Zenit St. Petersburg first became a well-known name in Europe thanks to its successful football club, but the city has also experienced basketball greatness in the past with Spartak twice winning the Saporta Cup in the 1970s and Dynamo capturing the 2004-05 FIBA Europe League under the tutelage of David Blatt. In 2014, Zenit stepped into the ring. After acquiring its Russian League allocation from Triumph Lyubertsy, Zenit St. Petersburg was able to immediately compete at the highest levels both domestically and internationally. The new team proved up to that challenge as, behind Walter Hodge and Dmitry Kulagin, it qualified for the 2015 EuroCup eighthfinals before losing to eventual champion Khimki Moscow Region. A year later, Zenit had a great domestic run in the VTB United League. With Ryan Toolson and Janis Timma among its stars, Zenit finished the regular season in third place and swept Avtodor Saratov in the quarterfinals to make the semifinals for the first time. Zenit came within one win of the finals, but lost its series against UNICS Kazan in the maximum five games. The 2016-17 season saw Zenit reach the EuroCup playoffs, where it fell to Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar in the quarterfinals. A similar 2017-18 season followed as the team reached the EuroCup playoffs and the VTB semifinals. In the 2018-19 season, Zenit fell in the EuroCup Top 16 in a tough group that featured two of the eventual semifinalists, UNICS Kazan and Morabanc Andorra, but improved after Joan Plaza became new head coach and ousted Lokomotiv in the VTB quarterfinals before losing to CSKA in the semis. Highly experienced coach Xavi Pascual took charge early in 2020, and his first full season with the club proved historic as Zenit advanced into the EuroLeague playoffs for the first time. With star guard Kevin Pangos excelling, regular season standings leader FC Barcelona was pushed all the way in the playoffs, eventually prevailing in a fifth game decider.Zenit’s successes of 2020-21 confirmed the club’s growing stature among the elite of European basketball, and greater triumphs in the near future would be no surprise.
Zenit St. Petersburg first became a well-known name in Europe thanks to its successful football club, but the city has also experienced basketball greatness in the past with Spartak twice winning the Saporta Cup in the 1970s and Dynamo capturing the 2004-05 FIBA Europe League under the tutelage of David Blatt. In 2014, Zenit stepped into the ring. After acquiring its Russian League allocation from Triumph Lyubertsy, Zenit St. Petersburg was able to immediately compete at the highest levels both domestically and internationally. The new team proved up to that challenge as, behind Walter Hodge and Dmitry Kulagin, it qualified for the 2015 EuroCup eighthfinals before losing to eventual champion Khimki Moscow Region. A year later, Zenit had a great domestic run in the VTB United League. With Ryan Toolson and Janis Timma among its stars, Zenit finished the regular season in third place and swept Avtodor Saratov in the quarterfinals to make the semifinals for the first time. Zenit came within one win of the finals, but lost its series against UNICS Kazan
in the maximum five games. The 2016-17 season saw Zenit reach the EuroCup playoffs, where it fell to Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar in the quarterfinals. A similar 2017-18 season followed as the team reached the EuroCup playoffs and the VTB semifinals. In the 2018-19 season, Zenit fell in the EuroCup Top 16 in a tough group that featured two of the eventual semifinalists, UNICS Kazan and Morabanc Andorra, but improved after Joan Plaza became new head coach and ousted Lokomotiv in the VTB quarterfinals before losing to CSKA in the semis. Highly experienced coach Xavi Pascual took charge early in 2020, and his first full season with the club proved historic as Zenit advanced into the EuroLeague playoffs for the first time. With star guard Kevin Pangos excelling, regular season standings leader FC Barcelona was pushed all the way in the playoffs, eventually prevailing in a fifth game decider.Zenit’s successes of 2020-21 confirmed the club’s growing stature among the elite of European basketball, and greater triumphs in the near future would be no surprise.
