Recently, FIBA has released a report for 2019/20 season comparing stats among national leagues. VTB United League was also covered in the report.
Here are the most notable stats.
VTB United League is the most scoring European league!
In 2019/20, VTB United League teams averaged 84.9 points per game which is the largest number in Europe. German Bundesliga is 0.5 points behind.
Morover, with 84.9 points VTB League is ranked 3rd in the world after Australia and China.
In 121 games of the last season the 100 points mark was reached in 28 cases. Furthermore, in 5 games both teams had three-digit numbers.
Among all global leagues in FIBA report, Khimki (95.2 points per game) are the fourth most scoring team in the world after Chinese Guandong Rigers (100.8 points), Australian Melbourne Phoenix (95.4 points) and Polish Zielona Gora (95.3 points in Polish league, also competing in VTB United League).
Experienced players in VTB League
Average age of VTB United League players is 27.3 years which is no.4 in the world (among Italy) after Japan, Greece and Spain.
At the moment of VTB League termination ahead of schedule, there were 60 players above 30 and 6 of them above 35: Lukasz Koszarek (Zielona Gora), Kristjan Kangur (Kalev), Lorenzo Williams (PARMA), Kostas Kaimakoglou (UNICS), Sergye Monia (Khimki), Uladzimir Verameyanka (Tsmoki-Minsk).
Moreover, Avtodor fielded 46-year-old Andrey Sepelev, the most experienced participant of the league.
VTB United League features more than half of local players
Last season, VTB United League was one of the few European leagues where share of foreign players (51.2%) was less the locals (48.8%).
The largest percentage of local players was in Nizhny Novgorod (62.5% of Russians), Lokomotiv-Kuban (61.1% of Russians) and PARMA (55.6% of Russians).
At the start of this season, Nizhny’s share grew up to 76.9% with 10 Russians of 13 overall players.
24 countries represented in VTB League
Even though, there are only 13 teams in VTB United League, the competition is one of the most multi-culturals in the world. Last season, there were players from 24 countries which ranks VTB League 6th in the world and 5th in Europe.
In 2019/20 season, there were players from Belarus, the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Israel, Iceland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Nigeria, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, the USA, France, Croatia, Sweden and Estonia.
In 2020/21 season, the first Dannish player Iffe Lundberg appeared in the League.
VTB United League has almost 11% of players below 21
Even though, VTB United League features a pack of experienced players, more than 10% of fielded athletes were younger than 21. To compare, in Spain, this percentage is only 6.4%
Avtodor had the largest number of young players (9): VTB United League 2019 All-Star Game participant Nikita Mikhailovskii and 2020 Slam Dunk Contest winner Alexander Petenev.
