UNICS Kazan | ||||
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Leagues | PBL Euroleague VTB United League |
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Founded | 1991 | |||
History | 1991 - present | |||
Arena | Basket Hall Arena (capacity: 7,500) |
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Location | Kazan, Russia | |||
Team colors | Green and White |
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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) |
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Website | unics.ru | |||
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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.
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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.
Season | Division | Regular | Play-off | Cup | Europe | Regional |
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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 |
Players | Coaches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Roster • updated October 23 2011 |
Pos. | Starter | Bench | Bench | Reserve |
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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 |
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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
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