Resurgent contender
Tomorrow our team will face Parma, one of the hottest rivals lately…

Among strangers
The return to action of Samson Ruzhentsev, who had been recovering for a long time after an injury sustained in the preseason, changed the rotation of Evgeny Pashutin and spurred the hopes of Perm fans. The young CSKA basketball player, who plays for Parma on loan, quickly earned the status of one of the Ural team's leaders. Right now, Ruzhentsev is the team's top scorer (16.8 points per game on average), in the three previous VTB League games he scored at least 22 points, plus another 19 points and 8 assists on Wednesday against Khimki in the Russian Cup. In addition, Samson is the only one among his teammates who has positive plus-minus numbers (+3.7).
The trio of Parma foreigners support the "business tripper" from CSKA. Royce Hamm (15.7 points, 8.2 rebounds), Garrett Nevels (15.4 points, 3.8 assists), Alex Hamilton (12.8 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists) plus Russian Alexander Zakharov (10.8 points, 3.8 rebounds) have double-digit scoring.
After Ruzhentsev's return, the Perm team won five out of seven games, losing only to Yenisey and UNICS on the road (the meeting in Krasnoyarsk was Samson's first and turned out to be rather crumpled). At the same time, Evgeny Pashutin's team beat Lokomotiv-Kuban twice in this period, including in Krasnodar last week.
It will be interesting
Parma played the aforementioned Cup game after the previous VTB League round (without Nevels), while the Red-Blues methodically prepared at home after returning from Astana. Only Nikita Mikhailovskii, who is recovering from a broken arm and is working individually, did not take part in training with his teammates.
“We expect a tough game against an opponent that improved greatly throughout the season," said CSKA head coach Andreas Pistiolis. "It’s going to be an exciting game in a tough gym that the fans will definitely enjoy.”
Past matchups
Win/loss ratio: 19-3
VTB League game of the 2024-25 season:
10/20/2024. Parma – CSKA: 82-95 (+13)
11/28/2024. CSKA - Parma: 110-91 (+19)
Brief dossier
PARMA Perm
Founded: 2012
Colors: blue, white
Home court: UDS Molot (7,000 spectators)
CEO: Alexander Bashminov
Head coach: Evgeny Pashutin
Website: parmabasket.ru
Achievements: 2-time Russian Cup winner (2016, 19), SuperLeague 1 bronze medalist (2016)