February 09, 2012
The Club Scene: Azovmash Mariupol
Azovmash Mariupol Aaron Harper (Photo: Anwil Wloclawek) A virtually unknown team in Europe just five years ago, Azovmash Mariupol has already registered its first win in the ULEB Cup and is ready to upset some of the major teams in the competition. Basketball has always been a top sport in Mariupol, even when it was not until 1990 that Azovmash became a professional team that a year later joined the third division when the Soviet Union folded and Ukraine became independent. Azovmash just needed a decade to win its first title in 2002 and it has been unstoppable since then, winning four Ukranian League titles in five years from 2003 to 2007. It has also reached success in FIBA competitions, making it to the EuroCup final last season and winning the 2003 EuroCup Challenge. Azovmash keeps growing and now enters the ULEB Cup with a new, improved level of self-demand. The fact that players like Tyus Edney, Aaron Harper or Robert Archibald only proves that Azovmash is ready to reach even higher.

Iskra Zhdanov (Photo: Azovmash Mariupol)It looks like the club came out of the blue to be a competitive team in the last few years, but basketball tradition in Mariupol, Ukraine has been long, as the sports has been important for decades before Azovmash stepped up as one of the fastest-rising squads in Europe. Even though BC Azovmash Mariupol is a new name among the European basketball elite, basketball was already played in Mariupol in the 1950s, as the team Iskra took part in Soviet competitions for decades in Zhdanov, Mariupol's old name. Both men's and women's team took part in the Russian Cup, too, as the city started to get the basketball fever.

It was not until the mid-70s that the youth team Novator was founded, which eventually would become Azovmash. It soon started to do well in local and regional championships in the mid-fifties and throughout the eighties, too. Valentine Novel was the key piece to its success, a head coach that led the team to win titles in the Ukranian area, still belonging to the Soviet Union. Players like Leonid Yaylo or Andrei Bondarenko encouraged a group of people to use Novator as the base of a professional team. As such, Azovmash was created in 1990 to compete in the Ukrainian zone of the USSR League. When Ukraine became an independent country in 1991, Azovmash joined the third league, but was soon promoted to the Ukrainian second division.

Azovmash in the nineties (Photo: Azovmash Mariupol)The club overcame tough times to become powerful by the end of the millennium, winning the second division in 1998 to promote to the Ukrainian elite. It soon joined international competitions, too, playing the 1999 Korac Cup with players like top gun Alexei Ianguitcher, Andrian Gavrikov or Petro Podtykan. Azovmash soon found success by lifting its first-ever domestic trophy, the 2002 Ukrainian Cup title. The team soon shocked everyone in 2003 by lifting both the Ukranian League, downing Odessa in the finals and above all, the 2003 FIBA Europe Challenge Cup trophy. With players like Andriy Botichev, Volodymyr Gurtovyy and Oleksandar Skutyelnik, Azovmash thrashed Khimik 62-95 in the semifinals. Azovmash then downed TSV Bayer 88-61 in Mariupol to win the title behind 15 points each from Podtykan and Dmytro Bryantsev.

Azovmash added another Ukrainian League title in 2004, now with Tephen Hamilton, Lorinza Harrington and Nikola Bulatovic, and survived the 2004 FIBA EuroCup group stage to lose against Maroussi in the eighthfinals playoffs. Azovmash did not seem to have limits in its domestic competition, but BC Kyiv swept the 2005 Ukranian League series, starting a sports rivalry that still goes on today. Lior Lubin, Sandis Valters, Art Long and Vlodimir Gurtovoy helped Azovmash to reach even higher in the 2005 FIBA EuroCup. The team survived a thrilling three-game eighthfinals playoff against Tuborg, getting a 95-86 home win in Game 3 behind 25 points and 16 rebounds from Long. Eventual champion Dynamo St. Petersburg stood in the way to the final four in the quarterfinals playoffs.

Khalid El-Amin (Photo: Azovmash Mariupol)Azovmash made a financial effort to improve the team and landed playmaker Khalid El-Amin, who had taken Besiktas to the Turkish League finals the previous season, as well as inking Miroslav Beric and top prospect Serhiy Lishchuk while keeping Long or Lubin. Those moves allowed the club to lift another league trophy in 2006. The team did not survive the 2006 FIBA EuroCup group stage, losing a three-way tie with eventual finalists Khimki and DKV Joventut. Azovmash bounced back in 2007, arguably the best season in club history. El-Amin, Bajramovic, Panagiotis Liadelis, Lishchuk and Robert Gulyas have helped the team to remain as the team to beat in Ukraine. Azovmash had missed the FIBA EuroCup final four for three years, but finally made it last season. The team edged Virtus 74-73 in the semifinal on a game-winning basket by Bajramovic before registering a 72-79 loss against Akasvayu Girona in the title game. Always ambitious, Azovmash is now taking part in the ULEB Cup, knowing that the best is yet to come in club history.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Javier Gancedo, ULEBCup.com
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