On the eve of the start of the quarterfinals of the Russian Championship playoffs, Lokomotiv Mineralnye Vody guard Vasily Karasev shared his opinion about the upcoming game with CSKA:
“We’re going to play. We understand that it will be very difficult. We have very young guys in the team who still have a lot to learn. Nonetheless, we’re preparing to get mentally prepared to play good basketball, though winning will be almost impossible. We have neither tactics, nor technique as a trump card. The Army team is stronger than we are in both of these areas. There’s always a chance, though, so I’m not going to predict a sweep.”