Pre-game breakdown
CSKA will host Milan (and Panathinaikos in Round 17) at Yantarny Sports Palace in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave of nearly 1 million people located on the Baltic Sea coast between Lithuania and Poland. The 7,000-seat Yantarny Sports Palace was built in 2009 in what is Russia’s westernmost city. Although none have ever played there, the Yantarny Sports Palace won’t be unfamiliar at all to either CSKA players or visiting ones who may have competed against UNICS or Lokomotiv Kuban because Yantarny Sports Palace is a replica of the Basket Halls in Kazan and Krasnodar. However, since Kaliningrad has no professional basketball club this week’s game will mark the first time that Yantarny Sports Palace will host any basketball game at all. For that reason, CSKA is sending from Moscow the floor, baskets and all other equipment necessary to make the arena into a basketball court.
The team worked in the regime of the home game. CSKA went to Kaliningrad by Aeroflot charter at noon and practiced on the floor of Yantarny later in the evening.
The Army Men have to continue their journey in Minsk, so all 14 available players travelled to Kaliningrad. Will Clyburn and Mikhail Kulagin continue their post-injury rehab in Moscow.
Pre-game quotes
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
It is like a road game for us, we are in the same circumstances as Milan. It is what it is, we are not going to look for any excuses. We play a very ambitious team, they rebuilt their roster, they added one more player recently. We need to be serious and we need to show our ambitions as well.
Mike James, CSKA guard:
It is a home game for us and we have to win at home. This gym is nice, I did not know what to expect, but I like it here. Hopefully the fans will fill it, and we will have a nice game.
“Relativity” connections
Coach Messina had two highly-successful stints coaching CSKA. In his first four-year period in the Russian capital, Messina guided CSKA to two EuroLeague titles (2006 and 2008) and reached two more championship games (2007 and 2009). In his second stint, he reached the Final Four twice (2013 and 2014). During his years at CSKA, Messina coached three players from the current CSKA roster: Andrey Vorontsevich, Kyle Hines and Nikita Kurbanov.
Mike James played with Milan last season. He was the 2018-19 Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy winner averaging 19.8 points per game and was a teammate of the majority of current Milan players.
Sergio Rodriguez spent the last two seasons with CSKA and helped it win the 2019 EuroLeague title. He played under head coach Dimitris Itoudis and was a teammate of the majority of the current CSKA squad.
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 United League titles. He was a teammate there of Andrey Vorontsevich for both years and with Kyle Hines during his second season with the club.
Daniel Hackett played for Milan for a season and a half. Hackett joined Milan in December 2013 and stayed there until the summer of 2015. He helped it reach the 2014 EuroLeague Playoffs.
Hackett played under Milan head coach Ettore Messina on the Italian national team in 2016.
Michael Roll was a teammate of CSKA guard Mike James at Laboral Kutxa, now called KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, briefly at the end of the 2015-16 season.
Important numbers
Coach Itoudis has used 10 different players in the starting lineup this season. Only Nikita Kurbanov has started every game.
Mike James has made at least 1 three-point shot in 15 of his last 16 games. He has shot 11 of 14 from downtown in his last two games. James ranks fifth this season with 2.9 three-point shots made per game. He ranks sixth this season in three-point accuracy at 51.2%.
James has scored in double figures in each of his last 13 games. He ranks third this season in scoring with 20.2 points per game.
James had recorded a performance index rating in double figures in 13 straight games. He ranks second this season in average PIR with 21.3 per game.
Mike James is 15 assists shy of 500 for his career.
Janis Strelnieks has made at least 1 three-pointer in seven of his last eight games.
Janis Strelnieks ranks sixth all-time in free-throw accuracy at 90.99%.
Nikita Kurbanov is 2 points shy of hitting the 1,000 career-point milestone.
Nikita Kurbanov is tied fourth this season in three-point accuracy at 51.4%.
Kyle Hines ranks third all-time with 221 blocked shots.
Hines ranks second all-time with 540 offensive rebounds. Felipe Reyes is the all-time leader with 695.
Hines ranks seventh all-time with 1,208 rebounds. Georgios Printezis of Olympiacos is sixth with 1,277 and counting.
Daniel Hackett is 17 points shy of reaching 1,500 for his career.
Hackett needs 19 rebounds to reach 500 for his career.
Johannes Voigtmann is 26 points shy of 1,000 for his career.
Kyle Hines needs 10 more steals to reach 200 for his career.
Past matchups
Wins/losses: 11-6
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 – AX Olimpia Milan: 93-84 (+9)
2017-18. Euroleague. Regular season. AX Olimpia Milan – CSKA: 81-107 (+26)
2018-19. Euroleague. Regular season. AX Olimpia Milan – CSKA: 85-90 (+5)
2018-19. Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – AX Olimpia Milan: 101-95 (+6)
Short dossier
AX Olimpia Milan, Italy
Founded: 1936
Colors: red, white
Home court: Mediolanum Forum (11,200)
Owner: Giorgio Armani
President: Pantaleo Dell’Orco
Head coach: Ettore Messina
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), 28-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, 18), 6-time Italian Cup winners (1972, 86, 87, 96, 16, 17), 2-time Italian SuperCup winners (2016, 18)
