Khimki played five games boasting a 100% victory streak over Universitet Surgut during the regular stage. Just once during the first round of the current championship, the Moscow Region Club ended a game with a less than 100-point score (though they yellow-n-blues held an average 111 points per match against the students). The games ended with a game-point difference of +27.8.

Vladimir DIATCHOK shared some of his thoughts on the eve of the upcoming game:

— I am happy to meet up with my former team mates. It will be especially nice to see my old friends Andrey Adruschenko, administrator Valery Volynsky, and Coach Sergey Olhov, who trained me as a player. But the roster has changed quite a bit. The tension is not the same as it was in the initial games, for me this game is just another championship match.

— My former team mates are fighting for their place in the play offs. I think they will try to show what they are capable of. At the start of the season the fans cheered me on with an ovation in Surgut, and after the game many approached me and wished me well. I think the Khimki stands will also cheer on the former Moscow Region players in the same way.

Meet the opponent

Surgut’s history in basketball goes back to 1974, with the founding of the Stroitel team. Three years later the club won the Central Council of Union Professionals of the USSR. In 1978 Stroitel won third place in the USSR Cup of Siberian and Far Eastern teams, but continued playing in the second league of the Union Championship. To get to the First Division, 15 years would pass, and the fall of the Soviet bloc. The skeletal structure of the team is made up by students from the State University of Surgut, changing its name for the current one of Universitet.

The team gradually became leader of the tournament and in 2001, as winners of the Higher League Championship; they went on to the B Division. In the subsequent tournaments the Surgut team clinched third place at this level. In the 2002/03 season, Universitet won the gold in the Student Basketball League (in the summer of 2003 the National Team – with players from Surgut’s Surgut Vladimir Diatchok and Andrey Andruschenko and Khimki’s Alexei Savkov — won the silver in the World University games). One year later they were victors in the Russian Super League B, going on to the Elite Division.

Last season Surgut added some foreigners to its roster, the first time in its club’s history. During this pre-season, the team reinforced its ranks with ex-players from Khimki, Denis Ershov (on loan to Universitet), Alexander Dedoushkin (Ural Great), and Vladimir Vuksanovic (who played one season in Greece’s PAOK). Also from abroad, playmaker Nenad Djoric (from the Slovak Pivovarna and is known for his Dynamo Moscow Region games), and perimeter player Fred Warrick (of the Czech Mlekarna). Another North American, Chad Austin, transferred to Surgut from the banks of the Neva.

The latest acquisition of the two most high-ranking rival b-ball teams is the Russian champion Vasily Karasev, who played two seasons for Khimki.

Denis Ershov, with a tint of nostalgia in his voice tells us:

— If only I could play in today’s game! I really would love to get on the court to play for the visiting team, Khimki’s fans in my beloved Khimki stadium for a game against my former team mates. But as it stands, I won’t be playing for some time due to my ankle injury. It had been bothering me and after a study, they found it to be more serious than what was first diagnosed. It is an internal fracture; it sounds bad, but the injury is not the worst of it. And though I recovered after one month, I am in a cast for this Khimki game. I won’t even be on the bench, let alone on court, for the meet. I will be in the hall though. Who will I be rooting for? That is a tough question. We need to win and we will put all our effort into that. May the strongest team win.

Universitet Yugra

4	Nenad Djoric	Guard	186	1978
5	Alexander Dedoushkin	Center	208	1981
7	Vladimir Shevel	Guard	200	1984
8	Gennady Silantiev	Guard	192	1977
10	Andrey Andruschenko	Forward	194	1977
11	Igor Grachev	Forward	200	1971
13	Alexei Samisko	Forward	203	1986
14	Alexander Savenkov	Center	205	1982
20	Chad Austin	Guard	188	1975
22	Dmitry Pervukhin	Forward	206	1986
23	Pavel Zhukanenko	Guard	192	1986
25	Denis Ershov	Center	220	1981
30	Vladimir Vuksanovic	Forward	208	1978
33	Fred Warrick	Forward	196	1976
44	Vasily Karassev	Guard	192	1971

Head Coach: Sergey Olhov
Assistant Coaches: Yuri Zhukanenko, Yuri Khoroshaev