BC UNICS
Leagues	VTB United League
Founded	1991; 33 years ago (1991)
History	BC UNICS (1991–present)
Arena	Basket-Hall Kazan
Capacity	7,482
Location	Kazan, Russia
Team colors	Green, White
President	Yevgeny Bogachev
Team manager	Valery Kolesnikov
Head coach	Velimir Perasović
Championships	1 EuroCup 1 Russian Championship 3 Russian Cups 1 North European League 1 EuroChallenge
Website	unics.ru
Home Away

BC UNICS (Russian: БК УНИКС) is a professional basketball club in Kazan, Russia, that plays in the VTB United League, and formerly played in the EuroLeague. On February 28, 2022, EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[1]

Their home arena is Basket-Hall Kazan.

UNICS was established in 1991. Though officially the club's men's professional club was founded in 1991 (when it first began to play in the lowest level of the national pro leagues), UNICS traces its origins back to KSU's college team Burevestnik, which participated in the USSR student championships from 1957. Because of this, the name 'UNICS' is an abbreviation – UNIversity, Culture, Sport.^{[citation needed]}

Between 1994 and 1997, UNICS secured a berth in Russia's first division. In 1997, UNICS was promoted to the Russian Basketball Super League A, which was at the time the top-tier level Russian league. A year later, Yevgeny Bogachev, the chairman of the National Bank of the Tatarstan, became the president of the club.^{[citation needed]}

The team placed second to CSKA in the Russian Basketball Super League in 2001 and 2002, a year in which it also reached the Saporta Cup semifinals, losing against the Greek club Maroussi in the semifinals. UNICS' first title was the Russian Cup in March 2003, with an 81–82 overtime victory over CSKA. Kazan hosted the FIBA Europe League final four, which was eventually named the FIBA EuroChallenge, in April 2004. UNICS won its regular season group, and advanced to the final four, where the club was crowned the FIBA Europe League champions. The MVP of the tournament's final four. By the 2005–06 season, UNICS went one level up, and made its ULEB Cup (later named EuroCup) debut. However, things turned south quickly, as UNICS lost at home against Roma in the tournament's eighth finals’ second leg, and crashed out. The team the next season made it to the ULEB Cup semifinals, before losing to the eventual league champs Real Madrid. It also returned to the Russian League finals, losing against CSKA.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2007–08 season, UNICS made it to the ULEB Cup (now called EuroCup) Final Eight, but fell to Akasvayu Girona in the quarterfinals. UNICS finally broke through in the EuroCup in the 2010–11 season, by winning its regular season and Last 16 groups, before sweeping its quarterfinal series against Pepsi Caserta. UNICS beat KK Cedevita 87–66, in the semifinals, behind 27 points from Terrell Lyday, and registered a 92–77 win against Cajasol Sevilla, in the title game. Marko Popović had a EuroCup Finals record of 11 assists, to lead UNICS to the title. In the Russian League, UNICS had a 21–6 record, to finish the regular season atop the standings, but then went out in the playoff semifinals, after a five-game duel against BC Khimki. The club then competed in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague in the following season.^{[citation needed]} It made its EuroLeague debut in the 2011–12 season. In the Russian League it finished first at the end of the regular season, and reached the playoff semifinals.^{[citation needed]}

Jarrell Brantley left the team in early 2022 due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[2] The team is suing him for $250,000, and trying to prevent him from signing with a G League team.^[2] Similarly, Americans Isaiah Canaan, John Brown, and John Holland left the team after the invasion.^[3]

On February 28, 2022, EuroLeague Basketball suspended the team because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[1]

Lorenzo Brown and Marco Spissu decided not to break their contracts and stayed with the team until the end of VTB League.^{[citation needed]}

• VTB United League

Champions (1): 2023

• Russian Cups

Champions (3): 2003, 2009, 2014

• EuroCup

Champions (1): 2011

• EuroChallenge

Champions (1): 2004

• North European League

Champions (1): 2003

UNICS roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Age F 1 Akoon-Purcell, DeVaughn 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 31 – (1993-06-05)5 June 1993 SG 2 Belenitskii, Mikhail 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) 22 – (2002-09-12)12 September 2002 C 3 Reynolds, Jalen 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 31 – (1992-12-30)30 December 1992 SG 4 Komolov, Artem 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 31 – (1993-06-01)1 June 1993 SG 5 Kulagin, Dmitrii 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) 32 – (1992-07-01)1 July 1992 PF 7 Labeyrie, Louis 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 32 – (1992-02-11)11 February 1992 PG 9 Knight, Marcos 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 35 – (1989-09-24)24 September 1989 PG 12 Taylor, Tony 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 34 – (1990-08-09)9 August 1990 F/C 15 Toropov, Sergey 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 35 – (1989-10-15)15 October 1989 C 21 Bako, Ismaël 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 29 – (1995-10-10)10 October 1995 F 22 Stulenkov, Alexandr 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 32 – (1992-08-09)9 August 1992 F/C 27 Lopatin, Andrey 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 26 – (1998-08-27)27 August 1998 G 28 Platunov, Alexandr 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) 27 – (1997-07-06)6 July 1997	Head coach Velimir Perasović Assistant coach(es) Kostas Kaimakoglou Artur Bigeev Milan Karakas Team manager Mikhail Kolesnikov Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: October 5, 2024

bold – FIBA World and FIBA Europe champions and medalists

bold – former NBA players; Olympics, FIBA World and FIBA Europe champions and medalists

• Maurice Ndour

Milan Gurović (2004) and Hüseyin Beşok (2005) shortly were under contract with UNICS Kazan, but never played a single game for the team.

(*) former NBA champions

bold – Olympics, FIBA World and FIBA Europe champions and medalists

• Stanislav Eremin – 2000–06;
• Antanas Sireika – 2006–08;
• Aco Petrović – 2008–09;
• Valdemaras Chomičius – 2009–10;
• Evgeniy Pashutin – 2010–12;
• Aco Petrović – 2012–2013
• Stanislav Eremin – 2013;
• Andrea Trinchieri – 2013–2014
• Argiris Pedoulakis – 2014–2014 ^[4][5]
• Evgeniy Pashutin – 2014–2017
• Dimitrios Priftis – 2017–2021
• Velimir Perasović – 2021–

• Official Site (in Russian)
• Eurobasket.com Team Info