Krasnodar December

Time to reach the top

So far, Group A of the new tournament is experiencing some surprising developments. Two teams from last season's Top 4 are in third and fourth place, and Krasnodar has yet to secure its first victory. Therefore, in the very short Cup schedule, tomorrow's game is of great importance for each of the opponents aiming for the Final Four.

Anton Yudin's team, undergoing a mid-season restructuring (Royce Hamm was released, B.J. Johnson and Michael Moore were acquired), is gradually becoming one of the favorites. Although the road to the top remains arduous, every victory is hard-won. Sometimes you have to rely on bad luck – like in the recent home game against CSKA, where the Muscovites were saved in the final 0.6 seconds of regulation thanks to a pass from Nikita Kurbanov and a shot from Livio Jean-Charles.

Looking at more representative VTB League statistics, Patrick Miller remains Lokomotiv's top scorer (15.3 points, 6.8 assists, 1.7 steals), followed by Anton Kvitkovskikh (12.5 points, 4.6 rebounds), Vince Hunter (11.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.8 steals), and Jeremiah Martin (11.2 points, 3.0 assists).

Ivan instead of Ivan

"Playing in this arena against a very good team is always a challenge," notes CSKA head coach Andreas Pistiolis. "We played two very different games against Lokomotiv this season. I hope we can take advantage of this good moment we're currently in and achieve a positive result."

This entire month, the Red-Blues have been working on a rather challenging schedule, with a mandatory two games a week and long flights. Now, after the home game against MBA-MAI, the team took one day off and then returned to work. On Tuesday, the team trained at the Basket Hall in Krylatskoye. On Wednesday, at nine o'clock in the morning, they met at the CSKA Sports Complex and traveled to Sheremetyevo Airport, from where they flew to Krasnodar on a Rossiya/Aeroflot charter. There was one change to the away roster compared to the previous match: the coaching staff brought in the recovered Ivan Zaytsev instead of the ill Ivan Ukhov.

Past matchups

Win-loss ratio: 75-19,
in Moscow: 40-7, in Rostov: 9-1, in Krasnodar: 25-10, on the neutral court (Berlin): 1-0.

Game of the 2025-26 season:

VTB League. 01-Nov-2025. CSKA – Lokomotiv-Kuban: 104-64 (+40)
VTB League. 05-Dec-2025. Lokomotiv-Kuban – CSKA: 90-95 ОТ (+5)

Brief dossier

Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar, Russia
Founded: 1946
Colors: red, green, white
Home court: Basket Hall (7,500)
President: Andrey Vedishchev
Head coach: Anton Yudin
Website: www.lokobasket.com
Trophy case: Euroleague bronze winner (2016), EuroCup winner (2013), 2-times VTB United League runner-up (2013, 2023), BEKO PBL bronze winner (2012), Eurochallenge runner-up (2011), FIBA Europe Cup runner-up (2005), Russian Cup winner (2018)