PBC Lukoil Academic

Lukoil Academic Лукойл Академик
Nickname	The Students (Студентите)
Leagues	NBL, FIBA Europe Cup
Founded	1947
History	1947 - present
Arena	Armeets Arena (capacity: 12,395)
Location	Sofia, Bulgaria
Team colors	White and Red
President	Valentin Zlatev
Head coach	Toni Dechev
Championships	23 Bulgarian Championships 11 Bulgarian Cups 1 International Students' Cup
Website	http://www.lukoilacademic.bg/
Uniforms
Home Away

PBC Lukoil Academic (Bulgarian: ПБК "Лукойл Академик") are a Bulgarian professional basketball club based in the capital Sofia. They play their home games at the Universiade Hall or at the Pravets sports complex.

Founded in 1947 as part of the Academic Sofia sports club, they have been 20 times champions of Bulgaria and nine times winners of the Bulgarian Cup. Among their international honours are two European Champions Cup finals (both lost to ASK Riga) in 1958 and 1959 and an International Students' Cup in 1957.

In 2000, the team were renamed Lukoil Academic as a sponsorship deal was signed with Russian oil giant LUKoil, and quickly established themselves as dominant in the Bulgarian Championship. Since then they have been a regular ULEB Cup participant, and won the FIBA Europe Regional Challenge Cup Conference South in 2003.

Honours

• Bulgarian Championships (24): 1957, 1958, 1959, 1963, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015
• Bulgarian Cup winners (11): 1952, 1954, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013
• European Champions' Cup Runner up (2): 1958, 1959
• FIBA Europe Conference South: winners (1): 2003
• International Students' Cup winners (1): 1957

History

Basketball club Academic Sofia was founded in 1947 as a part of the students' sports association Academic and during its history of more than half a century it has won a just place among the best teams in the country. Under the guidance of ones of the most experienced coaches in Bulgarian basketball - Bozhidar Takev, Veselin Temkov, Neycho Neychev, Tzvetan Zheliazkov, Petko Marinov, etc., BC Academic is 20 times republic champion and nine times winner of the Bulgarian Cup. Along with the titles in the domestic championships and tournaments, naturally comes the international recognition. The basketball players of Academic have successfully played in the tournaments for the Cup of the European champions. With the coach Bozhidar Takev they were twice finalists against ACK Riga in 1958 and 1959. In 1957 in Paris the team of Academic became the world's students champion. During its entire existence basketball club Academic has always been a school for the professional improvement and constructive contribution of some of the best Bulgarian basketball players. Stars like Liubomir Panov, Georgi Panov, Viktor Radev, Nikola Ilov, Mihail Semov. Petar Lazarov, Dimitar Sahanikov, Georgi Barzakov, Nikola Atanasov, Atanas Golomeev, Temelaki Dimitrov, Stefan Filipov, Slavei Raychev, Vladimir Boyanov have left their permanent marks in the history of the Bulgarian basketball.

The excellent training of the Academic players and their complete devotion to the game have always been highly evaluated by our national basketball selectionists. Direct participants in the glorious moments of the Bulgarian basketball - the fifth place at the Olympic Games in Melbourne - 1956 and the vice-champion's title at the European Championship - Sofia'57 are the national players Liubomir Panov, Georgi Panov, Viktor Radev, Nikola Ilov, Mihail Semov, Petar Lazarov.

The glorious tradition of the club was revived again in 2000 when "LUKOIL-Bulgaria" became the main sponsor of the team. The selection of Lukoil Academic was oriented towards young and talented players, who under the clever guidance of the senior coach Petko Marinov and his assistants built the youngest team in the republican basketball. Renewed was also the work at the adolescents school of the club, from which some players have already shown considerable success at the home championships. The long-term strategy of LUKOIL Academic has shown its first results already in season 2001-2002. The talented players of Petko Marinov won the cup of the country and played the most attractive final in the play-offs in the championship for the last ten years. Today the name of LUKOIL Academic is again a symbol of good basketball. The ambitions of the club are the republican champion's title and the good presentation at the European club tournaments.

Current roster

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.

PBC Lukoil Academic roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age SF 3 Šakić, Željko 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) 98 kg (216 lb) – (1988-04-14)14 April 1988 SG 4 Videnov, Filip 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 97 kg (214 lb) – (1980-06-12)12 June 1980 PG 6 Ratkovica, Branislav 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 82 kg (181 lb) – (1985-07-27)27 July 1985 C 8 Kolev, Nikolay 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 111 kg (245 lb) – (1988-07-17)17 July 1988 SG 10 Avramov, Bozhidar 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 98 kg (216 lb) – (1990-03-08)8 March 1990 PG 13 Velikov, Asen 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) 82 kg (181 lb) – (1986-01-11)11 January 1986 C 14 Banev, Tencho 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) 115 kg (254 lb) – (1980-08-14)14 August 1980 SG 22 Ivanov, Pavlin 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) 93 kg (205 lb) – (1993-03-28)28 March 1993 PF 23 Vasilev, Rumen 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 98 kg (216 lb) – (1996-11-04)4 November 1996 PG 24 Timberlake, Chad 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 92 kg (203 lb) – (1984-01-01)1 January 1984 G 30 Minkov, Kris 1.99 m (6 ft 6 in) 82 kg (181 lb) – (1994-12-31)31 December 1994 PG 31 Iliev, Aleksandar 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 76 kg (168 lb) – (1996-12-02)2 December 1996 C 32 Barović, Filip 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) 101 kg (223 lb) – (1990-09-27)27 September 1990 G/F 33 Grozev, Nikolay 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 96 kg (212 lb) – (1994-02-17)17 February 1994 F 34 Dimitrov, Dimitar 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 110 kg (243 lb) – (1993-03-01)1 March 1993	Head coach Toni Dechev Assistant coach(es) Miroslav Ralchev Ivan Kotsev Strength & conditioning coach(es) Saša Jakovljević Physiotherapist(s) Vasil Vasilev Team manager Rumen Guninsky Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: 1 November 2015

Notable players

For more players see Category:PBC Lukoil Academic players.

• Lyubomir Panov
• Georgi Panov
• Viktor Radev
• Nikola Ilov
• Mihail Semov
• Petar Lazarov
• Dimitar Sahanikov
• Georgi Barzakov
• Nikola Atanasov

• Atanas Golomeev
• Temelaki Dimitrov
• Stefan Filipov
• Slavey Raychev
• Vladimir Boyanov
• Willie Deane 2008–2010
• Priest Lauderdale
• Bryant Smith
• Larry O'Bannon

• Charles Jones
• Lamont Jones
• Donta Smith
• Antonio Burks
• Pero Antić
• Riste Stefanov
• Gjorgji Čekovski
• Damjan Stojanovski
• Thomas Massamba
• Mohamed Abukar

Notable coaches

• Bozhidar Takev
• Veselin Temkov
• Neycho Neychev
• Tsvetan Zhelyazkov
• Petko Marinov
• Marin Dokuzovski

External links

• Official website (Bulgarian) (English)
• Lukoil Academic at Basketball-bg.com (Bulgarian)
• Lukoil Academic at BulgarianBasket.com (English)

• PBC Lukoil Academik at Eurobasket.com

List of basketball clubs in Bulgaria