There are two weeks left until the end of the VTB United League regular season. If the teams from group A have already guaranteed participation in the playoffs ahead of schedule and only decide the final position in the standings, then the clubs from the eighth seconds of the Championship continue to fight for the two remaining tickets to the postseason.
Currently seven teams are competing for two vacant positions, and one of them is an MBA. Vasily Karasev’s team is showing good basketball in March and has a five-game winning streak, the longest among all United League teams. Thanks to this, the capital team has broken into the play-in zone and seeks to participate in the mini-tournament. “Championship” prepared material about the Moscow team and its prospects.
Daniil Kasatkin
Photo: BC “Uralmash”
The MBA basketball club joined the United League in 2022 and immediately captivated many fans. The rookie set the bar high and in his first season he reached the top 6 in the first phase of the regular season, guaranteeing his participation in the playoffs ahead of schedule. In the first round of the postseason, the capital team even took the first game of the series from Zenit St. Petersburg, but then lost in the next three.
Of course, one of the main factors that attracts the entire basketball community to the team is the fundamental rejection of foreign players. Absolutely all MBA players have Russian citizenship. The team’s general director, Igor Kocharyan, admitted that during the last season there were offers for foreigners. Especially at the time when the injuries started. At different times, agents asked questions hinting at the possibility of signing a foreign player, but the team went through a difficult phase and still trusts only Russian basketball players.
The same position of the club remained unchanged in the off-season: specific signings were made in the persons of Evgeniy Minchenko, Maxim Barashkov, Gleb Sheiko and Vladislav Trushkin. All, of course, with a Russian passport.
MBA’s second season in the United League is not without difficulties. If in the last championship the Club achieved many things, sometimes even in spite of it, now there is no such luck. In addition, the Muscovites were not spared from a series of injuries to key basketball players during the season, which, of course, could not but affect the result. The team had periods in which the series of losses totaled eight games, then there was a streak of five games without victories.
Vasily Karasev
Photo: PBC MBA
Just a month ago it seemed that the chances of entering the play-in were close to zero, but in March everything changed drastically. Karasev’s team plays pleasant and, most importantly, effective basketball. The result is five wins in a row and fourth place in the Group B standings, which will allow us to play in the play-in. In this series Minsk, Uralmash, Runa, Astana and Avtodor were defeated. At the same time, it is impossible to single out one or two players for the team’s success: absolutely everyone brings benefits and it is impossible to predict which player will perform in the next match. This is a type of team characteristic that keeps MBA’s opponents on their toes. In one match, most of the points come from Alexander Khomenko and Daniil Kasatkin, in the other – from Andrey Lopatin and Evgeny Voronov. In parallel, Evgeny Minchenko and Maxim Barashkov can become catalysts. In fact, these are conventions, since absolutely all players influence the team’s result.
The most important matches are ahead with Paris NN, Samara, Runa, Astana and Minsk. The good thing about the end of the season is that any team can emerge victorious from the confrontation, MBA is no exception. Karasev’s gang will definitely give a fight to all rivals and may well compete for access to the playoffs. But to do this you first need to be in the play-in, and the Muscovites have a good chance of achieving it.
