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 competed in the EuroLeague. On February 28, 2022, EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[1]

Zenit Saint Petersburg
Leagues	VTB United League EuroLeague (suspended)
Founded	2014; 9 years ago (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
Championships	1 VTB League
Website	bc-zenit.com
Home Away

Their home court is Sibur Arena. The club is sponsored by Gazprom. 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.^[2] 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.^{[citation needed]}

Triumph Lyubertsy

In 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 the records of the Dynamo Moscow Region club, through the acquisition of the club's rights.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[3]

Zenit

2014-2019

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 rights of BC Triumph Lyubertsy,^[4] and also its place in both the VTB United League and the EuroCup.^[5] Meanwhile, the club tried to retain a second club in Lyubertsy, that would compete in the Russian Super League 1.^[6] As a result, the basketball club became a section of the Zenit sports club, which already contained Zenit FC, a football club.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

On 27 June 2019, EuroLeague Basketball awarded Zenit a wild card for the 2019–20 EuroLeague.^[7] This would mark Zenit's debut in the highest European tier.^{[citation needed]}

2020-present

In early 2022, in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, American-Puerto Rican Shabazz Napier left the team.^[8] Also leaving the team were Americans Billy Baron, Alex Poythress, Conner Frankamp, Tyson Carter, Jordan Mickey, and Jordan Loyd, as well as Lithuanians Arturas Gudaitis and Mindaugas Kuzminskas, and Polish player Mateusz Ponitka.^[9]

On February 28, 2022, EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[1]

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.^[10] They then moved to the newly renovated 7,000 seat^[11] Yubileyni Arena.^[12] When the club was previously based in Lyubertsy, they played their home games at the 4,000 seat^[13][14] 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

Domestic competitions

• VTB United League
  • Winners (1):   2021–22
• Russian Cup
  • Runner-up (1): 2015–16
• VTB United League Supercup
  • Winners (1): 2022
  • Runner-up (1): 2021

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

• Vladimir Kondrashin and Alexander Belov Tournament
  • Winners (1): 2021

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	6th	—	1 EuroLeague	18th place
2020–21	1	United League	3rd		1 EuroLeague	QF
2021–22	1	United League	1st	Supercup Runner-up	1 EuroLeague	SP

Players

See also: Category:BC Zenit Saint Petersburg 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 PG 3   Zakharov, Denis 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 29 – (1993-08-06)6 August 1993 PG 4   Toptunov, Andrey 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 20 – (2002-07-22)22 July 2002 SG 5   Homesley, Caleb 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 26 – (1996-11-27)27 November 1996 SF 7   Karasev, Sergey 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 29 – (1993-10-26)26 October 1993 SF 8   Volkhin, Igor 1.99 m (6 ft 6 in) 25 – (1997-10-30)30 October 1997 SG 9   Kulagin, Dmitry 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) 30 – (1992-07-01)1 July 1992 C 12   Klimenko, Artem 2.14 m (7 ft 0 in) 28 – (1994-01-10)10 January 1994 PG 13   Heurtel, Thomas 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) 33 – (1989-04-10)10 April 1989 PF 20   Zubkov, Andrey 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 31 – (1991-06-29)29 June 1991 PF 21   Toropov, Sergey 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 33 – (1989-10-15)15 October 1989 C 23   Solomon, Richard 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 30 – (1992-06-18)18 June 1992 SF 26   Wimbush, Thomas 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 29 – (1993-12-08)8 December 1993 PF 33   Thompkins, Trey 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 32 – (1990-05-29)29 May 1990 SG 70   Fridzon, Vitaly 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) 37 – (1985-10-14)14 October 1985	Head coach   Xavi Pascual Assistant coach(es)   Iñigo Zorzano   Adamantios Panagiotopoulos   Sergey Voznyuk Team manager   Manos Papadopoulos Legend (C) Team captain   Injured Roster Updated: December 26, 2022

Depth chart

Pos.	Starting 5	Bench 1	Bench 2	Bench 3
C	Richard Solomon	Artem Klimenko
PF	Trey Thompkins	Andrey Zubkov	Sergey Toropov
SF	Sergey Karasev	Thomas Wimbush	Igor Volkhin
SG	Caleb Homesley	Dmitry Kulagin	Vitaly Fridzon
PG	Thomas Heurtel	Denis Zakharov		Andrey Toptunov

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
•   Kyle Landry
•   Kevin Pangos
•   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

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. "EuroLeague suspended Russian teams". basketnews.com.
2. "What does Zenit's new basketball team mean for the football club?". russianfootballnews.com. 21 November 2014.
3. Triumph Lyubertsy - BC Emilia : 65:79 (Match report) ScoresPro.com
4. . EuroCup Basketball. Archived from the original on August 21, 2014.
5. "Triumph Lyubertsy becomes Zenit St Petersburg". Welcome to 7DAYS EuroCup.
6. «Триумф» будет выступать под названием «Зенит» в Санкт-Петербурге; Championat.ru, 18 July 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2014
7. "ECA Board approves proposed team lists for 2019-20, discusses future". Welcome to EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
8. Cohen, Alexander (February 28, 2022). "Shabazz Napier returns to U.S. from Saint Petersburg". www.basketballnews.com.
9. "Guerre en Ukraine : ces joueurs étrangers qui n'ont pas quitté les équipes russes engagées en Euroleague | Basket Europe". March 11, 2022.
10. . Archived from the original on 2019-03-28. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
11. "Спортивный комплекс "Юбилейный"". www.yubi.ru.
12. "Баскетбольный клуб "Зенит"". Zenit Basketball Club.
13. "Triumph Sports Palace". bgbasket.com.
14. Triumph Sports Palace Capacity: 4 000.

External links

• Official Website
• Eurobasket.com Team Page