CSKA Moscow 2008-09, team profile
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 As the most dominant team of the decade and the defending Euroleague champion, CSKA Moscow enters the 2008-09 season as the team to beat. The Russian champs bring back the core of the team that has reached six straight Final Fours, three consecutive title games and won two of them. CSKA’s six Euroleague crowns rank it second all-time behind only Real Madrid. The club is also the proud owner of 39 domestic titles in the Soviet Union and Russian domestic leagues. CSKA's 25 titles between 1945 and 1990 amounted to more than half of those available in the highly competitive Soviet Union, with legendary players over the years such as Sergei Belov, Vladimir Tkachenko, Stanislav Eremin, Vladimir Andreev, Anatoli Myshkin and Sergei Tarakanov plus head coach Aleksandar Gomelsky, all belonging to the very elite of European basketball history. CSKA and Madrid dominated European basketball in the 1960s and the team stayed fully competitive in the ‘70s and the mid-‘80s before bouncing back from tough times. Then CSKA achieved total dominance in the Russian League, winning all nine crowns between 1992 and 2000. On the European level, CSKA has made the Final Four on eight occasions since 1996, including the last six Euroleague seasons. Several more Russian League titles and Russian Cups have also come, but CSKA is still hungry. The clubs recent success can be split into two parts: Before Messina and with Messina. CSKA began building greatness with the 2005 Final Four in Moscow in mind. Players like Theodoros Papaloukas, J.R. Holden, David Andersen and Aleksey Savrasenko were among those expected to lift CSKA to glory. But despite an unprecedented 60-4 overall record, CSKA was left disappointed by not winning the Euroleague Final Four.
2007-08 RESULTS | Euroleague | R. Season | 12-2 | Top 16 | 4-2 | Quarters | 2-1 | Final Four | Champion |
| Russian League | R. Season | 23-1 | Playoffs | Champion | Cup | Finalist |
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That summer, head coach Ettore Messina arrived and CSKA managed to bring in Matjaz Smodis, Trajan Langdon, David Vanterpool and later Thomas Van den Spiegel to join Papaloukas and his crew. Instant success followed, as CSKA topped two-time defending champion Maccabi Elite in Prague for its first continental crown in 35 years. CSKA had an excellent campaign in 2007 as well, but came up short, losing 93-91 in an incredible title game against Panathinaikos. Last season CSKA cemented its status as a dominant team for the era by claiming another crown, beating Maccabi in the final for the second time in three years. From season to season, Messina has shown how to keep the core of his roster, while tweaking it with the right players to keep the squad fresh and hungry. That will be the team’s mission again this season as CSKA Moscow targets more Euroleague glory.
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Euroleague.net
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