Bulat Mukhambetkaliyev: The Balkan League is a great experience for all of us, we want to reach the Final 4
Mukhambetkaliyev (right) visited St. George Sports
BC Barsy Atyrau will play its first ever game in the Balkan League on Tuesday evening. In St. George Sports complex in Sofia the Kazakh team will host BC Academic Bultex 99 in the historic match. Hours before the debut the Director of the club Bulat Mukhambetkaliyev answered some questions regarding the participation in the competition. He came a day earlier that the squad along with the deputy director Olga Pastukh and visited the gym where the first matches will be played. Everyone was happy with what they saw and are excited for the start of their participation. Here is what Mukhambetkaliyev had to say before his team′s first match:
How do you feel about joining the Balkan League?
Unfortunately our league is a small one with not a lot of teams and that′s why we don′t have too many games at a high level. That′s why the usual practice and goal of our club is to give a chance to our players to be able to improve their qualities in international games so they can also help the national team. Two from our players are now in Astana which is in the VTB league and are also in the national team.
There is some excitement from our side about joining the Balkan League. We don′t know a lot and we′ll learn with time. However every international game is a great experience for our players, our coaches and for us as a management. This way we′ll see where we should aim and which areas we need to improve.
Tell us few words about your team. What′s its place in the Kazakhstan basketball?
Our team is already in its 15th professional season in the league. From 2011 until now we′ve always been in the top positions and also won twice the championship in 2011 and 2016. In the second final we defeated Astana as during the season we had a total of 7 games with them and won 6 including in the Cup.
What can we expect from your team in the Balkan League, what are your ambitions at the start?
Of course to play in the Final 4. There′s no soldier who doesn′t want to become a general. We′ll try to reach the Final 4, that is our ambition. We need to work a lot about that and we also want to see where we stand in comparison to others. Our main team consists of 7-8 players who are already more than two years together. In the roster we also have five local players from Atyrau, including three youngsters and we are hoping they can improve further.
What is the impression you want to show about the Kazakhstanian basketball?
We want to leave a good impression to show that we are working well. We played some seasons in the Baltic league and each time we were in the top 16. It wasn′t easy for us but we showed good things. Our main goal of course is to reach the final of the league in Kazakhstan and to beat Astana. The participation in the BIBL will be a good test and experience to us which I hope can help us improve as a team for the final battles in the local league.
Do you think that your participation and eventual success can open the doors not only to teams from Kazakhstan but also to teams from other countries in the region to join the Balkan League?
I think it can. Each team is trying to get to such a competition. There are tournaments like the Balkan League in which the games can be played over a short period of time and I already know that there is one club who is interested for the next season. We know all the information about the top competitions all over the world. The good thing here is that the teams have pretty much the same budgets and for the middle-tier teams is really interesting to play in such competitions.
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| No Games Scheduled |
| Delasport Balkan League 2023/2024 Regular Season | |||
| 1 | .jpg){kind=logo} KB Sigal Prishtina |
8 - 2 | 18 |
| 2 |  PAYABL EKA AEL |
6 - 4 | 16 |
| 3 |  KB Peja |
6 - 4 | 16 |
| 4 |  KK Lovcen 1947 |
4 - 6 | 14 |
| 5 |  KK Plevlja |
0 - 8 | 8 |
