VTB League players at the world cup in China. Results

VTB League players at the world cup in China. Results

FIBA World cup ended on September 15 in China. VTB United League was represented by 18 athletes and that’s how they played.

Sergey Karasev, Khimki

Team: Russia, 12th place
Stats: 4.0 points, 1.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists
“I couldn’t play like me at this world cup”. Sergey Karasev himself summarized his performance. The talented sniper spent last two seasons trying to recover and find his style. World cup demonstrated this search in a nutshell. One of the most gifted Russian players who–in the perfect world–is supposed to lead the national team became the weak spot of the defense and didn’t show much in the offense.

Vangelis Mantzaris, UNICS

Team: Greece, 11th place
Stats: 2.5 points, 1.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists
UNICS rookie not listed in Greece final roster however came to China substituting injurred Giannis Athinaiou. Vangelis played in only two games with a total of 16 minutes on court.

Evgeni Valiev, Khimki

Team: Russia, 12th place
Stats: 2.5 points, 1.5 rebounds, 0.5 assists
Valiev came back to national team after six years to be a reserve bigman in China. He was not on court in crucial games against Nigeria (3 minutes) and Poland, with a total of 30 minutes.

Evgeny Baburin, Nizhny Novgorod

Team: Russia, 12th place
Stats: 2.6 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists
Baburin played a total of 52 minutes,19 of them were in non-decisive game against Venezuela. Mostly because of the fouls situation–with 10.4 minutes per game the guard had 2.8 fouls per game. Discipline was one of the major factors keeping the Russians away from playoffs.

Vladimir Ivlev, Lokomotiv-Kuban

Team: Russia, 12th place
Stats: 4.6 points, 2.6 rebounds, 0.4 assists
Ivlev, as usual, was very focused on court being the Russian Great Wall in China. With his limited role, he gave what was expected–defense, rebounds and energy.

Semyon Antonov, CSKA

Team: Russia, 12th place
Stats: 6.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.0 assists
Antonov gave it all working hard in the defense and supporting teammates from the bench. However, Antonov had negative efficiency in all five games (-6.4 average). In crucial game against Poland he had the best record (11 + 8 rebounds), that although didn’t make him an X-factor–0 of 4 three-pointers, and 3 free throws missed.
Russian head coach Sergey Bazarevich said the players were supposed to come beyond the limits of their club roles. Antonov didn’t manage.


Vitaly Fridzon, Lokomotiv-Kuban

Team: Russia, 12th place
Stats: 6.6 points, 2.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists
Russian veteran did enormous amount of work outplaying himself in the defense. However, fans didn’t get to see his famous revolvers–only 3 of 10 (30%) beyond the arc in 5 games with 23 minutes per game. Fridzon didn’t become a constant threat from a long distance, neither did his experience decide games in clutches.

Lukasz Koszarek, Zielona Gora

Team: Poland, 8th place
Stats: 2.5 points, 0.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists
The veteran of Poland was not the first star (29,2% FG), but performed well within his role. He was heating up the game coming from the bench and adding up with his experience. His 15 minutes against Russia were enough to justify his presence at the world cup–Koszarek made two 3-pointers and adjusted offensive play (4 assists). That’s what the Russians lacked to get to the quarterfinals.

Mikhail Kulagin, CSKA

Team: Russia, 12th place
Stats: 10.6 points, 1.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists
Due to the absence of Dmitriy Khvostov, Alexey Shved and Dmitriy’s brother Kulagin had to play the role of the first team’s option. He partly completed his task, thus he had long recovery period after the injury. He occasionally played brightly and made a lot of troubles for opponents’ defence (31.9% FG) but activated his best basketball in the most important moments. At the World Cup in China he played terrific games against Nigeria and Poland. Russia’s win in the first game cleared the way to the Olympic qualifications.

Daniel Hckett, CSKA

Team: Italy, 10th place
Stats: 7.8 pts, 4.8 reb, 2.8 ast 
As a national team player Hackett did the same things that CSKA fans love him for. Daniel possesed every ball as it was clutch, bravely guarded the best opponent players, tried to do his best in offense and really hepled his team on the board.

italy lost its most important games against Spain and Serbia but CSKA guard was not the one to blame.

Mantas Kalnietis, Lokomotiv-Kuban

Team: Lithuania, 9th place
Stats: 10.0 points, 2.0 rebounds, 5.4 assists
Lthuania lost its key game against France mostly because of referee’s horible mistake recognized by FIBA and now we can call them the most dramatic team of 2019 world cup. Lokomotiv’s “rookie” Mantas’ performance was stable. He was in Lithuanian startnig five and finished 12th in assisst leaders list, but he couldn’t become a hero.

Nikita Kurbanov, CSKA

Team: Russia, 12th place
Stats: 9.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists
Due to the main teams stars absence classic 3&D-specialist suddenly became ome of the first team’s options in offense. One of the team’s symbols in China is Nikita Kurbanov playing post in iso and trying to get to the rim. He played really well and became the second most efficient player in the team, but couldn’t be in over his head.

Stefan Jovic, Khimki

Team Serbia, 5th place
Stats: 7.0 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists
Jovic admitted that Khimki got very qualified point guard by signing him. Stefan was in Serbian starting line-up and finished 2019 world cup in top 10 assissts leaders. Jovic’s perfomance can hardly be separated from team’s final place. The Serbian dream team destroyed their opponents in the first four games with a difference exceeding 40 points. Later they lost the game against Spain and surprisingly faded against Argentina in quarterfinals. Win over the USA (Jovic got 9 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists) was kind of recovery, but 5-8th places tournament was not the place to do that.

Johannes Voigtmann, CSKA

Team: Germany, 18th place
Stats: 11.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists
Germany had stars but couldn’t get through the first group stage. Key game against the Dominican Republic turned out to be the worst for CSKA player (2 points and 3 rebounds). Apart from that Voigtmann did a great job. Nice stats like 63% FG and 55,6% beoynd the arc are good news for CSKA fans

Andrey Zubkov, Zenit

Team: Russia, 12th place
Stats: 9.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists
True revelation for Russia. Zubkov acted as one of the leaders and offensive force. The game against Poland happened to be the worst one for Zenit player. Russians lacked his aggression, 3-pointers and effective plays in lo-post. However, Andrey can be proud of his debut.

Andrey Vorontsevich, CSKA

Team: Russia, 12th place
Stats: 12.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists
Experienced forward spent last season mostly on CSKA bench. However, he turned out to be a key player. Vorontsevich is the most efficient, top scorer and the best rebounder in Russian team with amazing 51-40-92. Add his crucial role in the defense and leadership, now that’s the best Russian player of 2019 world cup.

Andrew Albicy, Zenit

Team: France, 3rd place
Stats: 4.8 points, 1.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists
In this “All-Star” French roster Albicy was in the back. But then he became the hero of one of the best photos of the world cup.

The French team had its roles assigned strictly which helped them in historic game against the USA. Andrew did well giving rest to the main pont guard and working in defence. Albicy is the only VTB League player with a medal from China. In 3rd place game, France beat Australia.

Mateusz Ponitka, Zenit

Ponitka and Poland may be the diamonds in the dirt of this world cup. Poland started with 4-0, knocked out Russia and reached quarterfinals for the first time in their history. Mateusz was a leader of the sensational team. He was everywhere on the court, unstoppable in drives and proved himself a fighter.

Now he’ll try to show this breakthrough with Zenit.