AX Olimpia Milan — CSKA, 30 September 2021

PRE-GAME BREAKDOWN

Unique situation: the Red-Blues don’t have any seriously injured players (knock-to-the-wood) on the first stage of the season. Dimitris Itoudis has to make a tough choice before every game. Vladimir Ivlev and Alexander Khomenko stayed in Moscow this time. 13 players are on the away roster.

Our team had a practice in Krylatskoye in the afternoon. It was the first time when Anton Kardanakhishvili wasn’t there: he left to Nizhny Novgorod to play on loan. The Army Men went to Sheremetyevo after practice and left to Milan by Aeroflot charter flight.

CSKA won its first (unofficial so far) VTB League SuperCup. Olimpia couldn’t take the similar trophy: they were beaten by Virtus Bologna in the final game of the Italian SuperCup.

PRE-GAME QUOTES

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

Whatever happened last year stays in history. As a fact, we play against a very ambitious team that always targets high. It shows in a way they build the team, in a way they play a game of basketball. Also it's a debut, we start the EuroLeague [season]. Considering all this, we have a very difficult task but we are all here healthy and with right mindset to go there and fight. We are very thrilled and motivated to play good basketball, to become a team. We do have right components, still we need to have a right chemistry. We are looking for that, and game will help us towards this direction.

Nicola Milutinov, CSKA center:

This [rebounding record] happened long time ago, now it's going to be a completely different game. They are good opponent, it's tough to play against them, especially there [in Milan]. I think we are prepared, we just have to be concentrated and ready for the game over there. They have different players, different team so we have to think of what is now, not the last season. We will go there to fight.

“RELATIVITY” CONNECTIONS

Kyle Hines spent seven seasons with CSKA Moscow. He played 218 EuroLeague games with CSKA, helping the team reach every Final Four in that period, during which they won a total of 173 games and EuroLeague crowns in 2016 and 2019. During his time with the club, he was named team captain and voted as the competition's Best Defender in 2015-16 and 2017-18.

Sergio Rodriguez spent two seasons with CSKA, from 2017 to 2019, and helped it win the 2019 EuroLeague title. He played under Coach Dimitris Itoudis and was a teammate of the majority of the current CSKA squad.

Coach Ettore Messina had two successful stints coaching CSKA. In his first four-year period in the Russian capital, Messina guided CSKA to two EuroLeague titles (2006 and 2008) and reached two more championship games (2007 and 2009). He reached the Final Four twice more (2013 and 2014) when he next took the reins.

During his years at CSKA, Messina coached only two players from the current CSKA roster, Nikita Kurbanov and Alexey Shved.

Daniel Hackett played for Milan for a season and a half. Hackett joined Milan in December 2013 and stayed there until the summer of 2015. He was a teammate with Nicolo Melli, and the two helped Milan reach the 2014 EuroLeague Playoffs.

Hackett and Melli not only played together at Milan in 2014 and 2015, but have also been teammates on the Italian national team.

Shavon Shields and Toko Shengelia were teammates at Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz for two seasons, from 2018 to 2020.

Nikita Kurbanov and Malcolm Delaney played for Lokomotiv Kuban Kransnodar in the 2014-15 season.

IMPORTANT NUMBERS

Every CSKA player has previous experience in the competition and at least four EuroLeague appearances.

Johannes Voigtmann has made at least 1 three-point shot in 13 straight and 25 of his last 26 games.

Daniel Hackett has made at least 1 three-pointer in seven of his last eight games.

Iffe Lundberg has made at least 1 three-pointer in eight straight games.

Marius Grigonis made at least 1 three-point shot in eight straight games.

Grigonis is ranked second all-time in free throw accuracy at 92.8%.

Alexey Shved has made at least 1 three-pointer in 42 of his last 43 appearances.

Shved ranks ninth all-time with 418 three-point shots made for his career. Gianluca Basile is eighth with 421.

Shved has scored in double-digits in 17 straight and 96 of his last 97 appearances.

Shved ranks 12th all-time in scoring with 2,743 points. Kyle Hines is 11th with 2,753 and counting.

Shved has posted a PIR in double figures in 29 of his last 30 games.

Shved ranks 12th all-time with 577 free throws made for his career. Sergio Llull is 11th with 580 and counting.

Shved needs 19 assists to reach 800 for his career.

In Round 17 last season, Nikola Milutinov smashed the EuroLeague single-game record with 16 offensive rebounds in a road win over AX Armani Exchange Milan.

Milutinov ranks eighth on the all-time list with 464 offensive rebounds. Bryant Dunston of Anadolu Efes Istanbul is seventh with 468.

PAST MATCHUPS

Wins/losses: 13-8

1965-66. European Champions Cup. Semifinal. CSKA – Olimpia: 57-68 (-11)
1982-83. European Champions Cup. Final Round. Olimpia – CSKA: 94-86 (-8)
1982-83. European Champions Cup. Final Round. CSKA – Olimpia: 79-78 (+1)
1996-97. Euroleague. Preliminary Round. Adecco – CSKA: 87-74 (-13)
1996-97. Euroleague. Preliminary Round. CSKA – Adecco: 70-55 (+15)
2008-09. Euroleague. Regular Season. CSKA – Armani Jeans: 90-64 (+26)
2008-09. Euroleague. Regular Season. Armani Jeans – CSKA: 80-79 (-1)
2010-11. Euroleague. Regular Season. CSKA – Armani Jeans: 73-88 (-15)
2010-11. Euroleague. Regular Season. Armani Jeans – CSKA: 71-65 (-6)
2014-15. Euroleague. Top 16. CSKA – EA7 Milan: 97-75 (+22)
2014-15. Euroleague. Top 16. EA7 Milan – CSKA: 79-88 (+9)
2016-17. Euroleague. Regular season. EA7 Milan – CSKA: 64-79 (+15)
2016-17. Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – EA7 Milan: 101-64 (+37)
2017-18. Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – AX Olimpia Milan: 93-84 (+9)
2017-18. Euroleague. Regular season. AX Olimpia Milan – CSKA: 81-107 (+26)
2018-19. Euroleague. Regular season. AX Olimpia Milan – CSKA: 85-90 (+5)
2018-19. Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – AX Olimpia Milan: 101-95 (+6)
2019-20. Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – AX Olimpia Milan: 78-75 (+3)
2020-21. Euroleague. Regular season. AX Olimpia Milan – CSKA: 87-91 OT (+4)
2020-21. Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – AX Olimpia Milan: 76-84 (-8)
2020-21. Euroleague. 3rd place game. AX Olimpia Milan – CSKA: 83-73 (-10)

SHORT DOSSIER

AX Olimpia Milan, Italy

Founded: 1936
Colors: red, white
Home court: Mediolanum Forum (11,200)
Owner: Giorgio Armani
President: Pantaleo Dell’Orco
Head coach: Ettore Messina
Website: www.olimpiamilano.com
Trophy case: 3-time Euroleague champions (1966, 87, 88), 3-time Cup Winners Cup champions (1971, 72, 76), 2-time Korac Cup winners (1985, 93), Intercontinental Cup winners (1987), 28-time Italian champions (1936, 37, 38, 39, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 72, 82, 85, 86, 87, 89, 96, 2014, 16, 18), 7-time Italian Cup winners (1972, 86, 87, 96, 16, 17, 21), 3-time Italian SuperCup winners (2016, 18, 20)