Yevgeny Pashutin:
UNICS Will Be Title Contenders

Last season UNICS could not get over the quarterfinals hurdle that was Lokomotiv-Kuban. After being an active player on the transfer market, the team from Kazan will look to once again aspire to the highest of challenges – the Title contention.

In an interview with VTB-league.com, Yevgeny Pashutin, the team’s head coach pointed out the key games of the season, spoke about the changes on UNICS’ frontline, gave us an insight about the health and conditioning of Anton Ponkrashov and also shared his thoughts on the team’s local young prospects.

UNICS definitely made a splash on the transfer market. Have all of your goals been met?
I think so. We had a meeting with the team’s executives, Yevgeny Bogachev and Olga Ashanova, as well as the coaching staff and as a result of our efforts we were able to acquire those pieces on the transfer market that we were looking to acquire for our team. Also, we weren’t simply looking to get the best star talent. It was rather important to us that the players we were interested in were a good fit to our team chemistry-wise.

There’s just one Russian player amongst your offseason additions. You think your Russian core didn’t need much support?
Russian players make up our strong team core – Valery Likhodey, Pyotr Gubanov, Vadim Panin, Anton Ponkrashov, and two players from the youth system – Ruslan Khabirov and Dmitry Nezvankin. We invited Yevgeniy Fidiy to cover at the four spot for Pavel Antipov, who now plays for Zenit.

UNICS only has one center on the roster – Artsiom Parakhouski. Who will be his reserve?
I think our new player Latavius Williams can play center. He often did so for Bilbao, so I think we have two players who fit that position well both physically and psychologically. They are interchangeable in their skill sets, we played them for 20 minutes each in the preseason. We are also stacked at the four spot with Pyotr Gubanov, Kostas Kaimakoglou and Marko Banic. This gives us five quality options down low, six if you add Yevgeny Fidiy to that list, because he can also be a low post threat. We have a very balanced roster. This year we also added one of the best VTB Youth League players – Dmitry Nezvankin, we played him a lot in the preseason games.

How is Anton Ponkrashov’s recovery process going? Will he be ready to suit up for the team in the season’s opener?
After the EuroBasket Anton had another physical examination and he is doing well. He’s worked on his own regiment with our conditioning coach. We want to make sure he has enough time for his tendons to get stronger before putting him in game situations. A week after he was cleared to play by our medical staff we gave him some playing time in two friendlies. Right now he is ready to go and we hope he and Joaquin Colom will provide us with what we need at the point guard position. We are also looking to use them on the floor at the same time, then Anton can slide to a two or perhaps even the three spot.

You’re not new to the VTB United League. Which games do you think will become key this season for UNICS?
VTB United League is a superbly strong tournament with a lot of good teams. Our games versus CSKA, Khimki, Lokomotiv, Nizhny Novgorod, Zenit always become epic battles, but we prepare for all of our opponents the same way, because every team in this League is concentrated on one thing and that’s winning. Be it Nymbruk or Bisons, Astana or Enisey, all these teams are tough to beat in their home courts, you must never underestimate any of them.

Your record as a head coach is one of the best in the League’s history, what’s your secret of success?
Well, I think no coach can be successful all by himself. You win games as a team. This becomes possible because of the hard work being put by everyone in the organization, from the president and the VP to the players and coaches, to the medical staff, the list goes on and on.

Sasha Kaun and Sonny Weems had left CSKA, does this mean that the champion has taken a step backwards, which widens a window of championship opportunity for other teams including UNICS?
I think head coach Dimitris Itoudis is better qualified to make statements about their team’s roster, just like I can only worry about what my team does. This season won’t be a walk in the park, but we’ll do what we have to do to be prepared for the fight.

How do you spend your time off the court in Kazan, do you have any favorite spots yet?
Unfortunately I missed the Aquatics 2015 that was just here not long ago, I’ve watched that on TV. We as a team try to go out and visit various events around town. We also became accustomed to visiting the local monastery. Development in city’s infrastructure has been impressive as of late also. It’s an honor for me to coach UNICS and be a part of that beautiful community, so I hope we won’t let our fans down.