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Bracket Pool Rules
This is the pool format most people are familiar with:
Members pick all 63 games of the NCAA tournament (15 games if you run a Sweet 16 pool).
Points are awarded for each winning pick.
Points values increase as the tournament progresses (points per round are configurable by the Pool Commissioner).
The winning team is the team with the most points at the end of the NCAA Tournament.
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Step 4 - Enjoy the Tournament!
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NCAA Bracket Pool Samples
The following samples are just a few of the reports you'll see for your March Madness bracket pool.
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Pick Sheet
Prediction Overview
Leaderboard
Addition reports include:
Individual bracket entry results
Team-by-team advancement report
Game-by-game pick summary report
Advanced scenarios report
Printable bracket
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Member Group Results Sample
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March Madness Pool Pricing
Run your pool with no payment or obligation through the first day of the tournament. After the first day, there is a one-time fee to continue using the service based on the number of members in your pool. Our price is your one-time fee for the entire tournament! Included in the cost is the added benefit that we retain your pool information and members from year-to-year. Simply reset your pool next year and have your members log back in to pick again.
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101 to 200 entries
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How to Run a March Madness Tournament Office pool
How to Run a March Madness Pool
What is a March Madness Office Pool?
The March Madness Tournament Bracket Office Pool is by far the most popular pool there is. This pool is ran during the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. The steps below explain how to run this pool. If you're looking for another office pool to run during the tournament view our complete list of Office Pools for College Basketball Tourney, we highly recommend trying our College Basketball Block Pool which is similar to the Super Bowl Squares, except you use the final score from every game of the tournament.
Before filling out your bracket be sure to checkout NCAA Tournament wins by Seed, and Final Four Appearances by Seed, where we have calculated the odds of each seed winning the tournament and making it to the final four based on all of the past tournaments.
Printing the Bracket
Print out this March Madness Bracket, estimate the total number of people you think will be interested in entering the pool and print/copy that many brackets.
Distribute the Bracket
Pass the printed brackets out to friends, family, and co-workers. Each person is to completely fill in the bracket with the team they think will win each game. For a tie breaker have each person write down what they think the total number of points scored in the championship game will be. View our Tiebreaker Rules for March Madness Pool.
Collect the Brackets
Be sure to have each participant turn in their completed bracket before the tournament begins. If you want to to do a little extra for the participants, print every person in the pool a copy of every other person's bracket. This is a lot of printing, but ensures to all people that the pool is being run fairly, and also allows them to see how well they are doing in the pool.
Scoring the Bracket
Each round is worth a set number of points, you can determine this on your own, but be sure to let all of the entries know before the tournament begins what the scoring system will be(you should write the point values under each round at the top of the bracket). We have set up a Fillable March Madness Bracket that allows you to type in the points per round, that way there are no handwritten instructions on the bracket. There is no standard for the point's system, everyone does it differently. View our NCAA Bracket Scoring Systems article for an overview of possible scoring systems. We have also wrote an article about whether or not you should Count the Play-In Games when Scoring your Bracket.
We prefer doing it as follows:
First Round= 1 point
Second Round= 2 Points
Third Round= 3 Points
Fourth Round=4 Points
Fifth Round= 6 Points
Sixth Round=10 Points
Declaring a Winner
Multiply the total number of correctly picked games in each round by the points assigned to that particular round. Tally all rounds together and the person with the highest point total wins!
This season, 8 Russians play in the NCAA. How are they? - The Interception - Blogs
Editor's Note: You are reading the user blog Interception, which talks about European basketball. Don't forget that pluses are still the best way to thank the author.
Before the start of last season, I wrote this text. Then I talked to almost all the Russians who were preparing to compete in the NCAA - there were 11 of them at that time - and tried to understand why Russian youth began to leave more massively for American universities. There have never been such a number of Russians in the NCAA.
A year and a half has passed since then, and half of the guys have parted ways: Konstantin Dotsenko is now playing in the Loko farm club, Zakhar Vedischev plays at the base of Krasnodar, Mark Tikhonenko signed a contract with Astana, Andre Toure recently played in Maykop in the second Super League, and Samson Ruzhentsev moved to the Serbian "Mega".
But some remained in America. They were joined by a few more guys who either just left Russia or got into the NCAA from American schools or the NJCAA. In this text, I will talk about all the Russians who play in the first division of the main student league in the world. If last season I wanted to explain why exactly they are leaving, now I have focused on their career.
If you prefer reading, then below is a large text with comments from the players themselves; but this time you have the opportunity not only to read, but also to watch a video about all of our in the NCAA. Inside is my story and a video interview with the guys.
If you watch a YouTube video, don't forget to thumbs up and leave a comment. This will help promote the channel. Subscribe if you love Russian basketball and want to learn more about it.
And now - the promised text about our guys in America.
What is the NCAA
The NCAA, or NCDA, is the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States and Canada. It includes almost 1300 schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions. The teams of these universities are represented not only in basketball - the NCAA also has competitions in American football, wrestling, fencing, bowling, softball, gymnastics, tennis and God knows what else.
But basketball is a very popular sport in the association. Both guys and girls have three divisions, which are ranked by strength. This text is only about those Russians who compete in the first, strongest, division.
The NCAA has a playoff called March Madness. When knockout games start, the whole country switches from professionals to students. Although during the season, the teams also have enough attention from fans: the clubs play in large and good arenas, many people come to the matches, the games are shown on television, and sometimes on national television. There are even universities whose fans spend the night in front of the arena in the hope of having time to buy a ticket.
So the NCAA is a really serious tournament, albeit a student one.
How many Russians are there
I have spent an hour and a half of my life checking the composition of all the colleges that are represented in the first division. There are 358 of them. I broke my eyes, learned about the existence of several countries and even about the presence of basketball in these countries, but still I counted all the Russians.
I got eight people, and now we will get to know them better. The sequence on my list doesn't mean anything, it's just that way because I talked to the guys in that order.
I hope I haven't missed anyone. Please write in the comments if you know someone whom I have overlooked.
Evdokimov is the newest member of the NCAA Division I. He joined the Charleston Cougars - the name of the team of the University of Charleston from South Carolina - in early December last year.
This university belongs to mid-major. In the American system, there is a gradation of universities by strength - from low-major to high-major. Mid-major is the middle level. Most Russian guys perform at universities that fall into this category.
Before moving to the USA, Nikita played for the youth team of Lokomotiv-Kuban and for the national team. Last summer, the defender represented the Russian under-20 team at the Euro Challenger, although he himself was only 18.
Evdokimov has an interesting story about how he fell in love with basketball. In fact, it is strange that he did not go to handball, because his dad is the famous Russian handball player Yegor Evdokimov. Six-time champion of Russia, champion of Spain, champion of Belarus, champion of Ukraine, participant of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. At the dawn of his career, Yegor Viktorovich played in his homeland, in the Chelyabinsk region, the city of Snezhinsk. Nikita was born there.
- I fell in love with basketball when I was 9 or 10 years old. My cousin and grandmother and I went on vacation to the Crimea. There was a playground where I constantly ran and played. Grandma suggested trying to sign up for basketball. And before that, I didn’t consider basketball as a sport at all ... But I went to a training session and instantly fell in love. Didn't miss it at all. Then Lokomotiv saw me at the Russian Championship. Together with a team from my city, from Chekhov, we took fourth place, and everyone was very surprised. I was seen by coach Petar Marinkovic, who called me to Loko, ”recalls Evdokimov.
He says that he could have been in the red-green system even earlier. He was invited to the Yug-Basket camp - this is a camp organized by the club and within which it looks for players in its youth system - but then Evdokimov was with relatives in the United States and could not come.
He ended up in the Loko system in 2017. True, Evdokimov says that, even while playing for Krasnodar, he often thought that he actually wanted to try his hand at American basketball. He has relatives living in the USA, he has been there more than once, and when the chance to move to the university appeared, he did not hesitate for a long time.
Evdokimov learned about the university's interest in him in advance, so he spent the summer with benefit: he trained individually with personal trainers in Moscow and Cyprus, where his father plays handball. There, the defender, at the request of the university coach, worked hard on three-pointers and performed at least 500 long-range shots a day.
Evdokimov will be coached at the College of Charleston by Pat Kelsey, a strong specialist who is widely known in college basketball. He once worked with Jeff Teague and Chris Paul.
Alex is not short for Alexander, but his passport name. He was not born in Russia, but in Canada, his parents went there to give birth to Alex. In this country, he lived the first year of his life, after which he left for Moscow. In memory of Canada, Alex has citizenship (he has a double one).
But he started playing basketball in Russia.
— I started playing basketball at Gloria when I was 10-11 years old. People came to my school - and I studied at an ordinary secondary school - who were looking for young guys who were ready to play basketball. They came into my class, saw that I was tall, did a couple of tests, asked me different questions and invited me to practice. I studied at Gloria for a long time, then I got into the MBA Junior Junior League, from there I was taken to the Super League. I played there for literally a year, and after graduating from high school I decided that it would be wise to go to the United States. I contacted Skryagin (Alexander Skryagin, ProFuturo Sports, - note "Interception"), because he was the only person who knows more about moving to the USA than me. We talked to him, I dropped my highlights to him, and he helped me find a school, - says Kotov.
Alex arrived in the US in 2017 and entered the Montverde Academy. This is a very famous program that prepares players for the NCAA. Kotov spent a year in Montverde and won the championship with this team, the result for the season is 35-0. Alex's partners then included, for example, RJ Barrett, who now plays for the New York Knicks in the NBA, and Turkish Efes center Philip Petrushev.
Alex left Montverde not immediately for the NCAA, but for the NJCAA. It is an association of junior colleges and is also often referred to as Juko. A common story for those who feel like they're not ready for the NCAA yet, but want to play hard and improve. Kotov spent two years in this association, after which he moved to the NCAA, to the Illinois State Redbirds team. This is also a representative university of the mid-major category.
Alex has six months left to study at the university, but he can play in the team for another two and a half years. This happened because the players have the right to use the redshirt option. In fact, this is the right of the player to extend his career at the university, even if he has already graduated from the university. Plus, there's also the "cancellation" of the season due to the coronavirus (this happened last year), which also doesn't count, as well as the "cancellation" of the season due to injury (this happened to Alex in his second year in the NJCAA).
In general, these rules are very complicated.
- Due to an injury in my second year at the NJCAA, I opted to save the year. That's plus one season. In addition, this year I had a lot of misunderstandings with the coach, it all started last year. I thought that it would be possible to influence it somehow, to establish relations with him in the summer, but it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought. Therefore, after a huge number of meetings, we came to the conclusion that this year it would be easier for me to also take the option to save the year. So this year I'm graduating from university, getting an education, but I still have, roughly speaking, two seasons to play in the NCAA, - says Kotov.
Lakhin is the only Russian who represents a high-major university. This means that the university where Vitya plays often goes to the "March Madness" and has a tangible chance of winning the NCAA.
And the story of Lakhin began in Anapa. The parents wanted to send their sons - Vitya and his brother Vasya - to some kind of team sport so that they would play together. And chose volleyball. But because of the coach, they did not last long in the volleyball section and eventually went to basketball.
Lahin started in fourth grade but quickly rose to the city team. And in the Krasnodar Territory, if you play for the city team, then you are in full view of the Lokomotiv scouts. Vitya did not play Loko on a permanent basis, but by the 7-8th grade he was regularly on the team to participate in the Russian championships. The Railroaders took him as a reinforcement player - this is a common practice in children's competitions.
Further - a matter of chance. Loko juniors played in the final stage of the Russian championship and met CSKA twice - in the group stage and in the semi-finals. Lakhin gave two good games and ... received an invitation from the "soldiers".
At first he did not think of moving anywhere and stayed to finish the season in the south. But summer came, and he still went to see it. He was offered to stay after the first practice. Vitya talked to his parents and a month later he arrived at CSKA.
- The first season was probably the most emotional, full of some moments, memories. Because my brother and I arrived for the first time in a big city. On the one hand, this is a great freedom, because there are no parents nearby, but, on the other hand, this is also a great responsibility. Because you have never done the things that your parents did for you before, like laundry, cleaning, all sorts of small things. Even a waste of money: you never thought about it before, you were given - you spent it. And here you have money, and you know that if you spend everything, then at the end of the month you won’t have any left, ”recalls Vitya.
Lakhin reached the final stage of the youth Euroleague with CSKA and spent a pretty good season overall. Alexey Zhukov, the head coach of the “army” CYBL, left to work as an assistant in Nizhny Novgorod, and Maxim Sharafan came to CSKA from Lokomotiv. He worked with Vitya for three years, and during this time Lakhin managed to understand that he wants to play in Russia only at the highest level - in CSKA - and if it doesn’t work out, then it’s better to leave.
- I realized that it would be very difficult for me to get into the base. This is a top club with the highest goals, and as a young player I need to be not even the same as everyone else, but better, because I have no experience. It was necessary here and now to show some level and bring results. Let's be realistic, there were no players who can immediately enter the CSKA system and show something like that for a long time. Probably the Swede was the last one. I realized that I can’t do that, and since my dream is to be in the NBA, I decided to move closer to this league, this Wednesday, to America. That's why I'm here, - says Vitya.
But not everything was so simple. Back in Russia, Lakhin managed to get injured. He fell in the game moment, and his knee hurt. The medical staff did not suspect anything, and Vitya continued to train. The state of health worsened, but then the pandemic came, everyone went into self-isolation, and the center just went home. The knee was still swollen, but the pain was slowly receding. Vitya did not train and therefore did not feel any signs of deterioration. He already knew that he was leaving for America, and just waited for all the permits.
The injury happened in February and the departure was due in September. In the summer, Lakhin himself did an MRI, which showed that he had ... a torn meniscus. He took the results of the examination to the surgeon who scheduled the operation. Vitya went for it and began to recover in Russia, and he came to the USA with an already operated knee.
Everything should have been fine, but when he started running, the pain returned. Lakhin did another MRI, and it showed that the same meniscus was completely torn. The doctors said that it would take six months to recover. Therefore, Vitya simply missed his first season in the NCAA.
— All this time I didn't train, but I was always with the team: in scouting, in the locker room, in training. All lessons were online, and we lived in an apartment with the team. So that year helped me a lot, because even though I didn’t play, I was in the system and I knew the guys. It was my year of adaptation - to a new culture, to people, to new faces, to food. I had the same feeling as when I came from a small town to Moscow. You leave Russia for any other country - even to America, even to Italy, even to Spain - and you go through the same thing, Lakhin believes.
He adds that the Cincinnati had a new head coach at the end of last season and it was a difficult moment. A new specialist was appointed the day before Lakhin's departure to Russia, when he did not yet understand whether he would remain in the team for the next season or not. Whether to leave it, decided the new head coach. But in the end, the center managed to meet with him before departure and find a common language. The coach wanted to protect the Russians in the composition.
During the summer Vitya worked in the USA on his body and improved his skills. The season began in October, and in December, Lahin was the best freshman of the week in his conference. By the way, he has a situation similar to Alex: academically, Lahin is a sophomore, but he is considered a rookie in the team.
Andrey Savrasov, Georgia Southern Eagles
2021/22 stats: 14 games, 23. 7 minutes average
11.9 points (51.5% 2-point, 30% 3-point, 73.1% free throws), 6 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.4 block shots, 0.9 interceptions, 1 loss Andrey's first coach is a well-known Russian specialist Oleg Aktsipetrov.
— I remember that at first I had very different hobbies: football, basketball, taekwondo… But after the first two or three years of training, I realized that basketball is really mine, that I want to do just that. Slowly, I began to play for the sports school of the Admiralteisky district, for the Zenit Junior Junior League, played for the Russian national team U16, U18. We went to different tournaments, and somewhere the scouts saw my game and invited me to the USA, says Savrasov.
Andrey moved to America three years ago - in January 2019of the year. Now he is finishing his third year at the university, in the American education system it is possible to start studying in the middle of the academic year and, accordingly, then graduate also in the middle of the academic year.
Savrasov managed to play for the Texas Tech team, where he spent a year and a half. The first six months he did not play, he spent in redshirt mode - he trained, worked on his body, was with the team, but did not play for it. But the next season already played in the status of a freshman, that is, a freshman.
Andrei didn't get much playing time, but he still wanted to stay at the university. It was a high-major, and Savrasov wanted to prove that he deserved another role.
But then I talked to the head coach, and together they decided that it would be better to change the university in order to continue their career. The coach even helped find a new team, and that's how Savrasov ended up in Georgia, in the Georgia Southern Eagles team. This is a mid-major university.
Now in his second year with the new team, he is in the starting five and generally has a good role on the court. In theory, Andrei can play for the university for another two years, although he graduates from the university in a year.
Vladislav Goldin, Florida Atlantic Owls
2021/22 stats: 14 games, 16.5 minutes average
5.7 points (47.9% 2-pointers, no 3-pointers, 52.2% free throws), 5.5 rebounds, 0.4 assists, 0.6 block shots, 0.4 interceptions, 1.3 losses He played with his 2001, but at some point the team just fell apart and disappeared.
Goldin was sent to play by the year 2000, and the coach of this team turned out to be familiar with the coach of CSKA-DYuBL. Vlad and another guy were offered to the "soldiers" - just to look at them. But the screening went well, and after one of the training sessions, Vlad was offered to move to Moscow. New school, new surroundings, heavy loads, training twice a day - Vlad says that the first six months in the capital were the most difficult time in his life.
- At that time, I probably did not quite understand where I was moving and how much it changed. To be honest, I didn't even really know what DUBL was. Wasn't very knowledgeable. Youth League, Junior Team, Superleague… I knew the tournaments where we played: first the Southern Federal District, then the Russian Championship. When I found out that I was already in Moscow and had to go to the CYBL team for a tryout, I even got scared. But they left me, and I trained at CSKA for another four years. Then he played for the Russian national team U18 and U19, after which he received an offer to try himself in America. I decided to take a chance and moved there to the Prep school,” says Goldin.
Prep school is short for preparatory school. In essence, this is an opportunity to play basketball in the USA before going to university.
In October 2019, Vlad entered Patnam School in Connecticut. This is a small private school about an hour from Boston. Together with the team, Goldin became the champion of America in the championship among preparatory schools.
After that, Vlad was called to Texas, to the Texas Tech team - to the same team where Andrey Savrasov played for a year and a half. Goldin saw that this was a big and serious high-major team, saw the conditions for training and accepted their invitation without hesitation.
— In Texas, things are a little different. The way we played there was not like the way I played before, so the first experience was difficult. And then the head coach left us, replacing TexasTech with Texas. Most of the coaching staff left with him, and our team did not quite understand what to do. Only the assistant coach remained with us. And in the end, I decided to move to another team, to Florida, - say Goldin.
Due to the coronavirus, Vlad has the same situation as most student athletes: academically he is a sophomore, but the last sports season did not count, so he is a freshman in the team. Goldin has three years left to study, and he can play four more.
He himself says that his current team plays more European basketball, so he feels great there.
Alexander Glushkov, Appalachian State Mountaineers
2021/22 stats: 7 games, 4. 7 minutes average
2 points (60% 2-pointers, 0% 3-pointers, 33.3% free throws), 1 .1 rebounds, no assists, 0.1 blocks, 0.1 steals, no losses
Born in Vladivostok, Glushkov started playing basketball at the age of 13 when he went to summer camp. I came home and told my father: "I want to play basketball." Parents sent Sasha to the section.
Glushkov's first coach is Eduard Sushko. After a year of working with him, Sasha was invited to the Spartak-Primorye system. He played in the Junior Junior League for a year, after which the entire management of the team and almost the entire squad moved to the PSC Sakhalin. At the same time, the base of the club remained in Vladivostok. Glushkov spent a year in the new club, after which he received an invitation from Moscow, from the IBA. His coach Alexander Antipov invited him.
And then it was a matter of chance, and a year later Sasha was already flying to the USA to study at school.
— I came to Moscow and played there for a year. When we were preparing for the Summer Spartakiad in Krasnaya Pakhra at the Trinta base, a coach from the USA arrived there. He was familiar with Alexander Antipov, because before that our guy had already played at the same school. He came just to relax, but he also wanted to look at the players. He probably liked me, and he invited me to school. I took the chance and got into high school. I spent 11-12 classes there, received several offers and decided that I would play in Appalachian State, says Glushkov.
Now Sasha is in his second year, but as you know, last year doesn't count. So Glushkov is considered a “freshman” in the team and can play for the university for another three and a half years, while he has two and a half to study.
When Sasha arrived at the university, he weighed about 90 kg. But now he has noticeably added muscle mass. He began to grow muscles during the last season, but he did the main work in the summer. Due to problems with visas, he could not go home to Russia, and he went to a friend in Houston. There he lived for a month, ate a lot and rocked. As a result, he entered the new season in excellent physical shape. True, the coach still does not really trust him.
Glushkov University is a mid-major who, last year, entered March Madness for the first time in 20 years. Sasha was not released then, but he nevertheless felt the atmosphere of the main student event of the year. Here's what he says about it:
- It was ... unbelievable (unbelievable - approx. "Interception"). Very cool feeling. 64 top teams, all at the highest level. We had two or three hotels, each floor was dedicated to a specific team. I don’t know how much it could be called the same “March Madness”, because, of course, all the measures were taken anyway. We had a quarantine, we had to be tested every day. And so everything was at the highest level,” recalls Glushkov.
David has probably the most atypical fate among all our guys who now play in the first division of the NCAA.
Didenko was born in the north, in the city of Yakutsk. He remembers his childhood quite vividly: he says that the city authorities allowed not to go to school at -45 degrees Celsius, and if the thermometer was only -43, you had to pull yourself together, stick yourselves into a thick down jacket and stomp to school.
— I had a healthy down jacket, maybe five centimeters. I walked around like a big bubble. When I was 8 or 9 years old, we had -57 degrees in winter. Very cold. I didn’t leave the house for two days,” Didenko recalls.
In 2010, David ended up in the USA even before he started playing basketball. He was 10. His older sister was leaving for New York to study English, and David just went with her for a month.
While still in Russia, they found him something to do in the USA. On the classifieds website, the family looked at a message from a Russian coach who lived there, his name was Boris Karebin. The coach was needed so that David would not just mess around in the States.
But the boy got so caught up in basketball that he eventually wanted to stay. Parents allowed, and he went to an American school. Karebin trained him in Brighton Beach, this is a Russian-speaking area, so immersion in American culture was gradual.
— I first lived in New York, where I arrived, and then I traveled. Lived in Florida, then studied in Georgia, in Tennessee. I travel a lot around the country - sometimes I live there, sometimes there. Somehow I quickly learned English, apparently because I was still young. Literally in a year. In Russia, I studied English for three classes, but could not learn it. Here I first lived with my sister, she pushed me to talk to people, and somehow everything turned out by itself, - says Didenko.
David spent his first year after school in Juko. Remember the story of Alex Kotov? This is the same league that prepares players who have not yet grown up to the NCAA. But already in the second year, Didenko ended up in the first division, at the University of Georgia.
He is currently a UT Martin Skyhawks player, where UT is the University of Tennessee. Accordingly, David now lives and studies in this state. He has a year and a half left at the university, and he can still play the same amount at the university level.
At the same time, he is 21 years old and automatically enters the NBA draft next year. In mocks - that is, expert predictions - he is not drafted, but he still has to play the whole season, so everything is in his hands.
Last on the list - not by value, but simply because he is the only Russian I could not contact - Pavel Zakharov from California Baptist Lancers.
Zakharov was born in Sør-Varanger, Norway. In Russia, Pasha played for the Zenit youth team and helped CSKA play in the youth Euroleague, and in 2018, after playing for the Russian U18 team at the European Championship, he left for the Montverde Academy. We talked about it a little earlier.
He was considered a four-star recruit. In American sports, when they want to talk about the prospects of a particular player, they talk about him in terms of stars, and four stars is very good. Such an assessment helped him get into the Gonzaga College in the NCAA - this is one of the top programs, which, for example, reached the NCAA finals last season, having suffered its first loss of the season in this very final. Pasha then did not go to the parquet. A year before, the team did not get into the "March Madness" only because the championship was stopped due to a pandemic.
Zakharov spent two seasons at this university and moved to the California Baptist Lancers in the summer of 2021. Most likely due to playing time, because, obviously, it was much more difficult to get it in Gonzaga. But even at the new university, he still has an average of 10 minutes on the floor and one and a half rebounds. By the way, about playing on the shields: the height of the Russian center is 213 centimeters, in America these guys are called seven-footers.
This is almost all I know about Pavel Zakharov.
It seems that the Russians in the first division of the NCAA are over. If you know someone else that I forgot, please write in the comments.
Thank you for your attention! I will be glad if you share the text or video with your friends who are interested in young Russian players. Well, thumbs up, comments, subscriptions to YouTube - everything is traditional.
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Photo: official websites of clubs, personal archives of players; twitter.com; instagram.com; cskabasket.com
University studies and basketball (18+ years) - Pro Futuro Sports
University studies and basketball (18+ years) - Pro Futuro Sports | PFS
Admission to universities in the USA and Canada, in the leagues NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA and USPORTS
University studies and basketball in the USA or Canada
More and more basketball players from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries continue their basketball career and education at American colleges and universities.
PFS is the absolute world leader in providing basketball scholarships to universities in the US and Canada. Our clients play at all levels of college basketball in America, including at the most famous universities such as Stanford, Gonzaga, UCLA.
PFS objectives for US universities
Saving you money
Our clients receive exclusive conditions for studying at American Universities. Working with us, families save an average of 50-70% of the possible costs of teaching a child basketball player abroad. The savings are often in the tens of thousands of dollars a year.
How do we do it? We know the mechanisms of working with scholarships and grants, as well as the universities themselves are interested in partnership conditions due to the large number of our clients from all over the world - this allows us to receive exclusive offers for our clients.
Find the right university for a young basketball player
Our client can be either one of the best young athletes in Europe, or a novice athlete who is only striving for great success in sports - the task of PFS from the whole variety of American universities is to select the university that suits all the criteria for a young athlete, where he can maximize his potential.
Essentials you need to know about college basketball in the USA
You need to be a world class star if you want to play basketball and study in the USA - is the main myth we want to dispel!
You will be surprised, but in the USA, both at school and at university, an athlete of any level can play basketball - both a future NBA player and one for whom basketball is just a hobby. There are more than 1,500 universities in America, and basketball is available in almost every one of them.
The system of any sport in the USA, and basketball in particular, is built in such a way that sports are included in the system of school and university sports, i.e. in fact, in America there are no “basketball schools” or “youth clubs” analogous to our SDUSSHORs, where the general education school and the sports school are third-party organizations and big sport is incompatible with study.
In the US, athletes fully combine their sports career and education.
Thanks to the inclusion of sports in the curriculum of schools and universities, in the US you can study, for example, at Harvard or Stanford and play on the varsity basketball team with future NBA players.
The American sports system has all the best advantages for athlete development - the most gearing sports infrastructure, the strongest coaches, a huge number of teams at the school and university level. The only caveat is that studying in the USA is very expensive.
However, in America there is a athletic scholarship program that helps athletes reduce their tuition costs. A scholarship in the USA means a discount on tuition, i.e. this is not money that is handed out, but the amount that the school or university subtracts from the cost of your education.
Our company helps to receive scholarships for training athletes of various levels of sports training, age and physical data.
What is the NCAA American Collegiate League?
The NCAA League is the major American college sports league in which most American universities compete.
In the structure of the NCAA, universities are divided into 3 divisions, depending on the level of basketball at the university.
In addition to the NCAA, there are other student leagues, the main ones are: NAIA (analogous to the 2nd division of the NCAA), NJCAA (junior college league), USPORTS (Canadian student league). Our company works with all of these leagues.
NCAA Division 1 - The best young basketball players from around the world play in it, this is a transitional stage for future NBA and Euroleague players. To be on the NCAA Division 1 varsity team, you must be on or recruited for your country's youth team and have significant international accomplishments.
NCAA Division 2-3, NAIA league, USPORTS - this is also a very high level of basketball, but it is more accessible to most young boys and girls involved in basketball at the level of sports schools and sports schools.
Estimated cost of studying at a university in the USA
What expenses should a family prepare for if they want to send a basketball player child to a university or college in America while working with PFS?
NCAA Div 2-3, NAIA, NJCAA: minimum $10,000-13,000 per year
This is the minimum estimated budget for a year of study for 95% of young basketball players from the CIS countries that a family will need to pay for a university / college in the USA when working with our company. The amount includes tuition at the university, accommodation and meals, a sports program.
On average, a year of study at a university in the United States for a foreign student (official cost, without scholarships and discounts) will be $30,000-70,000 per year, depending on the location of the institution, type of residence and education elite.
Our company helps young basketball players receive scholarships/discounts from the official cost of education, reducing the cost of education by tens of thousands of dollars a year.
95% of the young basketball players we mentioned above are the majority of young boys and girls involved in basketball at the level of sports schools and sports schools, who are not included in the national youth team of their country and do not have significant basketball achievements at the international level.
NCAA Division 1 - 100% coverage of all tuition fees. For the most talented basketball players in Europe.
In the USA, at the NCAA Division 1 level, the full coverage format is practiced, when the university fully sponsors the costs of training, accommodation and meals for the athlete. This offer is relevant only for the most promising young basketball players in Europe. This offer covers 1-5% of basketball players in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries (depending on the level of development of basketball in the country).
A complete combination of education and sports
Only in the USA youth sports are included in the program of schools and universities. Playing basketball in the USA, an athlete fully combines basketball and studies, thus receiving a full-fledged education that you will need to build your future professional career outside of sports.
International Diploma Recognized Worldwide
After graduating from high school and university in the USA, you receive a diploma that is recognized worldwide. With an American diploma, you will be a sought-after specialist both at home and in the USA, Europe or other countries of the world.
Experience of living abroad and native English
At a young age, the child will experience independent living in another country, become more aware and responsible for himself and his actions. Our experience shows that the majority of young men and women who have experience of living and studying abroad are more successful in building their careers in the modern world, and knowledge of English, which, after studying in the USA and immersing in the environment, will be at the level of a native speaker, will allow you to easily establish contacts around the world. the world.
About
Pro Futuro Sports
PFS is one of the world's most respected sports and academic scholarship companies. The company was founded in 2007 and has offices in Serbia, Russia, Brazil, Italy, Lithuania and Bulgaria.
4,000 clients from 53 countries
To date, over 4,000 clients from 53 countries have continued their careers and received scholarships to study abroad with PFS.
The purpose of our service is to help athletes enter the best, proven and recommended teams, academies, schools, colleges and universities in the US, Canada and Europe, correctly assessing the capabilities and potential of an athlete.
Our clients receive exclusive conditions for training - working with us, families save an average of 50-70% of the possible costs of training a child-athlete abroad.
We know how to work with scholarships and grants, we have a wide network of sports contacts around the world and this allows us to receive exclusive offers for our clients.
Sports and Academic Department
The main profile of the agency is to work with athletes on their placement in schools, universities, sports academies, clubs in the US, Europe and other countries of the world.
In 2020, PFS launched the Academic Scholarships Department, which deals with obtaining discounts and grants in secondary and higher education institutions abroad.
Our customers
Sandro Mamukelashvili
Florida State Georgia
Samson Ruzhentsev
Tennessee Russia
Ilya Tyrtyshnik
Arizona Ukraine
Nestor Dyachok
Washington State Russia
Sergey Grishaev
State of Florida Russia
Daniil Kasatkin
Virginia Russia
Ksenia Kozlova
State of Florida Russia
Arina Khlopkova
West Virginia Russia
Buka Peikrishvili
Georgia Georgia
Lazar Zhivanovic
Real Madrid Serbia
Mark Tikhonenko
State of Pennsylvania Russia
Marko Simonovich
Illinois Montenegro
Testimonials from our customers
Samson Ruzhentsev
Russia
Victor Vovchuk
Ukraine
Lazar Milinkovic
Serbia
Alexandra Antonova
Russia
Georgy Maslennikov
Ukraine
Luka Andjusic
Serbia
Prospects for further growth
Stage 1
Children and youth sports
13-19 years old
School level
Stage 2
University
18-23
Leagues: NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, USPORTS
Stage 3
Professional career
23+ years
Professional sports
Career, Business
Frequently Asked Questions about Studying Abroad
What does it take to get into a school and sports team in the US/Europe?
For most educational and sports institutions, the package of documents is small: translation of school grades for the last 3 years of study into English, an extract from a medical record of vaccinations, a certificate from the bank on the availability of funds to pay for the school year at school.
What if I have no significant sporting achievements and my family is not able to pay for my studies in the US/Europe?
If you do not have great achievements in sports and your family is not able to finance the minimum budget for education in the US / Europe (from $10,000 per academic year), then today we will not be able to offer you the opportunity to study and sports abroad.
What does your agency offer?
The main goal of our work is to select a list of schools / universities / clubs that meet the criteria of the athlete and his family, in which he will receive a scholarship / discount on education. Further, we guide the client throughout the entire process of admission, execution of all documents, communication with coaches and representatives of educational institutions, and also provide visa support after admission.
What educational and sports institutions do you work with?
We have more than 1,000 schools/universities/sports clubs and academies in our database with whom we cooperate and every day we expand the list of partners. Nevertheless, the candidacy of each applicant and the possible amount of the scholarship must be personally discussed with each educational / sports institution separately.
Why should we contact you specifically for team and school selection in the US/Europe?
We have been on the market since 2007 and we have vast experience in working with athletes of all levels from all over the world - our knowledge of the American / European sports and educational programs market, as well as a huge network of contacts, allow our clients to receive exclusive offers. We have been on the market for so long that some of our clients, after graduating from the USA, have already become trainers in American schools and universities themselves and help our current clients get the best training conditions.
How safe is it to send a child alone to the US/Europe?
Safe. Educational institutions are fully legally responsible for foreign students. In many educational institutions, strict discipline and children are constantly under the supervision of employees of educational institutions, as well as the presence of a supervisor and a medical office.
Can you help an athlete of any level get into a school/university/club school in the US or Europe and receive a tuition discount?
We can help an athlete of any skill level and age to receive a scholarship in the range of 30-70% of the official tuition fee. Our knowledge of the US/European sports and education market, as well as our huge network of contacts, allows our clients to receive exclusive offers, regardless of their level of sports training.
Who determines how much scholarship/discount I will receive and by what criteria?
Employees of our agency evaluate an athlete according to a number of basic criteria: physical data, level of technical and athletic training, sports IQ, the level of competition at which you are currently performing, statistics, achievements and other parameters. Athletes provide us with video clips of their game moments and statistics from performances, which allows us to give the most accurate forecast about the athlete's prospects for his training in the USA/Europe. Further assessment of the athlete is carried out by the coaches of schools / universities / clubs, guided by our characteristics and the above-mentioned data on the athlete.
What level of English is required for admission?
It is desirable to speak English at least at the pre-intermediate level, but even for athletes with basic or no English, we can find sports and academic programs in the USA/Europe. Many institutions have an adaptation program that helps foreign students learn English and join a new team.
How do schools take athletes if they can't see them?
Scouting and selection are very developed in the USA and Europe, basically long screenings are our Soviet “know-how”, abroad, at almost all levels, athletes are taken by video and statistics. In order to increase your chances of getting into a good club, prepare a video clip of game episodes, a link to your statistics, as well as information about your achievements.
How are visas? Are there any problems getting them?
Obtaining a student visa (aka study visa) is 1 month (on average). There are no problems with visas now.
Is there a guarantee that the child will be given playing time in the team?
Game time cannot be guaranteed. Every athlete has ups and downs during the season. We try to assess the level of an athlete and offer him the educational / sports institution where he will really be in demand.
If a child travels and doesn't like the school/team, what then?
In this case, we talk with the child, understand the cause of dissatisfaction, if he does not like everyday life or he is faced with everyday misunderstandings, then we try to influence the situation by joint efforts. In order not to get into such situations, we do not cooperate with educational / sports institutions about which we receive bad reviews.
Where do children live while studying abroad?
In the US/Europe, 2 types of accommodation are common: campus or host family. The campus is a hostel. Typically, the campus is located on the territory of the educational institution, it is inhabited exclusively by students of the educational institution.
After the first day, there is a one-time fee to continue using the service based on the number of members in your pool. Our price is your one-time fee for the entire tournament! Included in the cost is the added benefit that we retain your pool information and members from year-to-year. Simply reset your pool next year and have your members log back in to pick again.
95
95
Tally all rounds together and the person with the highest point total wins!
There are even universities whose fans spend the night in front of the arena in the hope of having time to buy a ticket. 
He joined the Charleston Cougars - the name of the team of the University of Charleston from South Carolina - in early December last year. 
Nikita was born there. 
True, Evdokimov says that, even while playing for Krasnodar, he often thought that he actually wanted to try his hand at American basketball. He has relatives living in the USA, he has been there more than once, and when the chance to move to the university appeared, he did not hesitate for a long time. 
2 steals, 0.8 losses 
We talked to him, I dropped my highlights to him, and he helped me find a school, - says Kotov. 
This happened because the players have the right to use the redshirt option. In fact, this is the right of the player to extend his career at the university, even if he has already graduated from the university. Plus, there's also the "cancellation" of the season due to the coronavirus (this happened last year), which also doesn't count, as well as the "cancellation" of the season due to injury (this happened to Alex in his second year in the NJCAA). 
So this year I'm graduating from university, getting an education, but I still have, roughly speaking, two seasons to play in the NCAA, - says Kotov. 
Vitya did not play Loko on a permanent basis, but by the 7-8th grade he was regularly on the team to participate in the Russian championships. The Railroaders took him as a reinforcement player - this is a common practice in children's competitions. 
Because you have never done the things that your parents did for you before, like laundry, cleaning, all sorts of small things. Even a waste of money: you never thought about it before, you were given - you spent it. And here you have money, and you know that if you spend everything, then at the end of the month you won’t have any left, ”recalls Vitya. 
It was necessary here and now to show some level and bring results. Let's be realistic, there were no players who can immediately enter the CSKA system and show something like that for a long time. Probably the Swede was the last one. I realized that I can’t do that, and since my dream is to be in the NBA, I decided to move closer to this league, this Wednesday, to America. That's why I'm here, - says Vitya. 
In the summer, Lakhin himself did an MRI, which showed that he had ... a torn meniscus. He took the results of the examination to the surgeon who scheduled the operation. Vitya went for it and began to recover in Russia, and he came to the USA with an already operated knee. 
You leave Russia for any other country - even to America, even to Italy, even to Spain - and you go through the same thing, Lakhin believes. 
7 minutes average 
Youth League, Junior Team, Superleague… I knew the tournaments where we played: first the Southern Federal District, then the Russian Championship. When I found out that I was already in Moscow and had to go to the CYBL team for a tryout, I even got scared. But they left me, and I trained at CSKA for another four years. Then he played for the Russian national team U18 and U19, after which he received an offer to try himself in America. I decided to take a chance and moved there to the Prep school,” says Goldin. 
Goldin saw that this was a big and serious high-major team, saw the conditions for training and accepted their invitation without hesitation. 
7 minutes average 
When we were preparing for the Summer Spartakiad in Krasnaya Pakhra at the Trinta base, a coach from the USA arrived there. He was familiar with Alexander Antipov, because before that our guy had already played at the same school. He came just to relax, but he also wanted to look at the players. He probably liked me, and he invited me to school. I took the chance and got into high school. I spent 11-12 classes there, received several offers and decided that I would play in Appalachian State, says Glushkov. 
There he lived for a month, ate a lot and rocked. As a result, he entered the new season in excellent physical shape. True, the coach still does not really trust him. 
3% two-pointers, 37.8% three-pointers, 33.3% free throws), 3.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.3 blocks, 0.2 steals, 1.7 turnovers 
On the classifieds website, the family looked at a message from a Russian coach who lived there, his name was Boris Karebin. The coach was needed so that David would not just mess around in the States. 
Remember the story of Alex Kotov? This is the same league that prepares players who have not yet grown up to the NCAA. But already in the second year, Didenko ended up in the first division, at the University of Georgia. 
Most likely due to playing time, because, obviously, it was much more difficult to get it in Gonzaga. But even at the new university, he still has an average of 10 minutes on the floor and one and a half rebounds. By the way, about playing on the shields: the height of the Russian center is 213 centimeters, in America these guys are called seven-footers. 
Working with us, families save an average of 50-70% of the possible costs of teaching a child basketball player abroad. The savings are often in the tens of thousands of dollars a year. 
There are more than 1,500 universities in America, and basketball is available in almost every one of them. 
The only caveat is that studying in the USA is very expensive. 
Our company works with all of these leagues. 
The amount includes tuition at the university, accommodation and meals, a sports program. 
Nevertheless, the candidacy of each applicant and the possible amount of the scholarship must be personally discussed with each educational / sports institution separately. 
Further assessment of the athlete is carried out by the coaches of schools / universities / clubs, guided by our characteristics and the above-mentioned data on the athlete. 
There are no problems with visas now. 
