In the Game of the Week on Monday, two Moscow teams will play – CSKA and MBA.
Time: 20:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Moscow, Basket Hall
Broadcast: TV Start, Match! Igra, League website
Rivalry
This game will be the first official in the history of these teams. Which is not surprising: MBA was founded in May 2013. Theoretically, the clubs could have crossed paths in the 2013/14 Russian Cup, but MBA stopped at second qualifying round, while CSKA started the tournament from the quarterfinals.
At the same time, in its debut season 2013/14, MBA played with CSKA-2 in the Russian Cup and won 80:68. 3 players played for the Army youth team, who will take to the court in the Game of the Week: these are CSKA players Anton Astapkovich and Artem Komolov, as well as MBA guard Timofey Yakushin.
MBA and CSKA played 4 friendly games. Each of the 4 games including this preseason ended with CSKA wins.
Offseason moves
This offseason, CSKA changed the head coach for the first time in 8 years: Emil Rajkovic replaced Dimitris Itoudis. There were other changes: Anton Astapkovich and Artem Komolov returned to the team, Deyan Davidovac came from Crvena Zvezda, Livio Jean-Charles moved from Olympiacos and Samson Ruzhentsev – from Mega. At the same time, the Army team used to keep lest season key players, which was extremely useful for the new head coach.
As for MBA, after joining the VTB League, 10 new players and head coach Vasily Karasev who previously headed Zenit and Triumph came to the team. Despite the rumors in the media, the club decided to keep the concept of playing with Russian players only. There have never been legionnaires in the 9-year MBA history.
Season start
But the foreign players absence in the roster does not prevent MBA from winning even at the highest level. In the first League game, Vasily Karasev team confidently beat Lokomotiv Kuban in Krasnodar – 86:73. Next games with Astana on the road (103:69) and MINSK at home (81:62) were also successful. Now MBA shares the first place in the standings with two top clubs – CSKA and UNICS.
MBA became only the fourth club in the League history to make the debut with three consecutive wins (three other clubs – CSKA, UNICS and Spartak St. Petersburg) and showed the best efficiency difference at the start.
As for CSKA, the schedule was a little more complicated here – but the Army team successfully dealt with it. The opening game of the season was in Samara, where Rajkovic team did not leave a chance to the League newcomer who made a noise in the transfer market (85:72). Then there were wins over MINSK (107:63) and Loko (84:64).
Both CSKA and MBA come to the Moscow derby with 3-0 ratio.
Fact
What about the derby?
For the first time in the VTB League history, two teams from Moscow will play. The Moscow region teams Khimki and Triumph competed in the tournament earlier. However, MBA is not based in the region, but in the capital so the Game of the Week becomes the Moscow derby.
CSKA will be considered the home team, but in fact, MBA is the Basket Hall hosts too.
Old friends
MBA has 5 CSKA graduates: Aleksandr Khomenko, Andrey Lopatin, Timofey Yakushin, Makar Konovalov and Daniil Kochergin. Also, Evgeniy Voronov and even the head coach Vasily Karasev played for the Army team earlier – it was in the 90s.
Alexey Shved is even too well known in MBA – Evgeniy Valiev, Timofey Yakushin, Evgeniy Voronov, Vladislav Odinokov, Sergey Klyuev and Vladislav Sharapov played with him in Khimki.
Over the years, CSKA center Aleksandr Desyatnikov played with MBA players Evgeny Voronov (in Triumph), Anton Pushkov and Evgeniy Valiev (in Zenit). Kurbanov and Voronov played together for Loko and Platonov, Komolov and Astapkovich played for Nizhny Novgorod.
Numbers and leaders
CSKA and MBA are the second and third places in the standings with three wins. UNICS is the first, the team beat Astana on Sunday.
Both Moscow clubs are in the top in points per game: CSKA is second (92.0), MBA is third (90.0). The same goes for rebounds: 42.0 for CSKA, 37.7 for MBA. The Army team made more than half of their shots from the game – 52.6%. MBA is slightly behind (49.2), but with a three-pointer percentage the team is ahead – 46.0% (CSKA – 39.5).
7 MBA players score 9 or more points on average per game, while the leader Aleksandr Khomenko has 13.7. Only one MBA player Andrey Lopatin has 25 minutes on the court, but 9 players play 15 or more minutes.
CSKA playing time is even more equal: 12 out of 13 Army team players spent an average of 10 or more minutes on the court and no one plays more than 23 minutes. The leader is Alexey Shved: he has 17.3 points per game. Nikola Milutinov has 13.0 points.
Only one Game of the Week player is in the Top 10 scorers of the season, this is Alexey Shved. But Ilya Platonov and Nikola Milutinov share the first place in the League in rebounds – 8.3 on average per game.
