BC Zenit Saint Petersburg

BC Zenit Saint Petersburg (Russian: БК Зенит Санкт Петербург), formerly known as BC Dynamo Moscow Region (2003–2007) and BC Triumph Lyubertsy (2007–2014), is a Russian professional basketball team that is located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, since 2014. The club competes domestically in the VTB United League and in the EuroLeague. Their home court is Sibur Arena. The club is sponsored by Gazprom.

Zenit Saint Petersburg
Leagues	VTB United League EuroLeague
Founded	2014
History	List BC Dynamo Moscow Region (2003–2007) BC Triumph Lyubertsy (2007–2014) BC Zenit Saint Petersburg (2014–present)
Arena	Sibur Arena Yubileyny Sports Palace
Capacity	7,120 7,000
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia
Main sponsor	Gazprom
Head coach	Xavi Pascual
Ownership	Gazprom
Website	basket.fc-zenit.ru
Home Away

Since the team moved to Saint Petersburg in 2014, the team is a part of the multi-sports club Zenit, of which the football club FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, is also a part.[1]

Alexander Tserkovny is a general manager of the Club since July, 16, 2018.

History

Dynamo Moscow

The club was originally established in 2003, under the name BC Dynamo Moscow Region, and registered into the Russian Superleague A. The original club was based in Lyubertsy, Moscow Oblast, Russia.

Triumph Lyubertsy

In June 2007, the basketball club of Dynamo Moscow Region disbanded and became the newly reformed club of BC Triumph Lyubertsy Moscow Region. Triumph Lyubertsy retained all of the history and records of the Dynamo Moscow Region club, through the acquisition of the club's history and rights. In the 2012–13 season, Triumph's Sergey Karasev won the Young Player of the Year Award.

In the 2013–14 season, Triumph reached the final of the EuroChallenge, in which it lost to Reggio Emilia by a score of 65–79.[2]

Zenit

In July 2014, the club announced it was relocating from Lyubertsy to Saint Petersburg, and was changing its name to BC Zenit Saint Petersburg. The club retained the history and rights of BC Triumph Lyubertsy,[3] and also its place in both the VTB United League and the EuroCup.[4] Meanwhile, the club tried to retain a second club in Lyubertsy, that would compete in the Russian Super League 1.[5] As a result, the basketball club became a section of the Zenit sports club, which already contained Zenit FC, a successful football club.

The following five seasons in the VTB United League were successful for Zenit. The team finished fifth in the 2014–15 season, but was eliminated in the quarter-finals. In 2016, Zenit moved from the Sibur Arena to the Yubileyni Arena. In the following four seasons, Zenit qualified for the semi-finals every time but never reached the league finals. It also played in the EuroCup, Europe's second tier, and reached the quarterfinals in 2017 and 2018.

On 27 June 2019, EuroLeague Basketball announced it had awarded Zenit a wild card for the 2019–20 EuroLeague.[6] This would mark Zenit's debut in the highest European tier. To participate in the tournament, the roster of Zenit was mostly changed - not only foreign but also Russian experienced players left the team: Andrey Desyatnikov, Evgeny Valiev and Sergey Karasev moved to Khimki. They were changed by also experienced players from other Russian clubs: Andrey Zubkov (from Khimki), Anton Ponkrashov (from UNICS Kazan), Dmitry Khvostov and Mateusz Ponitka (both - from Lokomotiv Kuban) and some players from foreign leagues: Andrew Albicy (from Andorra), Alex Renfroe (from Partizan Belgrade), Austin Hollins (from Rasta Vechta), Gustavo Ayón (from Real Madrid), Will Thomas (from Valencia), Colton Iverson and Tim Abromaitis (both - from Iberostar Tenerife).

Arenas

The Yubileyny Sports Palace

When the club moved to St. Petersburg, they first played their home games at the 7,120 seat Sibur Arena.[7] They then moved to the newly renovated 7,000 seat[8] Yubileyni Arena.[9] When the club was previously based in Lyubertsy, they played their home games at the 4,000 seat[10][11] Triumph Sports Palace arena.

Arenas
Arena	City	Capacity	Tenure
Triumph Sports Palace	Lyubertsy	4,000	2003–2014
Sibur Arena	Saint Petersburg	7,120	2014–present
Yubileyny Sports Palace	Saint Petersburg	7,000	2016–present

Honours

European competitions

• FIBA Europe Conference North
  • Winners (2): 2004, 2005
• FIBA EuroCup Challenge
  • Runner-up (1): 2005
• FIBA EuroChallenge
  • Runner-up (1): 2014
  • Third place (2): 2009, 2012

Other competitions

• Seville, Spain Invitational Game
  • Winners (1): 2019

Season by season

Season	Tier	League	Pos.	Russian Cup	European competitions
Dynamo Moscow Region
2003–04	1	Superliga A	6th
2004–05	1	Superliga A	7th
2005–06	1	Superliga A	6th
2006–07	1	Superliga A	6th
Triumph Lyubertsy
2007–08	1	Superliga A	4th		2 ULEB Cup	RS
2008–09	1	Superliga A	5th		3 EuroChallenge	3rd
2009–10	1	Superliga А	6th	Quarterfinalist	2 Eurocup	RS
2010–11	1	PBL	10th		3 EuroChallenge	QR
2011–12	1	PBL	3rd	Quarterfinalist	3 EuroChallenge	3rd
2012–13	1	PBL	5th		2 Eurocup	EF
2013–14	1	United League	5th	Quarterfinalist	3 EuroChallenge	RU
Zenit Saint Petersburg
2014–15	1	United League	5th	Second qualifying round	2 Eurocup	EF
2015–16	1	United League	3rd	Runner-up	2 Eurocup	EF
2016–17	1	United League	3rd		2 EuroCup	QF
2017–18	1	United League	3rd		2 EuroCup	QF
2018–19	1	United League	4th	First round	2 EuroCup	T16
2019–20	1	United League	6	—	1 EuroLeague	18th place
2020–21	1	United League			1 EuroLeague

Players

Current roster

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.

Zenit Saint Petersburg roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Age G/F 1 Rivers, K.C. 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 33 – 1 March 1987 PG 4 Pangos, Kevin 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 28 – 26 January 1993 SG 7 Fridzon, Vitaly 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) 35 – 14 October 1985 SG 9 Hollins, Austin 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 29 – 8 November 1991 PF 10 Thomas, Will 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 34 – 1 July 1986 SG 12 Baron, Billy 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 30 – 11 December 1990 PG 13 Khvostov, Dmitry 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 31 – 21 October 1989 C 14 Pushkov, Anton 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 32 – 22 November 1988 SF 16 Trushkin, Vladislav 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 27 – 5 May 1993 PF 20 Zubkov, Andrey 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 29 – 29 June 1991 F/C 22 Poythress, Alex 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 27 – 6 September 1993 SF 25 Ponitka, Mateusz 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 27 – 29 October 1993 F/C 28 Black, Tarik 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 29 – 22 November 1991 C 77 Gudaitis, Artūras 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in) 27 – 19 June 1993	Head coach Xavi Pascual Assistant coach(es) Inigo Zorzano Adamantios Panagiotopoulos Sergey Voznyuk Team manager Manos Papadopoulos Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: January 14, 2021

Depth chart

Pos.	Starting 5	Bench 1	Bench 2
C	Tarik Black	Arturas Gudaitis	Anton Pushkov
PF	Will Thomas	Andrey Zubkov	Alex Poythress
SF	K. C. Rivers	Mateusz Ponitka	Vladislav Trushkin
SG	Austin Hollins	Billy Baron	Vitaly Fridzon
PG	Kevin Pangos	Dmitry Khvostov	Denis Zakharov

In

Note: Flags indicate national team, as has been defined under FIBA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIBA nationality.

No. Position Player G Denis Zakharov (from Enisey Krasnoyarsk) SG Vitaly Fridzon (from Lokomotiv Kuban) G Kevin Pangos (from FC Barcelona) G Billy Baron (from Crvena zvezda) G/F K. C. Rivers (from Žalgiris Kaunas) F/C Alex Poythress (from Galatasaray) C Artūras Gudaitis (from Armani Milano) C Tarik Black (from Maccabi Tel Aviv)

Out

Note: Flags indicate national team, as has been defined under FIBA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIBA nationality.

No. Position Player 4 C Colton Iverson (to Free agent) 6 PG Andrew Albicy (to Free agent) 7 G/F Anton Ponkrashov (to Free agent) 12 G Alex Renfroe (to San Pablo Burgos) 18 SG Evgeny Voronov (to Khimki Moscow) 34 C Gustavo Ayón (to Free agent)

Notable players

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.

Criteria
To appear in this section a player must have either: Set a club record or won an individual award while at the club. Played at least one official international match for their national team at any time. Played at least one official NBA match at any time.

• Luke Nevill
• J. R. Bremer
• Gal Mekel
• Yuval Naimi
• Jānis Timma
• Giedrius Gustas
• Egor Vyaltsev
• Sergey Karasev
• Vasily Karasev
• Ivan Zoroski
• Nenad Krstić
• Ognjen Aškrabić
• Uros Slokar
• Stefan Marković
• Kerem Tunçeri
• Alan Anderson
• Davon Jefferson
• Paul Miller

• Kyle Landry

Head coaches

Head coaches
Name	Nationality	Tenure	Trophies
Evgeny Kovalenko		2003—2005
Aleksandr Vasin		2005
Rūtenis Paulauskas		2005—2007
Dmitry Shakulin		2007
Stanislav Yeryomin		2007—2010
Valdemaras Chomičius		2010–2012
Vasily Karasev		2012–2018
Joan Plaza		2018–2020
Xavi Pascual		2020–present

References

1. "What does Zenit's new basketball team mean for the football club?". russianfootballnews.com. 21 November 2014.
2. Triumph Lyubertsy - BC Emilia : 65:79 (Match report) ScoresPro.com
3. EurocupBasketball.com Club profile: Zenit St Petersburg. Archived 2014-08-21 at the Wayback Machine
4. EurocupBasketball.com Triumph Lyubertsy becomes Zenit St Petersburg.
5. «Триумф» будет выступать под названием «Зенит» в Санкт-Петербурге; Championat.ru, 18 July 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014
6. "ECA Board approves proposed team lists for 2019-20, discusses future". Welcome to EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
7. "ГЛАВНАЯ АРЕНА {{in lang|ru}}". Archived from the original on 2019-03-28. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
8. Общая информация (in Russian).
9. Официально: сезон-2016/17 баскетбольная команда «Зенит» проведет в «Юбилейном» (in Russian).
10. Capacity: 4 000.
11. Triumph Sports Palace Capacity: 4 000.

External links

• Official Website
• Eurobasket.com Team Page