«Astana» will end 2019 with the away match in VTB United League against the Polish «Zielona Gora»

20.12.2019, 13:00    Views: 657
Source: Press service
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On December 23, «Astana» Presidential Basketball Club will hold the last match of this year, the capital basketball players will play an away match with rivals in the VTB United League, the Polish team «Stelmet Zielona Gora». The game will take place on the night of Sunday to Monday, beginning at 00:30 Nur-Sultan.​

«Stelmet Zielona Gora» - is a Polish professional men's basketball club from the city of Zielona Gora, founded in 1946. This season, in addition to participating in the VTB United League, the team is playing in the Polish Championship.

Achievements:
  • Champion of Poland — 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017
  • Polish Cup Winner — 2015, 2017
  • Polish Super Cup Winner — 2015

Head coach:

This season, the team is led by Croatian specialist Jean Tabak. It is worth starting with the fact that Jean had a very intense playing career, he played as a center and has an impressive growth of 213 cm. He started playing in 1985 as part of the Yugoslav team “Yugoplastika”, with which he became a 3-time Euroleague champion,  a 4-time champion of the Yugoslav League, twice winner of the Cup of Yugoslavia and champion of Croatia. After 7 seasons in “Yugoplastika”, he moved to Italy for 2 seasons. Then Tabak moved overseas and continued his career in the NBA, where he managed to play for the teams “Toronto Raptors”, “Boston Celtics”, “Indiana Pacers” and “Houston Rockets”. With the latter, Jean Tabac became the champion of the National Basketball Association in the 1994/1995 season. In between performances for the NBA teams, he also played for the Turkish “Fenerbahce”. He completed his career as a player in Spain in the teams of «Real Madrid» and «Hoventud», and with the latter, Jean and the team of «Unihaka» won the Spanish Cup. In addition, as part of the Croatian National Team, he won silver at the Olympics and bronze at the European Championships. His coaching career began in Spain in 2006 as a part of the coaching staff of the Real Madrid team, where he became the champion of Spain and the winner of EuroCup. Next was the coaching position of the Spanish “Cajasol”. Jean tried the role of the head coach for the first time in 2011 in the Spanish “Girona”. Next was the Polish “Trefle Sopot” and a victory in the Super Cup of Poland, as well as the Spanish “Kakha Lab”. After that, Tabak worked as an assistant coach in the Croatian National Team and helped the head coach of «Real Madrid»; with the Spanish team, he won the EuroLeague, the Spanish Championship and two Spanish Cups. After “Real”, he led the Spanish “Fuenlabrada”, became the champion of Israel with the team “Maccabi” (Tel Aviv) and managed the coaching staff at “Seville”. Today, Jean Tabak, in addition to his role at «Zielona Gora» is also leading the Slovak National Team.

Jean Tabak

Team roster:

Together with the head coach in the offseason, the majority of the players left the Polish team, including all foreign players and half of the local players. The main losses in the team were the Americans Markel Starks; this season he plays for «Avtodor» and Cody Justice, as well as the Croats Zeljko Savic and Darko Planinic. In addition, the team left the Americans Gabe DeVo, Quinton Hosley and Michael Humphrey. Among the Polish players, the main losses were Michal Sokolowski and Adam Hrichanyuk. In addition, Yaroslav Mokros and Philip Matchak also had left the team. Only four players with Polish passports have remained in the team since the last season, among them is a forward Przemislav Zamoyski, a 9-time champion of Poland, winner of 3 Cups and 2 Super Cups of Poland, who played for the team “Asseco Prokom” (now “Arka”) and “Trefl Sopot”, and representing the colors “Zeleny” for the last 6 years and a guard Lukasz Kosharek, a 4-time champion of Poland, winner of 3 Cups and 2 Super Cups of Poland. He had played for such Polish teams as «Polonia», «Turov», «Anvil», «Trefl Sopot» and «Asseco Prokom», and also Lukas played in the Italian «JuveKazerta». Also, this season two young players left the team a guard Katsper Trachik and a forward Kasper Makovsky.

Three new American players joined the team in the offseason. They are a center Drew Gordon began his career in the Serbian «Partizan», then played in Italy and Turkey and returned to the USA where he played for the Philadelphia «Seventy Sixers» and their farm team Delaware «Eighty Seveners». Further, Drew played in France and Lithuania, and played the season 2017/2018 in the VTB United League as part of the “Zenit”, last season he spent in the team “Long Island Nets”; a forward Tony Meyer began his career in Australia and then moved to Europe, where he played in Portugal, Poland, Greece, and the Czech Republic and is the Czech champion in the «Nymburk»; a guard Jo Thomason played in the NBA D-League, in addition to Poland, he also played in the Russian Super League for «Burevestnik» from Yaroslavl. Croatian shooting guard Ivica Radic, who managed to play for his Croatian, Italian, Portuguese, Hungarian and Belgian teams during his career. The Swedish guard Ludwig Hackanson has spent most of his career in Spain; he spent one of the seasons in the Latvian VEF, in which he played in the VTB United League in the 2015/2016 season. These are all newcomers, all other players are representatives of Poland. Forwards Jaroslaw Zyskowski, who spent his entire career in Polish teams. Mikolai Witlinski, who played in Italy in addition to the Polish teams, and Julian Jasinski, who spent his entire career in Germany. Guard Marcel Ponitka, who returned to «Zielona Gora» after two seasons at «Asseco Prokom». Also, a young guard Milos Gorenchuk was given the opportunity to join the team.

Stelmet Zielona Gora 2019/2020

Leaders of the rivals: in  “Zelena Gora” only 10 players entered the court this season. The driving force of the team is the permanent players of the starting five — Drew Gordon, Ludwig Hackanson, Jaroslav Zyskowski, Tony Meyer, and Joe Tomasson. In addition, Gordon is the most productive player of his team, gaining an average of 13.8 points per match. He also holds the best average for rebounds — 8.6 per game. Also, worthy of special attention is the best shooting guard and team assistant Hackanson with a 50% three-point indicator and 4.3 assists per game on average.

Standings: “Astana” is currently on the 11th line of the standings with three wins and six losses. “Stelmet Zielona Gora” is now in seventh place, having 4 wins and 5 losses. The Poles began the season, losing in the away match against «Khimki», and losing at home to «Zenit». Then in Saratov, they defeated «Avtodor» and lost CSKA at home. This was followed by two victories at home in the match with “Parma” and in Nizhny Novgorod, there was a victory over “NN”. In away matches with «Lokomotiv-Kuban» and «UNICS», «Zielona Gora» was defeated, and in the last match at home, they defeated «Tsmoki Minsk» in overtime.

The history of the games: “Astana” and “Zielona Gora” have met only twice and both matches were held last season as part of the VTB United League. According to the results of both games, our guys celebrated the victory by beating rivals in Poland by a difference of 9 points, and in Kazakhstan having gained an advantage of 14 points.

Interesting Facts:
  • Newcomer of “Astana” James Florence spent the seasons 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 as part of the team “Zielona Gora”.

The match will take place on December 23, on the night from Sunday to Monday at 00:30, Nur-Sultan time, in the arena of the Zielona Gora Hall Sports Complex. 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.


«Samruk-Kazyna» National Welfare Fund

Uniform operator «Tourism Industry and Sports Support Fund»