2008-09 Club Profile: Azovmash Mariupol
As the dominant force in Ukrainian basketball, BC Azovmash Mariupol will try to carve its place among the continental elite in the 2008-09 Eurocup. Azovmash has risen simultaneously at home and abroad, winning its first domestic and continental trophies within a season of each other early this decade and remaining a threat for more success ever since.
Azovmash Mariupol Roster 2008-09
Name
Pos.
Height
Aleksandar Capin
G
1.86
Panagiotis Liadelis
G
1.93
Simonas Serapinas
F
1.97
Bogdan Baida
G
1.93
Alexander Skutelnik
G
1.92
Tomas Delininkaitis
G
1.90
Maxim Ivshin
C
2.07
Sergei Lischuk
F
2.10
Tomas Van Den Spiegel
C
2.14
Hazan Rizvic
C
2.12
Marc Salyers
F
2.05
Dijon Thompson
F
2.01
Khalid El-Amin
G
1.74
Uche Nsonwu
C
2.08
Memi Becirovic
Head Coach
Although there has been no time like now for Azovmash, basketball has deep roots in Mariupol, where teams participated in regional Soviet Union leagues in from the 1950s through 1980s. A professional team was created in 1990, and when Ukraine became an independent country, Azovmash worked its way up from the third to first division by 1999. Azovmash soon found success there, too, by winning the 2002 Ukrainian League title. What came next was even more surprising: the team shocked everyone by lifting the 2003 FIBA Europe Challenge Cup trophy with players like Andriy Botichev, Volodymyr Gurtovyy and Oleksandar Skutyelnik. Azovmash added another Ukranian League title in 2004 and, following the arrival of playmaker Khalid El-Amin, lifted the domestic trophy again in 2006 and 2007. In the second of those seasons, with players like Kenan Bajramovic, Panagiotis Liadelis, Serhiy Lishchuk and Robert Gulyas teaming up with El-Amin, Azovmash reached the FIBA EuroCup final four, defeating Virtus Bologna by a point the semis before falling to Akasvayu Girona in the title game. Last season saw a new challenge in the form of the ULEB Cup and Azovmash did not disappoint, reaching the elimination rounds. Back home, its dominance increased with Ukrainian League and Cup titles, Azovmash's second trophy double in just three seasons. For the Eurocup, Azovmash has re-loaded its roster big-time. While El-Amin returns to run the show after a year away, Azovmash has also added a list of diverse talents: two-time Euroleague champion center Tomas Van den Spiegel, last season's Euroleague scoring champ Marc Salyers, big men Uche Nsomwu and Hasan Rizvic, shooters Dijon Thompson and Simonas Serapinas, backup point guard Aleksandar Capin. They join holdovers Lishchuk, Panagiotis Liadelis, Tomas Delininkaitis and Remon Van de Hare to give Azovmash an impressive combination of size and scoring ability that can only spell great expectation for fans in Mariupol.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Eurocupbasketball.com
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