It should be hot!

Our team will start EuroLeague season at Megasport against Olimpia Milan.

Pre-game disposition

The Army Men have 14 of 15 players available. Victor Khryapa may return to the lineup after missing two previous games with ankle injury. Pavel Korobkov remains out.

Olimpia’s center Patric Young continues to rehab after offseason knee surgery. Mantas Kalnietis and Kaleb Tarczewski both sat out of Milan’s Italian League game on Sunday.

Pre-game quotes

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

We open a new EuroLeague season and it’s another marathon of 30 games against top teams in front of us. We start against Olimpia Milan, which reconstructed the team with different players, able to attack and defend. They have good chemistry. We scouted 5-6 games. Theodore and Goudelock have the biggest piece of the offensive cake, they can create for themselves and teammates, very skilled players. We cannot forget Micov, Gudaitis, Jefferson, Mbaye, Bertans, other players coming off the bench. Overall they have a complete team that has two quality players on each position, plays high tempo, runs transition. They played more games, preseason and official, worked more days together. In this tough competition we have to show a big effort in all aspects in all games. We are practicing good, had two road games, even though we were not complete with Pasha and Victor out. We expect our fans to come in big numbers and support the team. This is very important, especially for the newcomers, warm welcome is needed.

Cory Higgins, CSKA guard:

First game of EuroLeague season is very important for us, especially because we play at home. We know that this season we collected very good offensive team with very good guards and another important players. We have to be focused and make them work both offensively and defensively.

“Relativity” connections

CSKA forward Nikita Kurbanov was a teammate of Milan player Mantas Kalnietis at Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar during the 2014-15 season.

CSKA forward Will Clyburn and Milan’s sharpshooter Dairis Bertans were teammates at Darussafaka Istanbul last season, they helped the team make the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague playoffs.

Vladimir Micov played for CSKA Moscow for two seasons from 2012 to 2014, during which he reached a pair of EuroLeague Final Fours and won a pair of VTB League titles with the club. He was a teammates there of current CSKA players Andrey Vorontsevich and Victor Khryapa for both years and with Vitaly Fridzon and Kyle Hines during his second season with the club.

Nando De Colo earned Top 16 Round 7 MVP honors in the 2014-15 season after shining in CSKA’s 97-75 victory over EA7 Emporio Armani. He tallied 18 points, 7 assists and 4 steals for a performance index rating of 29.

Important numbers

Kyle Hines has not missed a EuroLeague games since January 2014 and appeared in 111 consecutive games for CSKA in that span.

Nando De Colo has made 11 consecutive free throws in EuroLeague action. He is the all-time tournament leader in free throw accuracy at 93.3%.

De Colo has scored in double figures in each of his last 20 EuroLeague games.

Nikita Kurbanov has made 19 consecutive free throws in the EuroLeague action.

Sergio Rodriguez has made at least 1 three-pointer in nine straight EuroLeague games.

Rodriguez has scored in double figures in each of his last six EuroLeague games.

Chacho is ranked 10 all-time on the EuroLeague assists charts with 756, behind his former Spanish national teammate Juan Carlos Navarro (793 and counting) of FC Barcelona Lassa.

Andrey Vorontsevich needs 2 offensive rebounds to reach 200 for his EuroLeague career.

Vitaly Fridzon needs 3 three-pointers to reach 200 for his EuroLeague career.

Othello Hunter is 2 rebounds shy of 500 for his EuroLeague career.

Past matchups

Wins/losses: 6-6
1965-66. European Champions Cup. Semifinal. CSKA – Olimpia: 57-68 (-11)
1982-83. European Champions Cup. Final Round. Olimpia – CSKA: 94-86 (-8)
1982-83. European Champions Cup. Final Round. CSKA – Olimpia: 79-78 (+1)
1996-97. Euroleague. Preliminary Round. Adecco – CSKA: 87-74 (-13)
1996-97. Euroleague. Preliminary Round. CSKA – Adecco: 70-55 (+15)
2008-09. Euroleague. Regular Season. CSKA – Armani Jeans: 90-64 (+26)
2008-09. Euroleague. Regular Season. Armani Jeans – CSKA: 80-79 (-1)
2010-11. Euroleague. Regular Season. CSKA – Armani Jeans: 73-88 (-15)
2010-11. Euroleague. Regular Season. Armani Jeans – CSKA: 71-65 (-6)
2014-15. Euroleague. Top 16. CSKA – EA7 Milan: 97-75 (+22)
2014-15. Euroleague. Top 16. EA7 Milan – CSKA: 79-88 (+9)
2015-16. Euroleague. Regular season. EA7 Milan – CSKA: 64-79 (+15)

Short dossier

EA7 Milan, Italy
Founded: 1936
Colors: red, white
Home court: Mediolanum Forum (11,200)
Owner: Giorgio Armani
President: Livio Proli
Head coach: Simone Pianigiani
Website: www.olimpiamilano.com
Trophy case: 3-time Euroleague champions (1966, 87, 88), 3-time Cup Winners Cup champions (1971, 72, 76), 2-time Korac Cup winners (1985, 93), Intercontinental Cup winners (1987), 27-time Italian champions (1936, 37, 38, 39, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 72, 82, 85, 86, 87, 89, 96, 2014, 16), 5-time Italian Cup winners (1972, 86, 87, 96, 16), Italian SuperCup winners (2016)