After the successful home series of matches, «Astana» Presidential Basketball Club departs to Saratov, where on November 16 they will play with the local «Avtodor». In the upcoming match, our team has good chances to strengthen its position in the standings and win the first away victory in the VTB United League season.
«Avtodor» - is a Russian professional men's basketball club from the city of Saratov, founded in 1960.
Achievements:
- Silver medalist of the championship of Russia — 1993/1994, 1996/1997, 1997/1998, 1998/1999
- Bronze medalist of the Championship of Russia — 1995/1996
- Semifinalist of the European Cup — 1997/1998
- Super League Champion A — 1996/1997, 1997/1998
- Super League Champion B — 2008/2009
- Super League Champion — 2013/2014
- Super League Bronze Medalist — 2012/2013
The head coach of the Saratov team is a well-known Russian specialist, and in the past, the player is Evgeniy Pashutin. Pashutin heads the team for several seasons in a row. In the 2017/2018 season, he replaced the Italian Andrea Mazzona as head coach. The next season, Pashutin began the season in the Italian “Kant”, but very quickly returned to “Avtodor”, where he replaced Sergei Mokin. This season, Eugeniy heads the coaching staff of “Avtodor” from the very beginning of the season. It is also worth noting that Yevgeniy Pashutin in his career has headed the coaching staff of Spartak (St. Petersburg), Lokomotiv-Kuban, UNICS and CSKA, as well as led the Russian men's team, and now at the same time leads the Russian team U-20. The current Saratov coach started in «Avtodor» back in 1992, then he played 6 seasons for this team. In addition, he managed to play for «Spartak» in Leningrad, back in the USSR, in «Dynamo» team — Moscow, in UNICS and CSKA, as well as the Israeli «Maccabi». Yevgeniy Pashutin became the silver medalist of the world as a player, the bronze medalist of Europe, the champion of Russia, 6-time silver medalist of Russia. As a coach, he was the champion of Russia, the champion of VTB United League, twice the winner of the European Cup, and the Russian Cup.
Looking back at the last season, we can confidently say that the main losses of the Saratov team were the American players — Tre Golden, Perrin Buford and David Kravish. In general, all the imports left the team in the offseason, two more Americans Anthony Airland and DJ Newbill, as well as Serb Boris Savovic. And of the Russians who played last season to the end, Artem Zabelin left the team. In the offseason, only four players extended the contract with the team, and all of them are Russians: veteran Andrey Sepelev, who, although he is in a roster, has played only one match in the United League and only a couple of minutes in the season 2015/2016. And also three young homegrown players — Anton Kvitkovsky, Alexander Petenev, and Nikita Mikhailovskiy.
The whole team this season is based on newcomers. «Avtodor» currently has 5 Americans in its arsenal. A quick review of Reyvonte Rice, who left the team after two opening games of the season. Guard Markel Starks played in Australia and Puerto Rico, and in Europe managed to play in the championships of Italy, Germany, Greece, Turkey, and Poland; this season he was in the starting five in all five games of the Saratov team. Forward Elgin Cook played in Germany and Croatia. An experienced guard Orlando Johnson, who played wherever possible, but could not stay in the NBA, but held matches for teams like “Indiana Pacers”, “Sacramento Kings”, “Phoenix Suns” and “New Orleans Pelicans”, in Europe, Ordando played in Spain and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Asia, he played in the Philippines, China, and Libya. He is also not new to VTB United League — in the 2016/2017 season, he spent 8 matches for UNICS. So, Elgin and Orlando also played in all the games of “Avtodor”. Center Isaiah Hicks, who played in the NBA for the “New York Knicks,” has played in the last two matches of the team. A guard Tobin Carberry while playing exclusively in the North European countries, Iceland, Finland and Denmark, had become the champion of Denmark, is in the roster of the team but he has not played yet. The French center Muhamadou Zhait, who played mainly in France but joined the Saratov team after Italy, played all five past Avtodor games. Nigerian guard Michael Ume once played for professional teams in Germany, Spain, Italy, Israel, and Poland, participated in the last two games of the Saratov team. As for the Latvian shooting guard Kaspars Berzins, who played in Latvia, Spain, and Russia, and who is not a novice to the VTB United League, has only played two games for «Avtodor» and the last time he played in a match with CSKA. Among the Russians who play for «Avtodor» this season, besides those who re-signed the contract during the offseason, are young Alexey Babushkin, Yegor Bestuzhev, and Roman Balandin.
History of games: “Astana” and “Avtodor” have met 13 times. The first game was held in the distant season 2013/2014 as part of the Nesterov Cup, and then the Saratov team turned out to be stronger. Only in the next season, Avtodor began to participate in Eurochallange, but in the same season, in addition to the VTB League, our team and the squad from Saratov played twice in the Eurochallenge. In total, «Astana» won 7 matches and lost 6 out of 13 games, and in the VTB United League, the score was 6: 4 in favor of our guys.
Tournament position: “Astana” held three difficult home games, which ended in victory in the intense endings, and the team of Emil Rajkovic lost both away games. As a result, in the standings, the capital team has the same number of points and percentages as «Loko»,» Nizhny» and «Yenisei», but in terms of additional indicators, it proudly stands third, having only CSKA and Khimki ahead of them. “Avtodor” in the five matches has celebrated only one victory and occupies only the 11th line of the tournament table.
Interesting facts:
- “Avtodor” is the very team that scored the highest number of points against “Astana” and it was in the season 2015/2016, then the Saratov team scored 131 points in the first match of the season, and 132 in the second, which is the worst performance for “Astana” in the entire history of VTB United League.
- The current player of “Astana” — Coti Clarke in the season 2017/2018 played for “Avtodor” and became the most effective player in the entire VTB United League Championship.
The match will take place on Saturday
on November 16 in Saratov in the arena of the Sports Palace «Crystal»,
beginning at 19:00 Nur-Sultan time. Online broadcast of the match will be available on our website in the
Match Center section.
Detailed information about the tournament, standings, schedule and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
