It also returned to the Russian League finals, losing against perennial champion CSKA. UNICS is back in the ULEB Cup with the only goal to reach even higher and make the city of Kazan proud of its mighty basketball team.

Recent seasons

Season Division Regular Play-off Cup Europe Regional
1997-98 Superleague A 5th (West) 7th n/a Korać Cup Group stage n/a
1998-99 Superleague A 5th 5th n/a Saporta Cup 1/16 Finals n/a
1999-00 Superleague A 3rd Bronze n/p Korać Cup 1/16 Finals n/p
2000-01 Superleague A 2nd Silver n/a Saporta Cup 1/2 Finals n/p
2001-02 Superleague A 2nd Silver n/a Saporta Cup 1/4 Finals n/p
2002-03 Superleague A 3rd Bronze Winner FIBA Champions Cup 1/4 Finals NEBL Winner
2003-04 Superleague A 2nd Silver 3rd FIBA Europe League Winner n/a
2004-05 Superleague A 3rd Bronze Finalist FIBA Europe League 1/4 Finals n/a
2005-06 Superleague A 4th 4th 3rd ULEB Cup 1/8 Finals n/a
2006-07 Superleague A 2nd Silver Finalist ULEB Cup 1/2 Finals n/a
2007-08 Superleague A 3rd 6th 1/2 Finals ULEB Cup 1/4 Finals (Final Eight) n/a
2008-09 Superleague A 4th Bronze Winner ULEB Eurocup Top-16 stage n/p
2009-10 Superleague A 3rd Bronze Finalist ULEB Eurocup Top-16 stage VTB League Finalist
2010-11 PBL 1st Bronze n/p ULEB Eurocup Winner VTB League 3rd

Roster

Players Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Age Height Weight
G 4 Lyday, Terrell &1000000000000003200000032 - August 12, 1979(1979-08-12) 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 90 kg (200 lb)
G 5 Golovin, Dmitry &1000000000000002300000023 - July 14, 1988(1988-07-14) 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 88 kg (190 lb)
F 7 Zamanskiy, Igor &1000000000000003400000034 - November 16, 1977(1977-11-16) 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 95 kg (210 lb)
G 9 Samoylenko, Petr &1000000000000003500000035 - February 7, 1977(1977-02-07) 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 86 kg (190 lb)
G 11 Pashutin, Zakhar &1000000000000003700000037 - May 3, 1974(1974-05-03) 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 95 kg (210 lb)
F 12 Veremeenko, Vladimir &1000000000000002700000027 - July 21, 1984(1984-07-21) 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 107 kg (240 lb)
G 13 Greer, Lynn &1000000000000003200000032 - October 23, 1979(1979-10-23) 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) 82 kg (180 lb)
C 14 Savrasenko, Alexey &1000000000000003300000033 - February 28, 1979(1979-02-28) 2.15 m (7 ft 1 in) 118 kg (260 lb)
F/C 15 Gubanov, Petr &1000000000000002400000024 - April 3, 1987(1987-04-03) 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) 103 kg (230 lb)
F 21 McCarty, Kelly &1000000000000003600000036 - August 24, 1975(1975-08-24) 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 107 kg (240 lb)
C 32 Jawai, Nathan &1000000000000002500000025 - October 10, 1986(1986-10-10) 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 127 kg (280 lb)
G 33 Cherniavskiy, Yevgeniy &1000000000000002800000028 - January 27, 1984(1984-01-27) 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 90 kg (200 lb)
G 44 Domercant, Henry &1000000000000003100000031 - December 30, 1980(1980-12-30) 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) 95 kg (210 lb)
F 54 Wilkinson, Mike &1000000000000003000000030 - October 1, 1981(1981-10-01) 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) 111 kg (240 lb)
G -- Williams, Marcus &1000000000000002600000026 - December 3, 1985(1985-12-03) 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 93 kg (210 lb)
Head coach
Assistant coach(es)
  • Ivan Eremić
  • Aleksandr Zryadchikov

Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • Injured

Roster • updated October 23 2011

Depth Chart

Pos. Starter Bench Bench Reserve
C Nathan Jawai Aleksey Savrasenko
PF Vladimir Veremeenko Mike Wilkinson Pyotr Gubanov
SF Kelly McCarty Igor Zamanski
SG Terrell Lyday Henry Domercant Zakhar Pashutin Yevgeniy Cherniavskiy
PG Lynn Greer Petr Samoylenko Marcus Williams Dmitri Golovin

Notable Russian players

bold - FIBA World and FIBA Europe champions and medalists
  • Ruslan Avleev (1997-01, 04-06) - 301 games, 19.2 ppg;
  • Victor Kurilchuk (1997-00) - 201 games, 8.9 ppg;
  • Eduard Soobtsokov (1997-00) - 204 games, 7 ppg;
  • Petr Samoylenko (1998-07, 08-11) - 669 games, 6.1 ppg;
  • Andrey Sepelev (1998–99) - 53 games, 11 ppg;
  • Anton Yudin (1999-03, 04-06) - 243 games, 10.7 ppg;
  • Alexander Petrenko (1999-00) - 58 games, 13.2 ppg;
  • Andrey Kornev (1999-01) - 76 games, 6.1 ppg;
  • Aleksandr Gutorov (1999-00) - 35 games, 8.4 ppg;
  • Evgeniy Pashutin (2000–02) - 86 games, 8.5 ppg;
  • Igor Grachev (2000–02) - 74 games, 8.6 ppg;
  • Valentin Kubrakov (2000–02, 03-04) - 121 games, 8.5 ppg;
  • Igor Zamansky (2001–03, 08-11) - 201 games, 5.8 ppg;
  • Igor Kudelin (2002–03, 06-07) - 35 games, 8.1 ppg;
  • Sergei Chikalkin (2002–03, 05-09) - 187 games, 10.6 ppg;
  • Andrei Fetisov (2002–03) - 20 games, 6.2 ppg;
  • Alexander Miloserdov (2003–05, 06-07) - 125 games, 9.3 ppg;
  • Viktor Keirou (2003–05, 07-08) - 83 games, 5.4 ppg;
  • Sergei Toporov (2004–06) - 93 games, 7.3 ppg;
  • Vadim Panin (2006–07) - 35 games, 6.1 ppg;
  • Dmitri Sokolov (2006–09) - 128 games, 6.8 ppg;
  • Nikolay Padius (2007–08, 10-11) - 59 games, 5.3 ppg;
  • Fedor Likholitov (2009–10) - 10 games, 2.5 ppg;
  • Zakhar Pashutin (2010–11) - 63 games, 5.8 ppg;

Notable foreign players

bold - former NBA players; Olympics, FIBA World and FIBA Europe champions and medalists
USA
Australia
Europe

Milan Gurović (2004) and Hüseyin Beşok (2005) shortly were under contract with UNICS Kazan, but never played a single game for the team.

(*) former NBA champions

Coaches

bold - Olympics, FIBA World and FIBA Europe champions and medalists

External links