Hi everyone! Sasha Kaun of CSKA Moscow here, getting ready for our trip to Istanbul and another chance to become Euroleague champion. I say "another" because this will be my third Final Four. In my rookie season with CSKA, we made it to Berlin in 2009 and went all the way to the last seconds before losing the final to Panathinaikos. The next year in Paris, we went down in the semifinals to Barcelona, the eventual champions. Not only are both those teams back with us to this year's Final Four, but we are playing one in the semis and could end up playing both. I am not really a revenge-minded person, but beating both those teams would feel good after losing to both in my first two Final Fours. But more important than revenge, that would mean we would be Euroleague champs!

I would say that I can't wait to get to Istanbul, which is true, but right now our team is spending our last days of preparation as we should: focusing more and more on the difficul task at hand. I think we are in good shape, and of course, everyone knows what is at stake as we prepare. We just had a good tournament in Lithuania and became champs of the VTB United League there, so that definitely boosts our confidence going into a tournament like the Final Four. Everyone is excited, because it's the culmination of the season, something we all worked for a long time, and... more

Hello again Euroleague fans! It’s great to write here again now that we’re back in the Final Four! It is no secret that this was one of our goals at the beginning of the season and we are happy that we’ve managed to accomplish it, but we don't want to stop here! We are two wins away from the championship and that is all we want right now! It wasn't easy, of course; Gescrap BB was a very tough opponent for us in the playoffs. We managed to win both games in Moscow, but lost Game 3 in Bilbao. I don't think they surprised us, but Gescrap made a lot of shots and played really aggressive. It was one of those nights in which a talented team made all the possible shots. They were better than us that night and that led them to a comfortable win.

We definitely played harder in Game 4 and ended up winning the series. Bilbao is a great place to play basketball; they have great fans and the team really deserved to be in the Euroleague playoffs. If there was one good thing about losing against Bilbao, it’s that we stayed a bit longer and had some time to enjoy the sunshine and good weather, which was great.

Of course, we all kept an eye on Game 5 of the playoffs between Panathinaikos and Maccabi, knowing the winner would be our next opponent. Both are great teams and they proved it that night. I saw parts of... more

Hello, Euroleague fans! I am getting in touch with you right before the playoffs, which start next week. Our season has been pretty good until now; we are a good team with a lot of good players and we are playing very good team basketball. We had a great start to the season to get to the playoffs against Gescrap BB with home court advantage. Now, having to face a good team like Gescrap, we hope to continue playing well and get to the Final Four. It is hard to keep winning and winning. We had a great regular season and also started pretty well in the Top 16 until a bad loss against Galatasaray. We managed to bounce back from that, and I think that shows what kind of team we have, and our character.

We have a nice group of talented, experienced players. When you have so many guys, any of us can play great and give the team a big boost. Everybody can step up on any given night. If one of our main players has a bad night, we have so many great players that someone will step in, play great and give something more. As you know, CSKA did not go past the regular season last year and that has helped us to stay focused in every game this season. The guys who came back from last year know how bad we did in the Euroleague last season – and how well we want to do this year. We want to prove that CSKA is still and will be one of the top clubs in Europe, a team that can always compete for the Euroleague title.

I like my role this season, I feel really good coming back from all the injuries that I had last season. I have been able to play and help the team with whatever our coach, Jonas Kazlauskas, needs me to do.... more