BC UNICS (Russian: БК УНИКС) is a professional basketball club in Kazan, Russia, that plays in the VTB United League, and formerly played in the EuroLeague. On February 28, 2022, EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Their home arena is Basket-Hall Kazan.
History
1991-1999
UNICS was established in 1991. Though officially the club's men's professional club was founded in 1991 (when it first began to play in the lowest level of the national pro leagues), UNICS traces its origins back to KSU's college team Burevestnik, which participated in the USSR student championships from 1957. Because of this, the name 'UNICS' is an abbreviation – UNIversity, Culture, Sport.
Between 1994 and 1997, UNICS secured a berth in Russia's first division. In 1997, UNICS was promoted to the Russian Basketball Super League A, which was at the time the top-tier level Russian league. A year later, Yevgeny Bogachev, the chairman of the National Bank of the Tatarstan, became the president of the club.
2000-2019
The team placed second to CSKA in the Russian Basketball Super League in 2001 and 2002, a year in which it also reached the Saporta Cup semifinals, losing against the Greek club Maroussi in the semifinals. UNICS' first title was the Russian Cup in March 2003, with an 81–82 overtime victory over CSKA. Kazan hosted the FIBA Europe League final four, which was eventually named the FIBA EuroChallenge, in April 2004. UNICS won its regular season group, and advanced to the final four, where the club was crowned the FIBA Europe League champions. The MVP of the tournament's final four. By the 2005–06 season, UNICS went one level up, and made its ULEB Cup (later named EuroCup) debut. However, things turned south quickly, as UNICS lost at home against Roma in the tournament's eighth finals’ second leg, and crashed out. The team the next season made it to the ULEB Cup semifinals, before losing to the eventual league champs Real Madrid. It also returned to the Russian League finals, losing against CSKA.
In the 2007–08 season, UNICS made it to the ULEB Cup (now called EuroCup) Final Eight, but fell to Akasvayu Girona in the quarterfinals. UNICS finally broke through in the EuroCup in the 2010–11 season, by winning its regular season and Last 16 groups, before sweeping its quarterfinal series against Pepsi Caserta. UNICS beat KK Cedevita 87–66, in the semifinals, behind 27 points from Terrell Lyday, and registered a 92–77 win against Cajasol Sevilla, in the title game. Marko Popović had a EuroCup Finals record of 11 assists, to lead UNICS to the title. In the Russian League, UNICS had a 21–6 record, to finish the regular season atop the standings, but then went out in the playoff semifinals, after a five-game duel against BC Khimki. The club then competed in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague in the following season. It made its EuroLeague debut in the 2011–12 season. In the Russian League it finished first at the end of the regular season, and reached the playoff semifinals.
2020-present
Jarrell Brantley left the team in early 2022 due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The team is suing him for $250,000, and trying to prevent him from signing with a G League team. Similarly, Americans Isaiah Canaan, John Brown, and John Holland left the team after the invasion.
On February 28, 2022, EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Lorenzo Brown and Marco Spissu decided not to break their contracts and stayed with the team until the end of VTB League.
Honours
Season by season
Players
Current roster
| Pos. | No. | Nat. | Name | Ht. | Wt. | Age | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SG | 1 | Adams, Brendan | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) | 93 kg (205 lb) | 26 – 3 April 2000 | ||
| SF | 2 | Belenitskii, Mikhail | 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) | 104 kg (229 lb) | 24 – 12 September 2002 | ||
| C | 3 | Reynolds, Jalen | 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) | 113 kg (249 lb) | 33 – 30 December 1992 | ||
| PF | 6 | Gudumak, Alexandr | 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) | 111 kg (245 lb) | 33 – 3 July 1993 | ||
| PG | 8 | Rathan-Mayes, Xavier | 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) | 91 kg (201 lb) | 32 – 24 April 1994 | ||
| G/F | 9 | Bryce, C. J. | 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) | 92 kg (203 lb) | 29 – 30 October 1996 | ||
| SG | 10 | Mikhailovskii, Nikita | 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) | 90 kg (198 lb) | 26 – 10 September 2000 | ||
| G | 13 | Zakharov, Denis | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) | 88 kg (194 lb) | 33 – 6 August 1993 | ||
| C | 14 | Klyuev, Sergey | 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) | 95 kg (209 lb) | 28 – 13 May 1998 | ||
| G | 31 | Konovalov, Makar | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | 66 kg (146 lb) | 25 – 6 December 2000 | ||
| C | 33 | McCormack, David | 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) | 113 kg (249 lb) | 27 – 2 July 1999 | ||
| G/F | 44 | Baburin, Evgeny | 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) | 94 kg (207 lb) | 39 – 4 July 1987 | ||
| PF | 81 | Uzinsky, Dmitry | 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) | 94 kg (207 lb) | 33 – 13 July 1993 | ||
| G | 95 | Shved, Alexey | 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) | 86 kg (190 lb) | 37 – 16 December 1988 | ||
| F/C | 99 | Šamanić, Luka | 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) | 112 kg (247 lb) | 26 – 9 January 2000 |
UNICS roster Players Coaches
- Head coach
- Team manager
- Legend
- (C) Team captain
- Injured
- Roster
Depth chart
| Pos. | Starting 5 | Bench 1 | Bench 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | David McCormack | Jalen Reynolds | Sergey Klyuev |
| PF | Luka Šamanić | Dmitry Uzinsky | Alexandr Gudumak |
| SF | C. J. Bryce | Evgeny Baburin | Mikhail Belenitskii |
| SG | Nikita Mikhailovskii | Brendan Adams | Makar Konovalov |
| PG | Xavier Rathan-Mayes | Alexey Shved | Denis Zakharov |
Notable players
| Criteria |
|---|
|
To appear in this section a player must have either:
|
- bold – FIBA World and FIBA Europe champions and medalists
Russian
- Ruslan Avleev (1997–01, 04–06) – 301 games, 19.2 ppg;
- Petr Samoylenko (1998–07, 08–13) – 774 games, 5.8 ppg;
- Alexander Petrenko (1999–00) – 58 games, 13.2 ppg;
- Evgeniy Pashutin (2000–02) – 86 games, 8.5 ppg;
- Valentin Kubrakov (2000–02, 03–04) – 121 games, 8.5 ppg;
- Aleksei Zozulin (2000–05)
- Igor Kudelin (2002–03, 06–07) – 35 games, 8.1 ppg;
- Sergei Chikalkin (2002–03, 05–09) – 187 games, 10.6 ppg;
- Andrei Fetisov (2002–03) – 20 games, 6.2 ppg;
- Viktor Keirou (2003–05, 07–08) – 83 games, 5.4 ppg;
- Vadim Panin (2006–07) – 35 games, 6.1 ppg;
- Dmitri Sokolov (2006–09) – 128 games, 6.8 ppg;
- Nikolay Padius (2007–08, 10–11) – 59 games, 5.3 ppg;
- Fedor Likholitov (2009–10) – 10 games, 2.5 ppg;
- Zakhar Pashutin (2010–12) – 102 games, 4.3 ppg;
- Aleksey Savrasenko (2011–12) – 56 games, 4.6 ppg;
- Nikita Shabalkin (2012–13) – 28 games, 6.3 ppg;
- Pavel Antipov (2012–15, 2022–23)
- Sergei Bykov (2015–2017)
- Egor Koulechov (2020–21)
- Andrey Vorontsevich (2021–23)
Foreign
- bold – former NBA players; Olympics, FIBA World and FIBA Europe champions and medalists
| Criteria |
|---|
|
To appear in this section a player must have either:
|
|
|
|
Milan Gurović (2004) and Hüseyin Beşok (2005) shortly were under contract with UNICS Kazan, but never played a single game for the team.
(*) former NBA champions
Head coaches
- bold – Olympics, FIBA World and FIBA Europe champions and medalists
- Stanislav Eremin – 2000–06;
- Antanas Sireika – 2006–08;
- Aco Petrović – 2008–09;
- Valdemaras Chomičius – 2009–10;
- Evgeniy Pashutin – 2010–12;
- Aco Petrović – 2012–2013
- Stanislav Eremin – 2013;
- Andrea Trinchieri – 2013–2014
- Argiris Pedoulakis – 2014–2014
- Evgeniy Pashutin – 2014–2017
- Dimitrios Priftis – 2017–2021
- Velimir Perasović – 2021–
