Back in the middle of the previous season, Samara decided to get rid of foreigners, including coaches. In the summer, the team signed several players born in Samara (Dmitry Cheburkin, Artyom Chevarenkov, Andrei Savrasov).
But Savrasov was out due to injury before the season even began, and a week later, two more key players, Mikhail Kulagin and Danila Pokhodyaev, joined the injured list. Now, Samara has a very stable starting lineup, which is generally capable of giving league opponents a run for their money.
First of all, we must mention Nikita Mikhailovsky – last year’s champion with CSKA, he puts up truly strong statistics for Samara: 21.6 points (best in the league), 8.0 rebounds (2nd in the league), 2.8 assists and 0.8 steals.
Power forward Dmitry Cheburkin averages 18.8 points per game (tied for 2nd-3rd place in the league with Patrick Miller), 4.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.5 steals per game.
In Kulagin‘s absence, Yevgeny Minchenko has been appointed captain of Samara. The 30-year-old center, as expected, leads the team in blocks (0.8) and, rather unexpectedly, is among the top 3-point shooters (33.3% on 1.5 attempts per game; only Kulagin has a higher percentage). Also, Minchenko averages 6.2 points and 4.8 rebounds.
Small forward Gleb Sheiko is among the top 3 Samara players in playing time (excluding injuries players). In his 24.21 minutes on the court, he’s averaging 5.8 points, 0.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 0.3 steals.
Artyom Chevarenkov is responsible for orchestrating Samara’s offense: 3.7 assists, 6.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 0.8 steals. Last season, he was the starting point guard for our Superliga team, ORSS-Lokomotiv-Kuban, although he also played six games for Lokomotiv’s main team.
Besides Chevarenkov, Yegor Velikorodny transferred from Lokomotiv to Samara last summer. The forward played for our various youth and reserve teams for 5 years and currently leads the Samara team in steals (1.3), along with 3.3 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists, and 0.5 blocks.
Another of our graduates, center Valery Kalinov, is also on the Volga team’s roster. He played 6 seasons for us, including 30 games for Lokomotiv’s main team. He’s currently averaging 8 minutes per game for Samara (2.0 points and 2.0 rebounds), and he wasn’t on the roster for the game in Perm 3 days ago. Hardly we’ll see him playing on Saturday.
How did we play before
This will be the 10th game between Lokomotiv Kuban and Samara: we’ve played 8 times in the VTB United League, and once more in the 2024 Kuban Cup final. We’ve only lost to the Volga team once – 71:72 last December.
Samara currently sits last in the league with a 0-6 record (next to Yenisei with 0-5). But their recent performances against Avtodor (Samara lost 76:84) and MBA-MAI (70:78) show that Vladislav Konovalov‘s team is ready to punish their opponents for the slightest underestimation and is ready to give it their all to secure their first win of the season. So our team must play seriously and responsibly.
We believe Loko will do just that! See you at the Basket Hall!