Andrei Krivonos, GW class of 1998, Wins a thriller at Euro Challenge Cup

Big win in the Challenge Cup for my former teammate and current Minsk-2006 Basketball Club head coach Andrei Krivonos.

Belarus #1 team started this basketball season on a very low note, loosing some key games in the VTB United League against the leading teams of Russian and Lithuanian Championships. Andrei, however, was able to turn things around and propel his team to two (2) consecutive victories in European competition.

Last Tuesday, Minsk-2006 had a blood-and-sweat victory over the visiting Telecom Bonn in Minsk Arena, when the team was trailing for 3/4 of the game and then overcame the deficit in the last quarter due to coach-inspired performances of local players. And, finally, in the second round game Minsk-2006 prevailed in Turkish city Izmir, where it was victorious against local powerhouse Karsiaka. This game developed, however, in a different fashion where Belarusians were leading all the way and were up by as many as 18 points. Currently, Minsk-2006 is on top of group G and will be hosting ex-NBA  Mehmet Okur's Turk Telecom next week.

Andrei Krivonos defending vs Kansas in 1996

CONGRATULATIONS ANDREI AND THE TEAM!
 
Check out the full article about the game on FIBA-Europe.com

FRESH FROM GW TODAY NEWS WIRE: THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!

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Yegor Mescheriakov

A Basketball Star Returns

After 11 years, former Colonial Yegor Mescheriakov comes back to finish his GW degree.
April 18, 2011
By Brad Bower

He first arrived in Washington during the fall of 1995 with a 10-word English vocabulary. He took nonstop English classes along with study halls and meetings with tutors. He even took part in preseason karate practices that began at 7 a.m. followed by more classes and three-hour basketball practices.

Fans who attended George Washington basketball games during the late 1990s will tell you he was one of the best players to ever don the Buff & Blue. In fact, he is the youngest member of GW’s All-Century Team, an unofficial list of the best players in GW basketball history that was compiled in 2001.

He is Yegor Mescheriakov (“YAY-gor Mes-SHARE-a-kov”), a lanky man from Minsk, Belarus, who played under former GW coach Mike Jarvis from 1995 to 1999. A rarity in the college game, he earned a bachelor’s degree prior to his senior season and returned to the team to play the 1998-99 season as a graduate student while pursuing a master’s degree in tourism administration.

The American Life: Playing Basketball for GWU Colonials

After winning the gold medal in European U22 Championship in Slovenia, I spent another season playing in Belarus and won second consecutive National Championship with the local team RTI Minsk becoming a top scorer and MVP of 1994-95 season. I was still a teenager - just under 19 years of age - when I got a call from George Washington University coaches and, barely speaking English, understood their interest in bringing my friend Andrei Krivonos and me over to the GWU Foggy Bottom campus in U.S. Capital.

My teammates and I never got paid for playing basketball in Belarus back in those days so we were able to safely transfer ourselves (and our college credits) into the entirely new environment - NCAA. To say that we were ready for the American adventure is an understatement; we were eager to prove to ourselves and to the rest of the world that we belonged! We were fully aware of difficulties ... and yet we totally embraced them.