Starting, stretching

Though the roster is not full yet our team came out of the holidays. The first preseason practice took place on USH CSKA main court today.

As Ettore Messina mentioned addressing the players in the very beginning the first two days will be mostly devoted to the work under Evaldas Kandratavicius guidance. Evaldas' goal is to help the players to get started, to get used to hard work. After that, on August 30, Olympic bronze winners will join their teammates. After the camp in Italy, the tournament and couple of friendly games the coaches will have the full team in their disposal: Milos Teodosic, Nenad Krstic and Zoran Erceg will return to Moscow after helping Serbian National Team in the Eurobasket qualifying round.

"Actually, we will start our tactical lessons next Thursday, when Russian National Team players join us", - Messina added. "It is maybe strange to start without having the full team but we have no choice. I am glad that the players paid much attention to their individual workouts during the summer. Though as a coach I am never satisfied with their conditions."

Only ten players participate in the practices now: with National Team players absent junior team forward Alexander Gudumak joined the main team. The coaching staff missing scout Benas Matkevicius who participates in the Euroleague clinic in Barcelona.