Almost every basketball league scheduled a break in action in mid-February to allow national teams to compete in 2019 World Cup qualifying. The VTB United League is no exception. Following the 2018 All-Star Game, held in St. Petersburg on February 17, the League has no games scheduled until March 3.
But not everyone’s going on vacation. 44 players from 11 VTB United League clubs will join 12 national teams from countries in Europe, Asia and North America to compete for a spot in the FIBA World Cup.
Tsmoki-Minsk and Astana boast the largest contingents: 10 and 9 national team players, respectively. Both clubs have traditionally been feeder teams for Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Lokomotiv-Kuban is sending a League-best four players to the Russian national team. Zenit also has four players on the move, including foreign players. Kalev sends a group of five. Only two League teams kept a full roster: CSKA and Avtodor. Moscow, not surprisingly, chose not to send its star players to the national team because of upcoming EuroLeague action. Avtodor center Artem Klimenko picked up an injury several weeks ago and is currently recovering.
11 of 12 Russian national team players compete in the VTB United League. Along with the already-mentioned Loko contingent, there are players from Nizhny Novgorod, PARMA, Khimki, Zenit and UNICS at the Russian training camp in Novogorsk. The only Russian playing abroad on the squad is Pieno Zvaigzdes forward Nikita Balashov.
Here is the full list of VTB United League players on national teams:
UNICS: Vladislav Trushkin (Russia), Quino Colom (Spain), Melvin Ejim (Canada)
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Dmitry Kulagin, Evgeny Baburin, Dmitry Khvostov, Stanislav Ilnitsky (Russia)
Zenit: Kyle Kuric (Slovakia), Marko Simonovic (Serbia), Sergey Karasev, Evgeny Valiev (Russia)
Khimki: Viacheslav Zaitcev, Andrey Zubkov (Russia)
Nizhny Novgorod: Petr Gubanov (Russia), Stevan Jelovac (Serbia)
PARMA: Ivan Ukhov (Russia), Andrejs Grazulis (Latvia)
Astana: Vadim Shcherbak, Rustam Murzagaliyev, Anton Ponomarev, Rustam Yergali, Alexander Zhigulin, Dmitry Gavrilov, Maxim Marchuk, Anatoly Kolesnikov (Kazakhstan), Leonidas Kaselakis (Greece)
VEF: Mareks Mejeris (Latvia)
Tsmoki-Minsk: Christopher Czerapowicz (Sweden), Siarhei Vabishchevich, Viachaslau Korzh, Dzmitry Paliashchuk, Aliaksei Trastsinetski, Maksim Salash, Aliaksandr Semianiuk, Aliaksandr Kudrautsau, Mikita Meshcharakou, Devon Saddler (Belarus)
Kalev: Martin Dorbek, Erik Keedus, Kristjan Kangur, Sten Sokk (Estonia), Thomas van der Mars (Netherlands)
Enisey: Vitali Liutych (Belarus), Martins Meiers (Latvia)
You can find the schedule for World Cup qualifying on FIBA’s official website.
