In the fourth edition of VTB United Leauge, there were 323 players and 29 head coaches from 20 clubs. 13 freshmen of that season played or managed teams in 2019/20 season.
Below, we’ll recall those who represent 2010/11 season in the United League of 2020:
Sergey Karasev, Triumph
Stats: 20 games, 15.4 points, 4.3 rebounds
The guard spent his first five years of professional career in Triumph. In 2012-13 the Lyubertsy team joined VTB League, and Sergey had become one of the team’s leaders by that moment. The were only 2 games where 19-year-old Russian didn’t hit the 10-point mark; he scored 25 against Neptunas and finished as the 4th top scorer of the League with a gap to leading Erl Rowland of 0.83 PPG only.
The playoffs, however, weren’t much of a succes neither for Triumph, nor for the guard. They lost the series to Krasnye Krylia (0:2), and Karasev’s scoring droped from 16.3 to 7.5.
Despite the unfavourable finish, Sergey Karasev was named the best young player of 2012/13 season. And in summer 2013, Cleveland picked him (no. 19) at 2013 draft.
Dmitriy Kulagin, Krasnye Krylia
Stats: 19 games, 5.5 points, 1.7 rebounds
While Sergey Karasev was shining in the regular season, another young Russian performed in the playoffs. The coincidence is that in the first round Dmitriy Kulagin and Krasnye Krylia downed Karasev’s Triumph, and 20-year-old guard hit 12 points and 5 rebounds in the decisive game of the series.
Dmitriy’s debut season was not very bright: only 2 games with more than 10 points in the regular season. Triumph signed him in summer 2013, and later there were Zenit and CSKA. In 2018, Dmitriy signed 4-year deal with Loko (2+2 format), and today is the offseason when both parties may terminate the agreement.
Mikhail Kulagin, Triumph
Stats: 11 games, 2.5 points, 1.0 rebounds
Dmitriy’s younger brother has been playing in VTB League since his first professional season. Mikhail signed with Triumph in 2012 and played 11 games only.
The game against VEF was the most memorable: the guard played over 23 minutes and scored 11 points. However, Triumph allowed 17-point comeback and were beaten in the end.
In 2015, Mikhail Kulagin moved to CSKA to spent antoher 5 years. In June 2020, the guard became a free agent.
Evgenii Baburin, Nizhny Novgorod
Stats: 18 games, 3.6 points
Evgenii Baburin spent 11 of his 17 seasons in Nizhny Novgorod: 2003-2008, 2012-2016, and since 2018 up to this day.
During 2012 offseason, the guard came back to Nizhny from Spartak-Primorie and tried to fit in Zoran Lukic’s system. It didn’t really work in the regular season as Evgenii marked 10.5 minutes per game with 2 attempts only. In the playoffs, however, the minutes grew together with points and efficiency.
NN were beaten by Zalgiris in the quarterfinals (1-3), but Baburin had transformed into one of the key players of Lukic: 20.5 minutes, 9.0 points with 43.5% three-pointers and 1.8 steals.
Vladimir Ivlev, Nizhny Novgorod
Stats: 20 games, 1.9 points, 1.6 rebounds
Valdimir Ivlev’s career looks like one of Baburin. They both made their debut in Nizhny, both moved to Krasnodar in 2016. However, as opposed to Baburin, Ivlev had been staying in Loko until the end of 2019/20 season. Couple of days ago, Kuban announced that Vladimir would leave the team.
In season 2012/13 under Lukic’s command, Vladimir didn’t have much playing time: no more than 10 minutes in most of the games, focusing predominantly on donkey’s work.
Kazys Maksvytis, Neptunas
Stats: 3 wins in 18 games
Kazys Maksvytis took control of Neptunas in the beginning of his career, as previosuly he’d worked for only two years in Lithuania: Aisciai (2010-11) and Sakaliai (2011-12). Neptunas, with a mediocre budget finished last in their group with a record of 3-15.
The major highlight of that season was their home game against Tsmoki-Minsk: the teams got into the OT, Minsk guard Aliaksandr Kudrautsau scored 37 points, but the Lithuanians grabbed the victory (110:106).
Last summer, Maksvytis signed with PARMA. As of the moment of season termination, the team were ranked 5th and pretended to play in their first playoffs in history. No surprise that the management decided to extend the contract.
Denis Zakharov, Nizhny Novgorod
Stats: 4 games
This 19-year-old guard’s debut was far from perfect. In 2012/13 he played 4 games only with 0 points scpred. Morover, his all 4 games were against Zalgiris: 1 in the regular season and 3 in the playoffs.
How did that happen?
Denis started 2012/13 season in Sparta i K, and performed well: 11.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 24 games of Superleague. Later on, in March, within a three-party deal, Zakharov moved to Nizhny Novgorod (Dramir Zibirov joined Rostov, and Maksim Bychkov was transferred from Rostov to Sparta).
The guard played only 4 games for NN, and moved to Dinamo in the summer.
Konstantinos Kaimakoglou, UNICS
Stats: 17 games, 12.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists
2011 Euroleague champion had a nice 2011/12 season with Pao: 7.9 points and 4.1 rebounds in the Euroleague. In the summer, the Greek was hunted by UNICS as the Kazan were working on the transfer market before Euroleague qualification tournament.
UNICS didn’t qualify to the Euroleague regular season, but smashed great regular season in VTB League (2nd place in the group) and in Eurocup (1st place in the group, quarterfinals). However, the playoffs didn’t turn well for them: in VTB League they lost to Loko, and Valencia outplayed UNICS in Eurocup’s quarterfinals.
It was Kostas’ best season for UNICS. The Greek scored and rebounded a lot, but didn’t manage to perform his best in the series with Loko.
Forward is still with UNICS. Kaimakouglou played 134 for Kazan club.
Evgeny Valiev, Triumph
Stats: 20 games, 5.7 points, 4.0 rebounds
Another ex-Triumph player on the list. Unlike his teammates, Valiev made his debut in the United League as an experienced player with 7 professional seasons.
The coached trusted Valiev and gave him more than 20 minutes per game. Three times, Evgenii scored 10+ points, hit double-double against Nizhny (11+10 points) and made 6 steals in the same game.
Valiev played for Triumph and Zenit until 2019 and later signed with Khimki. He spent 2019/20 season on loan in PARMA.
Aleksandr Gudumak, CSKA
Stats: 2 games
Aleksandr Gudumak was born and grew up in Moldova. At 15, he moved to Moscow and signed with CSKA later becoming Russian citizen. In 2012/13 season, the forward played only 2 games with 0 points scored.
As a two-time champion with CSKA, after 2013/14 season Gudumak went on loan to Avtodor, Krasnye Krylia, Sakhalin, NN and Enisey. Gudumak was in Krasnoyarsk in 2019/20 season.
Tomislav Zubcic, Lietuvos Rytas
Stats: 7 games, 3.9 points
22-year-old forward joined the Lithuanian club in the middle of the season moving to Vilnius after 5 years in Cibona. However, Zubcic didn’t manage to fit in Lietuvos Rytas: 7 games, 14 points against Avtodor. In the summer, Tomislav came back to Croatia to play for Cedevita.
Joan Plaza, Zalgiris
Stats: 20 wins in 26 games
Zoan Plaza started coaching in 2000, but it took him 12 years to get into club outside Spain. He signed with Zalgiris, showed great regular season in VTB League with only two losses (VEF and Tsmoki-Minsk), took the first place in the group beating CSKA.
The problems started in the playoffs: Zalgiris had a hard time beating NN and lost the semifinals to Loko: +27 in the first game were followed by three consecutive losses.
Meanwhile, Joan Plaza led Zalgiris to win Lithuanian league and got to Euroleague’s Top 16. Despite the results, the management didn’t want Plaza to stay, so Joan came back to Spain.
Rustam Murzagaliyev, Astana
Stats: 7 games, 0.7 points, 1.1 rebounds
In his first season for Astana in VTB League, the guard was trying to get used to the level of the league and opponents. Rustam played 6 games in the regular season, stepped in during a playoff game against VEF with a three-pointer and 2 rebounds.
Within 8 years, Rustam covered a distance from a young guard to a true veteran of Astana, a team captain. This week, the Kazakh team announced the contract with Murzagaliyev was extended for one more season.
