Samara! Finally!
The second leg of the VTB League regular season is in full swing, but our team had to return to the first leg. We haven't met Samara yet...
CSKA "graduates" rule
In the first 15 games of the season, the team from Volga banks won only six. However, with the density of results in the middle of the standings, this is now enough to be in seventh place, leading the play-in zone. Drazen Anzulovic's team has not had any great successes in games with the favorites, but they are consistently collecting points against their neighbors.
The main danger of the opponent is the lack of a obvious leader (it was about the same last season). Guard Brendan Adams is the best in terms of scoring (14.5 points, 3.9 assists), and he attacks with a very decent efficiency line of 52-49-81. But he is slightly behind former CSKA player Mikhail Kulagin (13.3 points) and Ronnie Harrell (12.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.9 steals). Moreover, two more basketball players score more than ten points on average per game - tall shooter Hayden Dalton (10.7 points, 5.5 rebounds) and CSKA Youth Team graduate Alexander Gudumak (10.1 points, 4.3 rebounds). In this group there are two more Russian players who play key roles - big man Ilya Popov (9.6 points, 5.4 rebounds) and Anton Kardanakhishvili, who played for the red-blues last season (8.7 points, 2.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists).
To play better than on Thursday
Our team stayed at Megasport after the victory over Parma and managed to hold two training sessions here with the same lineup.
“Samara is the only team we haven't met yet,” notes CSKA head coach Andreas Pistiolis. “As always, we have a tough challenge ahead of us, since our opponents come out with extra motivation and without the pressure against CSKA. Our task is to show basketball better than in the previous game.”
Past matchups
Wins-losses in VTB League: 4-0
2023-24 VTB League regular season games:
08-Nov-2023. CSKA – Samara: 94-76 (+18)
07-Jan-2024. Samara – CSKA: 82-92 (+10)
Brief dossier
BC Samara
Founded: 1976
Colors: blue, white
Homecourt: Vladimir Vysotsky Palace of Sports (5,000)
President: Kamo Pogosian
Head coach: Drazen Anzulovic
Website: bcsamara.com
Trophy case: Russian League bronze winners (1996, 97), Superleague 1 champions (2019, 21), Russian Cup winners (2020, 22)
