In five days, Russian basketball collapsed. Here is an update on the situation of the clubs.
EUROLEAGUE :
CSKA Moscow, Zenit Saint-Petersburg and UNICS Kazan were excluded. Temporarily. But it is hard to see them re-entering the competition in the coming weeks.
CSKA have already lost Tornike Shengelia, Joel Bolomboy, Ifffe Lundberg, Johannes Voigtmann, Marius Grigonis, and Daniel Hackett. Kevin Pangos, who had just signed, will not come. It is likely that Will Clyburn and coach Dimitris Itoudis will follow.
Jordan Loyd, Tyson Carter, Conner Frankamp, Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Arturas Gudaitis have left Zenit. The club announced that they had allowed all foreign players to do so.
Nothing specific about UNICS Kazan, but the club said they let all their foreigners go.
EUROCUP :
Lokomotiv Kuban was ruled out. Lithuanian vice-president Ginas Rutkauskas, sporting director and head of club development has resigned.
VTB LEAGUE :
The clubs of Zielona Gora (Poland) and Kalev Tallinn (Estonia) – which had been in the league since the 2009-10 season – took their cliques and their slaps. Only Russian clubs remain except for Tsmoki (Belarus) and Astana (Kazhakstan).
Nizhny Novgorod lost Rolands Freimanis, its only foreigner.
The championship will continue “normally”. UNICS leads the regular season standings with 13 wins in 15 games, Zenit is second (12 wins; 15 games), Avtodor is third (9; 12). At the end of the regular season, the top eight teams out of the remaining 11 qualify for the playoffs, where they will play in a best-of-three series.
FEMININES
Orenbourg records the departures of Markeisha Gatling, Adaora Elonu and Natisha Hiedeman as well as coach David Muniz. If nothing is official, the departures of foreigners from Yekaterinburg and Enisey will also increase.
NATIONAL TEAMS:
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has banned all Russian teams and clubs from participating in competitions under the organization’s auspices. Thus the women’s team will not be in the draw for the Women’s World Cup which will be held tomorrow.
On March 25, a meeting of the FIBA Central Council will take place, during which further decisions will be made.
Photo : Tornike Shengelia (CSKA Moscou, Euroleague)
