Here strike and shoot

DISCOVERY TEAM

For basketball Vladivostok, the time has finally come cleaner. Led by disgraced Sergei Babkov “Spartak-Primorye” , a thunderstorm of authorities in the Super League 2006/07, happily changed his registration in the ranking table. Moving from the rated slums to the prestigious 6-7th place looks as well-deserved and logical as the challenging November wins of Spartak-Primorye at the Dynamo and Khimki giants. Nevertheless, the fans of red and white are still concerned about the slenderness of the club roster: while the team is actually based on three performers - Dina, Stanescu and Keiro. Perhaps the recent sonorous slap from the phlegmatic Lokomotiv-Rostov (-39) will accelerate the long-running selection process.

TEAM DISAPPOINTMENT

In the first interview, as head coach of Ural Great, Rimas Kurtinaitis promised in three years to return the team to its leading position lost a couple of years ago. For the semester, the club overfulfilled the plan and stepped into the past even further: the Permians went down to the tenth line in the table, which repeated the “achievement” of the debut season in the 1997/98 Super League. The loose structure with elements of nepotism did not bode well in the summer. But in reality it turned out even worse: meager four victories in fourteen meetings. Now in Perm, legionnaires are on strike and the 14-year-old girls of the revolutionary support group are dancing. And after another defeat - this time from Lokomotiv-Rostov - the new steering team Sergey Zozulin openly admitted that the chances of the two-time Russian champion to reach the playoffs do not exceed ten percent.

BEST

Papaloukas (CSKA) - Hansen (Dynamo M) - Stombergas (UNICS) - Smodis (CSKA) - K. Lavrinovich (UNICS)

Small fans give their best in matches with outsiders, army men Papaloukas and Smodis always confirm the highest class in fights against direct competitors. Representatives of the Lithuanian colony in Kazan, Shtombergas and Lavrinovichi shine both in Russia and in the ULEB Cup. And without Hansen, in the victory graph of the Dynamo feverish dawn of the championship, there would have been a completely different figure - to recall at least meetings with both teams from the Moscow Region.

RUSSIANS

Holden (CSKA) - Keiro (Spartak-Primorye) - Domani (Dynamo M) - Dmitriev (Spartak St. Petersburg) - Savrasenko (CSKA)

Leadership and reliability in defense (and the anagram hidden inside the surname) quite rightly led Domani to captainy in Dynamo - this season Dmitry is traditionally the strongest blue and white native. The Afro-Russians are also impressive: after waiting for the trust of the coaches, Keiro enthusiastically continues to shame the skeptics, and Holden is still clinging to the main snipers of the Super League. And if Dmitriev, who entered the period of stagnation early, is only on the list of those who got their teeth on the side of the Russian big fish, then Savrasenko did not write about the colossal progress, it seems, only lazy.

Newbies

Cook ("TsSK VVS-Samara") - Hansen (Dynamo M) - Stevenson (UNICS) - K. Lonchar (Lokomotiv-Rostov) - D. Lavrinovich (UNICS)

The gifted lap-shaker Cook, who was quick to distribute assists, was quoted some five years ago among America's greatest talents. Now, loader N 1 of Belgium 2005/06 treats teammates more often than other chefs and in the Super League (an average of 5.2 assists per match). Stevenson’s second visit to Russia seems even more successful: in Kazan, the ruthless sniper became a full member of a much more noble ensemble than two years ago in Rostov. On the Don, however, they can’t get enough of Lonchar - overnight, the Serb turned into the main attacking hope of his compatriot coach Azo Petrovich.

YOUTH (up to 22 years old)

Sergeev (Spartak St. Petersburg) - Fridzon (Khimki) - Kurbanov (CSKA) - Shabalkin (CSK Air Force Samara) - Lampe (Khimki)

The merciful St. Petersburg “Spartak” released Sergeyev into a great voyage, than again benefited from the domestic basketball, which was bad for smart playmakers. The heir to Ponkrashov on the throne of the point guard of red and white confidently goes among the three most generous assistants of the Super League (an average of 4.9 assists per match). In Khimki’s rich and indecent assortment of personnel, the dashing Fridzon does not look like a foreign body. Two of his partners in the golden youth 2005, after a couple of years in the youthful CSKA, chose different paths to sports fame. Today, Kurbanov, with varying success, is trying to become equal among the best in the galactic army club, and Shabalkin scores over 20 points in the ordinary but European Challenge Cup. What is more useful for the development of creative potential is that of a controversy. In contrast, by the way, from the non-alternative question of the last member of the goose-free five: Poles Lampe simply do not have rivals among their peers and centers from Russia.

DISAPPOINTMENTS

Cleves (UNICS) - Tarver (Ural Great) - Jagodnik (Dynamo Moscow Region) - Nagis (Spartak-Primorye) - Podkolzin (Khimki)

Of the disappointing players, the sad giant Podkolzin is less worthy of criticism - injuries and suspicious coaches prevented Pavel. Twice MVP of Poland, Jagodnik was titled a Wretch for the regional Dynamo after three meetings. Tarver, pretentiously recommended by Perm management for verification, turned out to be a swollen soap bubble: indeed, the star of the Swedish league is a convincing characteristic exclusively for hockey. The disappointments were also found among successful teams, in general: the hot Lithuanian vandal Nagis will be more remembered by the Novosibirsk sports complex “Sever”, and Cleves will be remembered by the regulars of Kazan night clubs rather than fans of “Spartak-Primorye” and UNICS, respectively.

Nikita GOLOVANOV