Professional basketball club in Kazan, Russia
BC UNICS (
Russian : БК УНИКС ) is a professional
basketball
club in
Kazan , Russia, that plays in the
VTB United League , and formerly played in the
EuroLeague . On February 28, 2022,
EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine .
[1]
Their home arena is
Basket-Hall Kazan .
History
1991-1999
UNICS was established in 1991. Though officially the club's men's professional club was founded in 1991 (when it first began to play in the lowest level of the national pro leagues), UNICS traces its origins back to
KSU's college team
Burevestnik , which participated in the
USSR student championships from 1957. Because of this, the name 'UNICS' is an abbreviation – UNIversity, Culture, Sport.[
citation needed ]
Between 1994 and 1997, UNICS secured a berth in Russia's first division. In 1997, UNICS was promoted to the
Russian Basketball Super League A , which was at the time the
top-tier level Russian league . A year later, Yevgeny Bogachev, the chairman of the National Bank of the
Tatarstan , became the president of the club.[
citation needed ]
2000-2019
The team placed second to
CSKA in the
Russian Basketball Super League in 2001 and 2002, a year in which it also reached the
Saporta Cup semifinals, losing against the Greek club
Maroussi in the semifinals. UNICS' first title was the
Russian Cup in March 2003, with an 81–82 overtime victory over
CSKA .
Kazan hosted the
FIBA Europe League final four, which was eventually named the
FIBA EuroChallenge , in April 2004. UNICS won its regular season group, and advanced to the final four, where the club was crowned the FIBA Europe League champions. The
MVP of the tournament's final four . By the 2005–06 season, UNICS went one level up, and made its
ULEB Cup (later named EuroCup) debut. However, things turned south quickly, as UNICS lost at home against
Roma in the tournament's eighth finals’ second leg, and crashed out. The team the next season made it to the
ULEB Cup semifinals, before losing to the eventual league champs
Real Madrid . It also returned to the
Russian League finals, losing against
CSKA .[
citation needed ]
In the 2007–08 season, UNICS made it to the ULEB Cup (now called EuroCup) Final Eight, but fell to
Akasvayu Girona in the quarterfinals. UNICS finally broke through in the EuroCup in the 2010–11 season, by winning its regular season and Last 16 groups, before sweeping its quarterfinal series against
Pepsi Caserta . UNICS beat
KK Cedevita 87–66, in the semifinals, behind 27 points from
Terrell Lyday , and registered a 92–77 win against
Cajasol Sevilla , in the title game.
Marko Popović had a EuroCup Finals record of 11
assists , to lead UNICS to the title. In the Russian League, UNICS had a 21–6 record, to finish the regular season atop the standings, but then went out in the playoff semifinals, after a five-game duel against
BC Khimki . The club then competed in the Turkish Airlines
EuroLeague in the following season.[
citation needed ] It made its
EuroLeague debut in the 2011–12 season. In the Russian League it finished first at the end of the regular season, and reached the playoff semifinals.[
citation needed ]
2020-present
Jarrell Brantley left the team in early 2022 due to the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine .
[2] The team is suing him for $250,000, and trying to prevent him from signing with a
G League team.
[2] Similarly, Americans
Isaiah Canaan ,
John Brown , and
John Holland left the team after the invasion.
[3]
On February 28, 2022,
EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine .
[1]
Lorenzo Brown and
Marco Spissu decided not to break their contracts and stayed with the team until the end of
VTB League .[
citation needed ]
Honours
Domestic competitions
Champions (1): 2023
Champions (3): 2003, 2009,
2014
European competitions
Champions (1):
2011
Champions (1):
2004
Champions (1): 2003
Season by season
Players
Current roster
Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at
FIBA -sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.
UNICS roster
Players
Coaches
Pos.
No.
Nat.
Name
Ht.
Age
PG
1
Dimitrijević, Nenad
1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
26 – (1998-02-23 ) 23 February 1998
C
3
Reynolds, Jalen
2.08 m (6 ft 10 in)
31 – (1992-12-30 ) 30 December 1992
SG
4
Komolov, Artem
1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)
30 – (1993-06-01 ) 1 June 1993
SG
5
Kulagin, Dmitrii
1.97 m (6 ft 6 in)
31 – (1992-07-01 ) 1 July 1992
PF
7
Labeyrie, Louis
2.08 m (6 ft 10 in)
32 – (1992-02-11 ) 11 February 1992
PG
8
Zaytsev, Vyacheslav
1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
34 – (1989-08-28 ) 28 August 1989
PG
9
Knight, Marcos
1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
34 – (1989-09-24 ) 24 September 1989
F
13
Tikhonenko, Mark
2.08 m (6 ft 10 in)
26 – (1998-03-13 ) 13 March 1998
C
21
Bako, Ismaël
2.06 m (6 ft 9 in)
28 – (1995-10-10 ) 10 October 1995
F
22
Stulenkov, Alexandr
2.08 m (6 ft 10 in)
31 – (1992-08-09 ) 9 August 1992
G
24
Kolesnikov, Evgeny
1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)
28 – (1995-12-26 ) 26 December 1995
F
25
Odinokov, Vladislav
2.02 m (6 ft 8 in)
24 – (2000-03-22 ) 22 March 2000
C
31
Lazarev, Ivan
2.10 m (6 ft 11 in)
33 – (1991-01-31 ) 31 January 1991
SG
32
Green, Erick
1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
83 kg (183 lb)
32 – (1991-05-09 ) 9 May 1991
Head coach
Assistant coach(es)
Djordje Varagic
Artur Bigeev
Milan Karakas
Team manager
Mikhail Kolesnikov
Legend
(C) Team captain
Injured
Updated: July 25, 2023
Depth chart
Notable players
Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at
FIBA -sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.
Criteria
To appear in this section a player must have either:
Set a club record or won an individual award while at the club
Played at least one official international match for their national team at any time
Played at least one official
NBA match at any time.
bold – FIBA World and FIBA Europe champions and medalists
Russian
Ruslan Avleev (1997–01, 04–06) – 301 games, 19.2 ppg ;
Petr Samoylenko (1998–07, 08–13) – 774 games , 5.8 ppg;
Alexander Petrenko (1999–00) – 58 games, 13.2 ppg;
Evgeniy Pashutin (2000–02) – 86 games, 8.5 ppg;
Valentin Kubrakov (2000–02, 03–04) – 121 games, 8.5 ppg;
Igor Kudelin (2002–03, 06–07) – 35 games, 8.1 ppg;
Sergei Chikalkin (2002–03, 05–09) – 187 games, 10.6 ppg;
Andrei Fetisov (2002–03) – 20 games, 6.2 ppg;
Viktor Keirou (2003–05, 07–08) – 83 games, 5.4 ppg;
Vadim Panin (2006–07) – 35 games, 6.1 ppg;
Dmitri Sokolov (2006–09) – 128 games, 6.8 ppg;
Nikolay Padius (2007–08, 10–11) – 59 games, 5.3 ppg;
Fedor Likholitov (2009–10) – 10 games, 2.5 ppg;
Zakhar Pashutin (2010–12) – 102 games, 4.3 ppg;
Aleksey Savrasenko (2011–12) – 56 games, 4.6 ppg;
Nikita Shabalkin (2012–13) – 28 games, 6.3 ppg;
Egor Koulechov (2020–21)
Foreign
bold – former NBA players; Olympics, FIBA World and FIBA Europe champions and medalists
Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at
FIBA -sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.
Criteria
To appear in this section a player must have either:
Set a club record or won an individual award while at the club
Played at least one official international match for their national team at any time
Played at least one official
NBA match at any time.
USA
Glen Whisby (2000–01) – 51 games, 10.4 ppg;
Anthony Bonner (2001–02) – 8 games, 14.9 ppg;
Michael McDonald (2001–02) – 45 games; 12.2 ppg;
Acie Earl (2001–02) – 30 games, 11.8 ppg;
Dickey Simpkins * (2002–03) – 38 games, 12.3 ppg;
Kebu Stewart (2002–03) – 18 games, 8.3 ppg;
LaMarr Greer (2003–04) – 41 games; 12 ppg;
Joe Ira Clark (2004–05) – 41 games, 7.8 ppg;
Paul Shirley (2004–05) – 9 games, 4.9 ppg;
Shammond Williams (2004–05) – 57 games, 17.1 ppg ;
Travis Best (2005–06) – 40 games, 11.5 ppg;
Samaki Walker * (2005–06) – 4 games, 7 ppg;
Sam Clancy, Jr. (2005–06) – 30 games, 4 ppg;
Jarod Stevenson (2006–07) – 32 games; 10.4 ppg;
Mateen Cleaves (2006–07) – 11 games, 5 ppg;
Jerry McCullough (2006–08) – 80 games, 6.8 ppg;
Tariq Kirksay (2007–09) – 95 games, 9.3 ppg;
Joseph Forte (2007–08) – 11 games, 8.4 ppg;
Marc Jackson (2008–09) – 19 games, 6.5 ppg;
Terrell Lyday (2008–13) – 243 games , 12.2 ppg;
Ricky Minard (2010–11) – 48 games, 7.4 pts;
Kelly McCarty (2010–13) – 114 games, 9.5 ppg;
Henry Domercant (2011–12) – 58 games, 13.4 ppg;
Lynn Greer (2011–12) – 55 games, 8 ppg;
Mike Wilkinson (2011–13) – 63 games, 7.1 ppg;
Mire Chatman (2012–13) – 45 games, 8.5 ppg;
Chuck Eidson (2012–13) – 48 games, 13.6 ppg;
Drew Goudelock (2013–14) – 46 games, 19.3 ppg;
John Holland (2020)
O. J. Mayo (2021–22) – 9 games, 7.2 ppg;
Australia
Europe
D'or Fischer
Slobodan Šljivančanin (1998–00) – 117 games, 10 ppg;
Branislav Vićentić (2001–02) – 29 games, 10.4 ppg;
Oliver Popović (2001–03) – 80 games, 14.6 ppg;
Damir Mršić (2002–03) – 31 games, 7.7 ppg;
Eurelijus Žukauskas (2002–04) – 78 games, 10 ppg;
Martin Müürsepp (2001–02, 03–04, 05–06) – 86 games, 11.3 ppg;
Saulius Štombergas (2003–04, 05–07, 09–10) – 144 games, 11 ppg;
Stevan Nađfeji (2004–05) – 40 games, 7.4 ppg;
Kaspars Kambala (2004–05) – 54 games, 14.5 ppg;
Kšyštof Lavrinovič (2005–07) – 78 games, 12.7 ppg;
Darjuš Lavrinovič (2006–08) – 68 games, 12.9 ppg;
Duško Savanović (2006–08) – 71 games, 10.3 ppg;
Marko Tušek (2007–08) – 36 games, 10.1 ppg;
Krešimir Lončar (2008–10) – 114 games, 11.8 ppg;
Marko Popović (2008–11) – 142 games, 13.9 ppg;
Vladimir Veremeenko (2008–13) – 249 games , 8.8 ppg;
Maciej Lampe (2009–11) – 96 games, 15.9 ppg ;
Hasan Rizvić (2010–11) – 64 games, 5.4 ppg;
Slavko Vraneš (2010–11) – 39 games, 2.6 ppg;
Boštjan Nachbar (2011–12) – 22 games, 3.6 ppg;
Ian Vougioukas (2012–13) – 47 games, 10.9 ppg;
Kostas Kaimakoglou (2012–2021) – 37 games, 12.5 ppg;
Artūras Milaknis (2015–16);
Nenad Dimitrijević (2022–23) – VTB United League playoffs MVP;
Milan Gurović (2004) and
Hüseyin Beşok (2005) shortly were under contract with UNICS Kazan, but never played a single game for the team.
(*) former NBA champions
Head coaches
bold – Olympics, FIBA World and FIBA Europe champions and medalists
References
External links
Links to related articles