BC Zenit Saint Petersburg


BC Zenit Saint Petersburg, formerly known as BC Dynamo Moscow Region and BC Triumph Lyubertsy, is a Russian professional basketball team that is located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, since 2014. The club competes domestically in the VTB United League and in the EuroLeague. Their home court is Sibur Arena. The club is sponsored by Gazprom.
Since the team moved to Saint Petersburg in 2014, the team is a part of the multi-sports club Zenit, of which the football club FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, is also a part.

History

Dynamo Moscow

The club was originally established in 2003, under the name BC Dynamo Moscow Region, and registered into the Russian Superleague A. The original club was based in Lyubertsy, Moscow Oblast, Russia.

Triumph Lyubertsy

In June 2007, the basketball club of Dynamo Moscow Region disbanded and became the newly reformed club of BC Triumph Lyubertsy Moscow Region. Triumph Lyubertsy retained all of the history and records of the Dynamo Moscow Region club, through the acquisition of the club's history and rights. In the 2012–13 season, Triumph's Sergey Karasev won the Young Player of the Year Award.
In the 2013–14 season, Triumph reached the final of the EuroChallenge, in which it lost to Reggio Emilia by a score of 65–79.

Zenit

In July 2014, the club announced it was relocating from Lyubertsy to Saint Petersburg, and was changing its name to BC Zenit Saint Petersburg. The club retained the history and rights of BC Triumph Lyubertsy, and also its place in both the VTB United League and the EuroCup. Meanwhile, the club tried to retain a second club in Lyubertsy, that would compete in the Russian Super League 1. As a result, the basketball club became a section of the Zenit sports club, which already contained Zenit FC, a successful football club.
The following five seasons in the VTB United League were successful for Zenit. The team finished fifth in the 2014–15 season, but was eliminated in the quarter-finals. In 2016, Zenit moved from the Sibur Arena to the Yubileyni Arena. In the following four seasons, Zenit qualified for the semi-finals every time but never reached the league finals. It also played in the EuroCup, Europe's second tier, and reached the quarterfinals in 2017 and 2018.
On 27 June 2019, EuroLeague Basketball announced it had awarded Zenit a wild card for the 2019–20 EuroLeague. This would mark Zenit's debut in the highest European tier. To participate in the tournament, the roster of Zenit was mostly changed - not only foreign but also Russian experienced players left the team: Andrey Desyatnikov, Evgeny Valiev and Sergey Karasev moved to Khimki. They were changed by also experienced players from other Russian clubs: Andrey Zubkov, Anton Ponkrashov, Dmitry Khvostov and Mateusz Ponitka and some players from foreign leagues: Andrew Albicy, Alex Renfroe, Austin Hollins, Gustavo Ayón, Will Thomas, Colton Iverson and Tim Abromaitis.

Arenas

When the club moved to St. Petersburg, they first played their home games at the 7,120 seat Sibur Arena. They then moved to the newly renovated 7,000 seat Yubileyni Arena. When the club was previously based in Lyubertsy, they played their home games at the 4,000 seat Triumph Sports Palace arena.

Honours

European competitions

Players

Current roster

Depth chart

Squad changes for the 2020-2021 season

In

Out

Notable players

Head coaches