The 2021/22 VTB season begins today. The first games will be held in Kazan and Minsk

The 2021/22 season begins! The first games will be held in Kazan and Minsk!

Thursday, September 23

UNICS (Russia) — Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia)

Time: 19: 00 (Moscow time)

Location: Basket Hall, Kazan, Russia

Broadcast: Match! Strana, TV-Start, the League website

Games history: 30 games, UNICS — 14 wins, Lokomotiv-Kuban-16 wins

UNICS: Kazan made their debut in the season, taking third place in the United League SuperCup. For UNICS, the SuperCup games became a general changes review that occurred in the off-season. This season, the Kazan team will play in the Euroleague, and therefore it has seriously strengthened the squad. Just a few days ago, UNICS management announced the signing of the famous guard O.J. Mayo, who spent 8 seasons in the NBA. But if Mayo did not have time to take part in the SuperCup, then another star newcomer  — Mario Hezonja — made his debut very brightly: in the game against Zenit, the Croat scored 22 points, and in the game against Loko, he scored 27 points and a fantastic 6 steals. Another UNICS rookie was power forward Jarrell Brantley (2 seasons in the NBA with the Utah Jazz). American Bigman is designed to compensate Will Thomas departure. But the main Kazan signing was the head coach Velimir Perasovic. Interestingly, in 2014 Perasovic, who was then in charge of Valencia, beat UNICS in the EuroCup final.

Lokomotiv-Kuban: The Krasnodar team met with UNICS less than a week ago – in the ‘bronze’ SuperCup game. In this game, Loko team lost and now they will try to take revenge. In the off-season, Loko also significantly refreshed the squad, and it was the newcomers who showed themselves most clearly in the SuperCup: Jonathan Motley and Eric McCollum, who is well known to all Russian fans who made a name for himself just in the UNICS team. Another newcomer will certainly strengthen Kuban front line: this is power forward with a three-point shot-Gregg Whittington. Their duet with Motley is quite capable of causing a lot of trouble to the Kazan frontcourt. This season, Loko’s priority is Russian players development: for example, eight Russians took part in the game against UNICS, the most effective was Vladislav Emchenko.

Who to follow: Of course, Mario Hezonja. The Croatian has already shown his capabilities at the SuperCup. But still, his performance at the pre-season tournament and at the official start of the season should be different. Krasnodar players will pay special attention to the defense against Mario, and the game with Loko will be a good test for the new UNICS leader.

Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus) — CSKA (Russia)

Time: 19: 30 (Moscow time)

Location: Minsk-Arena, Minsk, Belarus

Broadcast: The League website

Games history: 22 games, Tsmoki-Minsk – 0 wins, CSKA — 22 wins

Tsmoki-Minsk: The main event in the Dragons’ off-season camp was the contract extention with head coach Rostislav Vergun. And the most serious loss was the departure of Chris Clyburn. This can seriously affect the team’s offense — last season, Clyburn scored over 16 points on average per game and ranked 5th in the list of the most effective players of the League. Angelo Warner will try to replace Clyburn as the main striking force of the Dragons, who became perhaps the most effective in the Champions League qualification, where Tsmoki lost in the decisive game. In addition, it is worth following the duel of Robert Upshaw with Joel Bolomboy or Nikola Milutinov.

CSKA: The League champions are starting the season in a good mood: at the weekend they won the first ever United League SuperCup, beat UNICS and then Zenit. Although newcomer Marius Grigonis and Alexey Shved took an active part in winning the trophy, Will Clyburn was recognized as the SuperCup MVP. However, Grigonis and Shved also managed to show themselves, scoring 30 points for two in the semifinal game versus Loko. The first regular season game is unlikely to set any difficulties for the Army team — in 22 face-to-face game with Minsk tea,, CSKA is still going without defeats.

What to follow: CSKA is the undisputed favorite of this game. But the Army team has already struggled at the start of the last two seasons, losing to Enisey in 2019 and PARMA in 2020. No one will expect a sensation from Tsmoki-Minsk, which has never defeated CSKA and the absence of pressure can help the Belarusian team to successfully start the championship.