Achievements of the Club

2022/23
VTB United League Silver
2018
The Russian Cup Champion
2017/2018
Silver medallist Eurocup
2016
Eurolegue Final Four Participant, 3rd place
2015
Russian Championship Bronze
2013/14
Euroleague Top-16 Participant
2014
Basketball Cup Runner-up
2013
Eurocup Champion
2012/13
VTB United League Silver
2012
Russian Championship Bronze
2010/11
FIBA EuroChallenge Runner-up
2007, 2008
Russian Railways International Cup Champion
2004/2005
FIBA Cup Runner-up
2001, 2002
Russian Championship Bronze
2001/2002
Korac Cup
2000
The Russian Cup Champion

Information about the Club

Lokomotiv-Kuban is the silver medalist of the VTB United League in the 2022/23 season.

Home arena “Basket Hall” has a capacity of 7500 seats. Lokomotiv Kuban has one of the highest attendances in Russian basketball. The club is a multilevel sports organisation developing both professional and amateur sports. In the Loko system there are seven youth teams players from which are called up to the national teams of different ages on a regular basis.

  • 2022/2023 season

    Opening of the Youth Training Center, silver after 10 years, triumph of the youth team.

    September of 2022 was marked for the Lokomotiv-Kuban club system with launching of the Youth Training Center, which became the base for all reserve teams. Before the start of the season, a new coaching staff was invited to the Loko main team: Slovenian coach Alexander Sekulic (at the same time the head coach his country’s national team) and his Croatian assistant Jurica Zuza. The list of players was supplemented by forwards Darral Willis and Dmitry Uzinsky. And if the first one didn’t stay in the team for long, the second one confidently fit into the game and was soon awarded the captain’s armband.

    At first, Loko did not demonstrate a stable and bright game. Nevertheless, after start of the second stage of the championship it turned out that the Krasnodar team won 12 out of 12 matches against the teams that eventually went to finish the tournament in the “bottom” six. And Lokomotiv-Kuban having added experienced foreign players Chris Horton, DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell and Okaro White, began to gain confidence.

    And, although the team qualified for the playoffs only in 5th place, the quarter-final opponent, Pari Nizhny Novgorod, was beaten 3:0. Loko created a much louder sensation in the semi-finals, knocking CSKA out of the fight for gold, a team that had previously missed the finals for the last time in the 2001/02 season! The fate of this incredibly dramatic series was decided in overtime of the 7th match, where Krasnodar basketball graduate Alexander Shcherbenev showed off his composure and accuracy.

    The final series began very optimistically for Loko: in the first match UNICS was beaten in Kazan with a solid margin of safety. However, then the Kazan team won four matches in a row. Lokomotiv-Kuban won silver medals in the VTB United League for the second time in its history. Loko-2 achieved brilliant success, becoming the champion of the VTB United Youth League. Loko-2008 also won gold medals at the All-Russian Championship. And Alexander Shcherbenev, Vladislav Yemchenko, Andrey Martyuk and Anton Kvitkovskikh, who play for the main team, have secured their status as the main players of the Russian national team.

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  • 2021/2022 season

    Ceased Eurocup dream and just step away from VTB United League medals.

    The team has undergone major changes in the offseason. A wide roster of foreigners - Nigel Williams, Will Cummings, Kevin Hervey, Mantas Kalnietis, Mindaugus Kuzminskas, Drew Gordon and Reggie Lynch - were substituted by a pinpoint reinforcement of a number of American players.

    Andrey Martyuk, Zakhar Vedischev, Alexander Shcherbenev, Vladislav Yemchenko, Valery Kalinov and Yegor Sychkov the pupils of the Lokomotiv-Kuban reserve system, got much more trust and with it – responsibility in current season.

    Evgeny Pashutin left the club and his assistant Serbian specialist Branko Maksimovic took the position as an acting coach. Guard Jaylen Barford joined the team and immediately became one of the main offensive options. But Maksimovich did not manage to make his plans for Eurocup. Russian teams were excluded from Euroleague and Eurocup in February. Foreigners parted ways with the club by mutual agreement.

    Afterwards Loko put up an impressive 10-1 streak in VTB League. The team successfully completed the regular season and knocked out PARMA-PARIBET (3:0) in the first round of the playoffs. Loko approached the semi-finals with CSKA in great mood. Loko imposed serious fight to the longtime leader of the Russian basketball.

    Loko lost in the series with the score1:3, but had a chance to achieve more and basketball experts gave positive feedback on the performance. But Loko roster, noticeably rejuvenated with the departure of foreigners, had no energy left for the struggle bronze series. The team gave Kazan a real fight, won one of the away games, but eventually lost the series with the score 1:3 and took fourth place in the VTB United League championship.

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  • 2020/2021 season

    Best performance in regular season of VTB League and semifinals, EuroCup quarterfinals.

    The 2020/21 season has become unique in terms of involving the pupils of the reserve system of PBC Lokomotiv Kuban in the game of the main team. Andrei Martiuk, Vladislav Emchenko, Sergei Dolinin and Valery Kalinov became confident players of the main team. Egor Sychkov, Yaroslav Nyagu, Kirill Korobko, Danil Sheyanov and Kirill Elatontsev played their first matches in the main team.

    Before the start of the season the team managed to retain the backbone of legionnaires and the coaching staff headed by Evgeny Pashutin. Alan Williams, Will Cummings, Mantas Kalnietis and Mindaugas Kuzminskas stayed at Loko. As a reinforcement were signed contracts with Jordan Crawford, Reggie Lynch and Kevin Hervey. Unfortunately, team leader Alan Williams was seriously injured in November. Drew Gordon came to the problematic center position due to this injury. In February Nigel Williams-Goss entered the team's game. All newcomers played an important role, but not all of them were able to finish the season at the level. Jordan Crawford was expelled in February, Nigel Williams-Goss was injured in the second match of the quarterfinal series against Khimki and was unable to show his full level in the semifinals. In March team captain Stanislav Ilnitskiy was injured, and in May, just before the start of the VTB League playoffs, regular season MVP Mantas Kalnietis dropped out.

    Unfortunately, all these moments could not but affect Loko's results, but this season can be confidently called, at least, not bad. The EuroCup quarterfinals and VTB United League semifinals are a vivid confirmation of this!

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  • 2019/2020 season

    A decade in Krasnodar and the coronavirus pandemic. An strange season that ended ahead of schedule in March.

    In the offseason the team underwent changes in management, coaching staff, and the roster was renewed.

    Ginas Rutkauskas was appointed vice president. For the Lithuanian specialist this is a return to the Krasnodar: he was Loko's vice president from 2012 to 2014.

    Italian specialist Luca Banchi became the head coach of the team.

    The roster was joined by American legionnaires Sam Decker, Will Cummings, Johnny O'Bryant and Alan Williams, as well as Lithuanian defender Mantas Kalnietis, who played for Loko in the seasons 2012/2013, 2013/2014, 2014/2015.

    On November 15, after unsatisfactory results at the start of the season, the club's management decided to part ways with Luca Banchi. Bogdan Karaicic was appointed as acting coach.

    On December 7 after a home defeat to Avtodor Saratov Evgeny Pashutin, who coached Loko from 2012 to 2014, was appointed as head coach. After Pashutin's return Loko beat Partizan in the Eurocup, but lost to Tofas away and for the first time did not qualify to top-16 of Eurocup.

    In VTB United League Loko with Pashutin made a spurt of eight victories in a row. In March the season was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. Loko was in third place after Khimki and CSKA.

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  • 2018/2019 season

    Before the 2018/2019 season made a few big signings.

    Teams’s roster was reinforced by an NBA champion Dorell Wright, a reigning Eurocup champion JaJuan Johnson, an American prospect Isaiah Whitehead and other foreign players.

    Despite Moustapha Fall and Jamel McLean’s injuries Loko finished the group stage in the first place and TOP-16 of Eurocup. The quarter-finals against UNICS were as tight as it might be, but Loko were unlucky by having lost the third game on the road.

    In the VTB United League Loko finished on the fourth place after a powerful ending of the regular season. But in the quarter-finals against Zenit, Bob Donewald’s team was let down by injuries (before the fourth game Dorell Wright had to recover along with Dmitry Khvostov) and the series finished with a 3:1 score and the St. Petersburg club advancing further.

    Lokomotiv Kuban has one of the highest attendance in Russia. The club is a multilevel sports organisation developing both professional and amateur sports. In the Loko system there are seven youth teams players from which are called up to the national teams of different ages on a regular basis. Lokomotiv Kuban hosts an all-Russian children’s tournament “Lokobasket - School league” that unites more than 200 000 contenders from all over the country. In 2016 the club initiated a unique basketball center aimed to lead young Russian player on a new level. More than that, in 2018, we began construction of a club’s new training center. The first part of the work is to be finished by the end of 2019.

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  • 2017/2018 season

    Season 2017/18 became a transition year for Loko. The main goal was to return to Euroleague.

    The roster was formed by the head coach Sasa Obradovic. Loko signed up three national team players (Dmitry Kulagin, Pavel Antipov and Stanislav Ilnitsky), Russian cup winner Ivan Nelyubov, American players Joe Ragland, Chris Babb, Trevor Lacey and Brian Qvale and one of the most entertaining players in the VTB United League Frank Elegar.

    Loko set an all-time Eurocup record of 20 victories in a row, winning all the games up until the final. Unfortunately, the team lost the first game in Basket Hall and could not turn the game around in Istanbul.

    The VTB United league regular season was finished with Loko being third in the table. But the club couldn’t expand the success onto the playoffs. With 3-0 in the series Khimki advanced to the next round.

    Nonetheless, Look won a trophy that season. In the Russian cup final against Nizhny Novgorod Loko won with a huge gap — 85:64 — with an Russians-only roster throughout the whole tournament.

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  • 2016/2017 season

    Loko celebrated 70 years in the season 2016/2017!

    Throughout the years Lokomotiv Kuban walked a colossal road from a basketball workshop for railmen to the Final Four of the most prestigious European tournament — Euroleague.

    Much to the disappointment, Loko didn’t get any trophies in the jubilee year. At the start of this season Fotis Katsikaris took the team under his wing but due to the poor results in all the tournaments it was decided to part ways with the Greek coach. Sasa Obradovic came as a substitute. With the Serbian specialist in charge Loko managed to reach Eurocup semi-finals where they lost to the future champions — Unicaja.

    A similar story happened in the VTB United League. Loko beat UNICS in the quarter-finals but lost the semis to CSKA.

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  • 2015/2016 season

    Loko had a sensational season in 2015/2016

    For the first time in history a club that had gotten a wild card to play in Euroleague reached the Final Four. During the season Loko beat Panathinaikos three times, Anadolu Efes suffered twice and then there was a fantastic 5 gams series against Barcelona — Loko won the deciding fifth game at home and celebrated getting through to the Final Four with a full arena on the court.

    As a result not only Loko won a place on the Berlin pedestal, but also made a huge contribution to the future — Andrei Vedischev, the president of the club, announced launching of the first basketball center for children in Russia, that is aimed on developing kids from the region.

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