Hello friends. Let me start by saying that being in the Euroleague Playoffs is a great achievement for Unics. It shows great progress for the Republic of Tatarstan. Its government and our president have invested a lot of money in our basketball club for the last 10 years. They like basketball and this is a great way to promote the city of Kazan and the Republic of Tatarstan all over Europe. Being in such a high competition as the Euroleague and making it to the playoffs can already be considered a very good result. We are happy to be here, but our job isn't finished yet. We are facing a great, experienced team in FC Barcelona Regal, one of the best in Europe. It has great tradition for many, many years and always tries to get to the Final Four and to win the Euroleague title. Barcelona is one of the teams that quickly comes to mind when you think about European basketball. It is not easy for us. We prepared for Game 1 and tried to give our best. We will try to be even more competitive in Game 2.

This is a good time for Russian basketball, too. CSKA and Unics are in the Euroleague Playoffs and three Russian teams – BC Khimki, Lokomotiv-Kuban and Spartak St. Petersburg – made it to the Eurocup Quarterfinals. It is great for us – coaches, players, team presidents and governments are working hard to improve Russian basketball in general terms. The competition level has increased and these good results in the Euroleague and the Eurocup prove it. We have tried to work like they do in Spain, a country with four Euroleague teams and a very strong domestic league. Having a strong league in your country and many... more

Having already been a player, an assistant and a head coach at the Final Four level, now comes another new experience for Evgeny Pashutin, who guides newcomer Unics Kazan of Russia during its very first Turkish Airlines Euroleague season. Pashutin, who won the Euroleague as an assistant coach at CSKA Moscow, also becomes the first head coach to blog on Euroleague.net, writing about the truly unique experience of lifting a new club into the Euroleague elite.

In my previous blog entry, I wished all of you Euroleague fans well in the New Year. And you know, the first month of 2012 was a great one for Unics. All of the guys on our team were hyper-motivated to play worthily against such great opponents as Panathinaikos, Fenerbahce Ulker and EA7 Emporio Armani. Going into the games against these strong clubs and high-caliber players, we knew that we had to control the flow of the game and not let them play to their strengths. We succeeded in some of the things we wanted to do, and we didn't succeed in doing other things. But all in all, we managed to play solid defense, control the rhythm of the game and win our first three matches – before losing the fourth to Armani in Milan.

If we had won the game in Milan, we actually would have qualified to the playoffs, but though Armani was winless in the Top 16 to that point, we expected a very tough game. In fact, I would say that each new Euroleague game is more difficult than the previous on – and so it was in Milan. Our opponent played really well, while we didn't play up to our potential. We fought for the victory until the end and never stopped... more

Hello, Euroleague fans! I want to wish you all – and specifically the fans of Unics – a happy new year. But allow me to start with a couple words about our season so far. After a tough start, we managed to finish the regular season with five victories in six games and qualify for the Top 16. There a few reasons to why we were able to do that. First of all, our club keeps developing - a merit of our president whose maximalist approach is contagious. That's why Unics always plays to win in every game. Secondly, we have some high-caliber players on our team. Most of them are very experienced sportsmen who have achieved a lot in their careers. In the first half of the season, they needed some time to get used to each other and to learn to understand each other. And now they are all on the same page - they know what kind of basketball Unics stands for.

The cornerstone of our game is defense, not offense. In the first games of the season our players saw how good our opponents are at attacking the basket and understood that it would be very difficult to achieve anything in the Euroleague unless we play great defense. And we have managed to improve our defense since then. Another important part of our game is our team spirit. Our players don't care about who scored most points, they focus on who is in the best position to attack the basket. So if a player is free, he gets the ball. Our ball movement is better now than in the beginning of the season, and you can see it by the number of assists we make. We have also become better at taking care of the ball and committing fewer turnovers. The third important issue is controlling the boards. And though we have improved at it, we are still not able to... more

Having already been a player, an assistant and a head coach at the Final Four level, this season brings another new experience for Evgeny Pashutin, who guides newcomer Unics Kazan of Russia during its very first Turkish Airlines Euroleague season. Pashutin, who won the Euroleague as an assistant coach at CSKA Moscow, also becomes the first head coach to blog on Euroleague.net, writing about the truly unique experience of lifting a new club into the Euroleague elite.

We've had a very tough start in our first Turksih Airlines Euroleague season, with two road games against Galatasaray and Prokom and two home games against the leaders of our group, Siena and Barcelona. Both Siena and Barcelona have twelve more or less equally effective players with lots of experience on their rosters. Actually, Barcelona's roster hasn't really changed that much since they were Euroleague champions in 2010...

We weren't able to show our best skills in those two games at home, first and foremost because we couldn't stop our visitors with defense, and because we couldn't handle the excitement. So even though we prepared specifically for those opponents, the psychological aspect didn't let us show our best qualities and play up to our potential. When you play against Barcelona and Siena, you can't allow them to run. You have to control the tempo and play defense-oriented... more