In 2022, the Samara Basketball Club officially joined the list of VTB United League participants and immediately established itself as a team capable of challenging any opponent.
The first season in the league was controversial, but then the club drew conclusions and now looks completely different.
“Championship” has prepared material about the formation of the team, as well as its changes and perspectives.
How it all began
BC “Samara” sample of the 2014/2015 season.
Photo: BC Samara
De facto, the history of Samara can be divided into three stages: the creation of a team based on Stroitel; merger with CSK Air Force; separate revival.
In 1976, on the initiative of the Honored Coach of the USSR Genrikh Primatov, the “Constructor” team was created in Kuibyshev. In 1995, the club was managed by Kamo Poghosyan, and in the same year Stroitel was renamed BC Samara.
In 2002, the governor of the Samara region, Konstantin Titov, announced the revival of the CSK VVS team and its merger with Samara. The team existed until 2009, after which it declared bankruptcy. However, literally a few months later, “Red Wings” were created on the basis of the club. His story lasted only six years, but it was so vivid that it deserves a separate article.
“Red Wings” is a separate organization that had nothing in common with “Samara”. In 2011, on the basis of the Samara State University of Economics, the club was resurrected under the name BC “Samara-SGEU”, and the following year it received professional status and entered the Major League, the third strongest championship. Thus, at that time there were two professional teams in the city: Samara and Krasnye Krylia, which played in the VTB United League.
In 2013, “Samara” was promoted to the Super League, the second most important division in Russian basketball, and two years later, as mentioned above, “Red Wings” ceased to exist. Therefore, only one team remained in the city – Samara.
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The Club developed systematically and everything ended with the Super League championship in 2019. In parallel, similar projects were created in women’s basketball, children’s and youth basketball and 3×3. Rumors spread about the team’s possible admission to the VTB United League, but everything depended on the lack of a suitable stadium to apply. However, Samara and the league itself knew that it was already being built. It was only a matter of time before the team was accepted into the VTB league.
At the beginning of 2022, Samara held the final match of the Russian Cup in the new Sports Palace. A delegation from the United League, headed by President Sergei Kushchenko, attended the match. “Samara” won that match and the title, and then the governor of the region, Dmitry Azarov, came out to journalists and announced that starting from the 2022/2023 season the team would participate in the VTB United League. Most likely, this was also facilitated by the fact that the Polish “Zielona Gora” and the Estonian “Kalev” left the squad, since at that time there was no talk of expanding the league.
The first season in the VTB United League
BC Samara for the 2022/2023 season
Photo: BC Samara
If MBA, another debutant that season, simply wanted to establish himself in the league by signing Russian players and abandoning foreigners, then Samara’s management definitely set itself the goal of starting the season on the right foot. The former coach of the Russian national team, Sergei Bazarevich, was invited, who had already worked in Samara a few years earlier, with those same “Red Wings”. In addition, renowned foreign players with experience playing in the NBA and the Euroleague were signed. On paper, everything looked too good and it seemed that Samara could challenge for the playoffs already in the first season.
Bazarevich knows how to work with foreign players and loves working with high-level players. But the impression was that this particular transfer campaign was done precisely for the sake of big names, and not for practical reasons and the selection of players for a certain system. The result was 19 losses in 32 games and an early end to the season without playoffs.
Kamo Poghosyan
President of BC Samara
“Samara’s first season can be assessed as positive: we won 13 victories and in the first season we took third place in the marketing championship, receiving bonuses for this. We had a good attendance, in terms of percentage of stadium occupancy we are definitely among the five best teams in the league, which, of course, cannot but make us happy. All that remains is to improve our sporting results in the new season and now we are actively preparing for this.”
After the debut season, dramatic changes occurred: only two basketball players remained in the team – Yuri Umrikhin and Nikita Zverev. Head coach Sergei Bazarevich also left the club. The Samara management decided to rebuild the team from scratch, but at the same time start from the system that was missing in the first season.
New season, new Samara
BC Samara player James Thompson
Photo: BC Samara
Bazarevich’s place was taken by the Croatian specialist Drazen Anzulovich, who had previously worked in Yenisei for several years. Three basketball players moved with him from Krasnoyarsk to Samara: Alexander Gudumak, James Thompson and Ivan Viktorov. The names of the newcomers were not as important as a year ago, but it was immediately clear that the club’s management was giving the new coach carte blanche and the opportunity to build his team.
Samara has changed. Perhaps this is not very noticeable in the standings: last year, after 14 matches, the team won six victories, this year, after the same number of matches, seven. However, last year’s Samara and this season’s team are two radically different teams and looking at the current one, it seems like they have a chance to make the playoffs.
Now Samara clearly knows what to do on the court, Anzulovich confidently leads the players. If a year ago the game slid towards the individual actions of the basketball players, in this club it is precisely a club of coaches, with its own thinking and philosophy. Not everything goes well, but much more and better than in the debut season. At the same time, from the outside it seems that the Samara team has not yet fully crystallized its game and has not reached its peak.
Next month Anzulovich’s team will play against three of the best teams in the VTB United League: Zenit, UNICS and CSKA. Perhaps it is in these meetings that Samara can truly show itself and make a serious bid for the playoffs. The fans on the banks of the Volga were surely looking forward to the knockout matches and this year there is a chance to reach the postseason.
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS