Zenith (basketball club)

The Zenit basketball team was formed in the summer of 2014, becoming a department in the structure of the football club of the same name . The backbone of the team and the coaching staff was made up of players and coaches representing the previous Triumph season. In addition, “Zenith” from the Moscow Region club transferred the right to participate in the VTB United League 2014/2015 and Euro Cup 2014/2015 ^[1] .

Despite the fact that the final composition of the team became known only at the last moment, Zenit in the first season took 4th place in the regular season of VTB United League , and in the 1/4 finals lost to Nizhny Novgorod after five matches, taking such 5th place. In Eurocup, the team overcame two group stages, but lost to Khimki in the 1/8 finals.

In the offseason 2015, the composition of the team was updated more than half. The team started the season with an 11-match winning streak (6 victories in the VTB United League and 5 victories in the European Cup ), but then followed the injuries of the captain ^[2] and one of the team leaders ^[3] , which is why blue-white-blue lost a leading position in the league. In February, Zenit took part in the first in its history final of the four cups of Russia , where they lost in the finals, becoming winners of silver awards. In Eurocup, another Russian club, Nizhny Novgorod , became the rival of Zenit in the playoffs. The first game was played two days after the final of the Russian Cup and was lost blue-white-blue with a difference of “-26”. In a return meeting, attempts were made to clear the gap, but Vasily Karasev’s wards failed to fully clear this gap, and Zenit finished their second season performance in the European Cup at the 1/8 finals. The regular season in the league ended more successfully for the blue-white-blue ones, and they managed to regain third place in the standings, according to which Avtodor became the opponent in the first round of the playoffs . With the Saratov club, the series ended with the score 3-0 in favor of the team from St. Petersburg . The semifinal series with UNICS , as it turned out later, determined the future Euroleague participant. The fate of the series was decided in the last game, in which Zenit lost and for the first time in their history became the bronze medalist of VTB United League.

In the offseason of 2016, the club was strengthened by the 22-year-old attacking defender Sergei Karasev ^[4] and the Serbian point guard Stefan Markovic ^[5] , while retaining the leaders of the team last season ^{[6] [7]} . However, the club failed to advance further than 1/4 of the European Cup, and in the VTB United League 2016/17 the team lost to Khimki in the semifinal series (2-3), leading 2-0 in the course of the series, thereby not getting into the Euroleague for the season 2017/18. In connection with this, its foreign leaders left: Janis Timma , Ryan Tulson , Aaron White , Kyle Landry and Stefan Markovich .

In early July 2017, by decision of the board of directors, the Zenit basketball department was transformed into a separate legal entity of the Zenit Basketball Club LLC, which became a subsidiary of FC Zenit JSC. Igor Onokov became the general director of the basketball club, Andrei Spiridonov was appointed sports director, Olga Antonova became basketball adviser to the chairman of the Zenit board - both functionaries have worked with the team and coaching staff of Vasily Karasev since the founding of the Zenit basketball. The main team of “Zenith” continued to manage the head coach Vasily Karasev ^[8] .

In 2017, the Zenit-Pharm farm club was formed, which played in Super League-1 . In the summer of 2019, the club was renamed Zenit-2 and will play in Super League-2. This team will be composed of young players who, according to the regulations, have the right to play in the VTB United Youth League and basketball players who, if necessary, will be involved in the main team.

Before the start of the 2017/18 season , a number of foreign players joined the team: Marco Simonovich , Drew Gordon , Kyle Kurich , Nicholas Laprovittola ; and experienced Russians - Ivan Lazarev and Evgeny Voronov. However, the newly-assembled team could not complete the task for the season - to get to the VTB United League final or win the Euro Cup to get to the Euroleague next season.

The beginning of the 2018/19 season also began with a strong renewal of the roster - Demont Harper, Shane Whittington, Malcolm Griffin, Kyle Kurich and Scotty Reynolds left Zenit left the team. They were replaced by Jalen Reynolds , Philip Skrabb, Jerrod Yutoff, Sean Armand. However, the team showed a not very confident game and in the winter of 2018 Vasily Karasev was fired. He was replaced by Joan Plaza , but the club could not go beyond the Top 16 Eurocup and the VTB United League semi-finals.

At the beginning of the 2019/20 season, it became known that Zenit will take part in the Euroleague in the 2019/20 season, having received a wildcard ^[9] . To participate in the tournament, the squad was greatly updated - this time the team was left not only by foreign players, but also by the Russian backbone, who played for the club for several years: Andrey Desyatnikov, Evgeny Valiev and Sergey Karasev moved to Khimki. They were replaced by experienced players from other VTB United League teams · Andrey Zubkov (Khimki), Anton Ponkrashov ( UNICS ), Dmitry Khvostov and [Mateusz Ponitka (both Lokomotiv-Kuban); and a number of foreigners - Alex Renfro, Colton Iverson and Timothy Abromaitis.

• 2014—2018 -   Vasily Karasev
• 2018 - n. at. -   Joan Plaza ^[10]

• 2014—2015 -   Artyom Kuzyakin
• 2015 -   Kyle Landry
• 2015—2016 -   Evgeny Valiev
• 2016 -   Janis Timma
• 2016 -   Kyle Landry
• 2016—2017 -   Janis Timma ^[11]
• 2017 - n. at. -   Evgeny Voronov

VTB United League

•   Bronze medalist: 2015/2016 , 2016/2017 , 2017/2018

Russian championship

•   Bronze medalist: 2015/2016 , 2016/2017 , 2017/2018

Cup of Russia

•   Finalist: 2015/2016

Personal rewards

VTB United League

The symbolic five of the regular season

• 2016/2017 -   Sergey Karasev

MVP of the month

• October 2015 -   Ryan Tulson ^[12]
• April 2016 -   Ryan Tulson ^[13]
• January 2017 -   Sergey Karasev ^[14]
• March 2017 -   Stefan Markovich ^[15]
• January 2018 -   Sergey Karasev ^[16]
• January 2019 -   Jalen Reynolds ^[17]

The best Latvian player

• 2015/2016 -   Janis Timma

Best Young Player of the Month

• November 2014 -   Dmitry Kulagin
• February 2015 -   Artyom Vikhrov
• April 2015 -   Artyom Vikhrov

Coach of the year

• 2015/2016 -   Vasily Karasev ^[18]

• Club official website
• Club profile on the VTB United League website
• Club dossier on the European Cup website
• Club profile on eurobasket.com