On February 18, the training camp of the Russian national squad began in Novogorsk. 4 players of 18 represent Lokomotiv-Kuban PBC. They are defenders Vladislav Yemchenko and Alexander Shcherbenev, centers Andrey Martyuk and Kirill Elatontsev.
After this evening’s training session on February 19, Vladislav Yemchenko gave an interview to the club press service.
- – How is the atmosphere in the national team?
- – Excellent, friendly. We’ve all missed each other and are glad to meet again.
- – Are the training sessions hard? What do you focus on there?
- – We’ve got two sessions so far, and I can’t say it is hard. We focus on communication on the court. We learn to talk more, see each other. We all represent different clubs, so we need to quickly adapt to the ideas that the national team coach wants from us.
- – On February 23, the Russian national team will play a friendly match against Samara BC. What can you say about that opponent and what do you expect from this game?
- – Samara is a strong opponent. It’s great that we have the opportunity not just to train, but to have a full-fledged match. Despite the fact that this is a friendly game, we will be as serious as possible; we want to show high-quality basketball.
- – At the same time, the U20 team is training in Novogorsk under the leadership of Roman Semerninov, assistant head coach of Loko. They also have several guys from the club’s Academy. Do you see each other there?
- – Yes, today they had a training session just before us, so we talked a bit. I was glad to see our guys from the reserve team, to see Roman Evgenievich, and coach Philip Aleksandrovich Rotkov, and masseur Viktor Rebrov, all of them in the colors of the national team. It was also very pleasant to meet Djordje Varagic – he now works at UNICS, but several years ago he was our coach with Sasha Shcherbenev and Andriukha Martyuk.
- – Did you watch the VTB United League All-Star Game yesterday? If yes, then what are your impressions?
- – My impressions are excellent, The All-Star Game is becoming more and more interesting to watch every year. The level of play is growing, and the show is becoming more diverse.
- – Whom are you more happy for – Martyuk or Akoon-Purcell?
- – Andrei’s team won, but DeVaughn got excellent statistics and an individual prize, it was clear how eager he was to win. In the previous All-Star Game, Andriusha became the best scorer, but he did not receive the MVP title. It’s very good for Loko that Dap did. So, I'm happy for both of them.
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