At the time of publishing this article, UNICS had not yet played against Uralmash, so MBA-MAI currently sits alone at the top of the league. This, with all due respect to Vasily Karasev‘s coaching talent, is somewhat unexpected. But it’s well-deserved, as the Moscow Basketball Association team, which plays under the auspices of the Moscow Aviation Institute, earned all 3 of their victories in good style.
First, on October 3, in Yekaterinburg, they defeated Uralmash 83:77 in a tight clutch. Shooting guard Vyacheslav Zaitsev had a strong performance against his former team, recording 13 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals. Later, Zaitsev will be selected to the Team of the 1st Week of the league, averaging 11.3 points, 2.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.3 steals.
Andrei Zubkov also scored 13 points to Uralmash. The power forward was MBA-MAI’s main star last season (earning 7 Team of the Week selections and an All-Star Game invitation). He discussed his new contract with the team all over the summer. Ultimately, the two sides reached an agreement, and Zubkov continues to prove his worth: he has by far the best plus/minus on the team (+15), as well as 11.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.0 steals per game.
MBA-MAI played their second championship game at home on October 6, defeating Yenisei 78:77 thanks to a long-range buzzer by small forward Pavel Savkov (he’s seen celebrating in the center of the frame in the next photo). Savkov currently has a grandmaster-level 3-point shooting percentage of 54.5% on 3.7 attempts per game.
Power forward Vladislav Trushkin led his team in scoring against Yenisei with 16 points. He is currently first in MBA-MAI in scoring with 12.7 points per game (his 4.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists are also good).
On October 9, MBA-MAI quite easily beat Pari NN in Nizhny Novgorod, 89:66. Five players from the Moscow team finished the game with double-digit efficiency ratings: Zaitsev scored 20 points, Savkov 15, Trushkin 11, and Zubkov was one point short of a double-double (9+10). Among those we haven’t yet mentioned, let’s outline small forward Maxim Barashkov: 7 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks.
But the team’s leader in blocks is power forward Danil Pevnev leads MBA-MAI, averaging 1.0 per game. Also, the player, who wears the unusual number 95, makes 8.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.
Our opponent’s leading assist provider is Alexander Platunov (5.0 per game). After a season at UNICS spent mostly on the bench, the former PARMA captain is gradually regaining his former confidence – he’s currently averaging 5.3 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 1.0 steals.
The VTB United League’s oldest player, shooting guard Yevgeny Voronov, consistently gets his 16 minutes on the court. The 39-year-old MBA-MAI captain’s stats is 4.0 points, 1.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.0 steals, and the 4th-highest plus/minus rating on the team (+6).
This will be Lokomotiv Kuban’s 11th game against MBA-MAI. The Muscovites won the first two, back in 2022, and since then, the Krasnodar team has consistently prevailed.
Makar Konovalov will be playing for the first time against the team he was part of for the previous 3 seasons.
MBA-MAI also has players with experience playing for our club. Yevgeny Voronov began his professional career with Lokomotiv-Minvody, moved with the team to Rostov-on-Don, and then played two seasons for Lokomotiv-Kuban from 2014 to 2016.
Andrei Zubkov also began his career at Lokomotiv, captaining our youth team for two years, which won the Russian U21 Championship (the VTB United Youth League didn’t exist at the time). After joining the main squad, he won EuroCup gold and EuroLeague bronze, became team captain in the 2016/17 season, and remains Lokomotiv’s all-time leader in games played, with 270. By comparison, Vladislav Yemchenko has played 239 games for us, while Kirill Yelatontsev (155) and Anton Kvitkovskikh (149) lead the current players.
Center Sergei Balashov spent the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons with Lokomotiv. In his first year, he twice won the VTB United Youth League MVP of the Month and was selected to the regular season’s All-Star Team. In his second year, he won the Russian Cup with the main team, but then left to continue his career with his hometown club, Zenit.
Forward Alexander Gudumak played half a season for us last season. He missed the first 3 matches of the new season due to medical reasons, as did Balashov. Whether we’ll see these two against Lokomotiv is a big question.
However, the game is still expected to be quite interesting. A win would put us ahead of MBA-MAI in the standings – good motivation, isn’t it?.. Go, Loko!