Lokomotiv Kuban — CSKA, 05 December 2025

No bus tour

The entire VTB League has longed for flights from Moscow to Pashkovsky Airport. After all, in previous seasons, visitors to Krasnodar, while the city's airport was closed, had to resort to various means. CSKA, with a few exceptions, flew to Stavropol, from where they traveled by bus. Some preferred to take the bus from Mineralnye Vody, others liked the train from Sochi. And now, finally, the route, is convenient.

The red-and-blues departed on Thursday morning after a week of training in Krylatskoye. The team used the FIBA break to hone the team chemistry and integrate new signing Luka Mitrovic, who successfully passed his medicals last Friday and worked with his teammates on Saturday. The training staff was without Livio Jean-Charles and Tonye Jekiri, who were working individually, and Ivan Zaitsev, who was assigned to the national team.

"This will be a completely different game compared to our first meeting in Moscow," said CSKA head coach Andreas Pistiolis. "Our opponents will take the court with a different lineup, our lineup has undergone changes, and there's also a lot to be said for the evolution of Lokomotiv's game. Therefore, we're expecting a tough game in a challenging arena for the visitors, and we need to play high-level basketball to win."

Monthly changes

Lokomotiv was without three national team players during this period. Youngsters Ivan Samoylenko and Pavel Ryabkov were training in Novogorsk with Zoran Lukic, while Cassius Robertson played for Canada in the American World Cup qualifiers on December 2. However, the Railwaymen, since their extremely unsuccessful visit to the Army Men for the WINLINE Cup game, have added two new players. Forward B.J. Johnson, who played for the team last season (before injury), has returned to the team, and forward Michael Moore has been added. Both will likely be included in the roster for the game against CSKA.

Meanwhile, our good friend Anton Yudin, who transferred to Lokomotiv from CSKA-2 in the summer, maintains his previous statistical leaders. Patrick Miller remains the top scorer (16.4 points, 7.1 assists, 1.5 steals), followed by Anton Kvitkovskikh (13.2 points, 5.0 rebounds), Vince Hunter (11.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.9 steals), and the aforementioned Robertson (10.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.3 steals).

Past matchups

Win-loss ratio: 74-19,
in Moscow: 40-7, in Rostov: 9-1, in Krasnodar: 24-10, on the neutral court (Berlin): 1-0.

Game of the 2025-26 season:

WINLINE Basket Cup. 01-Nov-2025. CSKA – Lokomotiv-Kuban: 104-64 (+40)

Brief dossier

Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar, Russia
Founded: 1946
Colors: red, green, white
Home court: Basket Hall (7,500)
President: Andrey Vedishchev
Head coach: Anton Yudin
Website: www.lokobasket.com
Trophy case: Euroleague bronze winner (2016), EuroCup winner (2013), 2-times VTB United League runner-up (2013, 2023), BEKO PBL bronze winner (2012), Eurochallenge runner-up (2011), FIBA Europe Cup runner-up (2005), Russian Cup winner (2018)