Pre-game breakdown
Leo Westermann remains sidelined after hip surgery and practices individually. Alan Makiev has also stayed in Moscow.
The trip is actually a double one for the Red-Blues. The team will take a direct flight from Milan to St.Petersburg to face Zenit on Sunday night.
Olimpia’s Patric Young continues to rehab after offseason knee surgery.
Pre-game quotes
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
We expect another tough road game. It is important for us to bounce back from bad performance in our last two games [Barca and Loko] and play consistently on both ends of the floor.
Nikita Kurbanov, CSKA forward:
Olimpia is a very good and dangerous team. Maybe their overall record is not so impressive but they fought against us in Moscow and lost some close games. Besides they’ve just signed Kuzminskas so they definitely count on good boost in the second part of the season. We prepare very seriously and expect the game to be a fight.
“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
Coach Dimitris Itoudis has used 11 different players in the CSKA starting lineup so far this season. No player has started every game.
Kyle Hines has not missed a EuroLeague game since January 2014; he has appeared in 127 consecutive games for CSKA in that span.
Nando De Colo has scored in double figures and posted a performance index rating in double figures in 12 of his last 13 EuroLeague games. He is third in the EuroLeague in scoring with 16.6 points per contest and second in average performance index rating with 20.7 per game.
De Colo has recorded at least 1 steal in 13 of his last 14 EuroLeague games. De Colo is tied for third in the EuroLeague this season with 1.5 steals per game.
De Colo has made 15 consecutive free throws in EuroLeague action. He leads all qualified EuroLeague players in free-throw accuracy by making 95.0% of his attempts. Nando is the EuroLeague career leader in free throw accuracy at 93.52%.
Sergio Rodriguez has made multiple three-pointers in nine of his last 10 EuroLeague games. He is second in the EuroLeague this season with 2.9 three-pointers made per game.
Sergio Rodriguez is eighth on the all-time EuroLeague assists charts with 838. Brose Bamberg’s Nikos Zisis is seventh with 850 and counting.
Othello Hunter is fourth in the league in offensive rebounds with 2.9 per game.
Kyle Hines is ranked fifth on the all-time EuroLeague charts with 420 offensive rebounds for his career. He needs 3 more to catch Kerem Gonlum (421) for fourth place.
Victor Khryapa ranks 10th on the all-time EuroLeague charts with 1,062 career rebounds. Former Panathinaikos star Mike Batiste is in ninth place with 1,117.
Khryapa is ranked eighth on the all-time charts with 240 career steals. Juan Carlos Navarro of FC Barcelona Lassa is seventh with 246 and counting.
Khryapa is seventh on the all-time charts with 161 blocks for his career. He needs 1 more to catch Mirza Begic who has 162 in sixth place.
Past matchups
Wins/losses: 8-6
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)
2016-17. Euroleague. Regular season. EA7 Milan – CSKA: 64-79 (+15)
2016-17. Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – EA7 Milan: 101-64 (+37)
2017-18. Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – Olimpia EA7 Milan: 93-84 (+9)
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)
