Vova Pluzhnikov was the best possible first interview for this blog, unless by happenstance I was about to randomly encounter JJ Redick or Barack Obama. Vova is an international student-athlete playing basketball for the UNBC Timberwolves men’s basketball team. His smooth style of gliding around the court mixed with his 6’0 ft, 200 lb mass is a terrifying combination that is shown in his ability to speed to the rim or pull up in your grill from 30 ft out. I really got to know Vova in that first off-season we had together, especially through getting to battle with him in practice every day. We bonded over our desire to get our team to new heights next season, because we both realized it might start and end with us. As his dry sense of humour and occasional goofiness emerged, he was definitely becoming part of the family. Vova has a great story, as many international players do, but I felt like Vova hadn’t really gotten the chance to tell his yet. The Russian Military intervention in Ukraine is something Vova basically escaped from, coming to Canada was something he not only did for his future, but for his family’s future too. I’m blessed to be able to call this man a teammate and friend. He did so much for our team and for me specifically in my senior year. There are several things you need to know before reading this so I have provided detailed instructions on how and why this was formatted.
Reasons for Interviewing Vova
1. He’s currently averaging 21 points per game, 8 rebounds per game, and 5 assists per game. That is pure insanity. I got 5 assists in a game ONCE in my career and it was because the stats guy made a mistake.
2. He shares my love for the Backstreet Boys.
3. In their UNBC Timberwolves home opener this season, he had a triple-double (25 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, LIGHTWEIGHT). I interviewed him the next day and somehow managed to not bring that up? I’m not good at this.
4. One time he hit like 150 3’s without missing 2 in a row, it was a drill we were doing. I started off every single attempt by missing 2 in a row immediately, I’m supposed to be able to shoot it.
5. He pushed me to be the best player I could be, he did it for everyone. But for me specifically as someone who has had little confidence in his own abilities, he showed me what I was really capable of.
6. He has a full-on Chemistry degree, I totally forgot to format a question about that. Please ask him what his favourite element is next time you see him because he’ll hate it.
7. I think he used to legitimately dance? We confronted him about this once and couldn’t tell if he was being for real or not.
8. He’s on pace to break a ton of school records, see for yourself:
Format of This Interview:
Anyone can do a cardboard cutout interview with an athlete, it happens every single day. I wanted to balance that interview style by asking several hard hitting questions followed by a series of light hearted ones about our time together on the team. With some questions I included a follow-up inquiry to solidify the relaxed, conversational nature of our interview. Hope Y’all enjoy!
1. What were some of the factors that drew you to Canada? Or more specifically, UNBC?
Vova: It’s a really complex question to be honest with you, the main purpose of it was to get away from home, get away from the whole situation and the whole civil unrest. It started awhile ago back in 2013, I don't really want to get deep into politics and talk about the whole situation in Ukraine, but we went into another recession and the economic situation was tough. My Dad is a PE teacher and a swimming coach, so he ends up working a 12-13 hour shift each day, my mom goes to work and comes home and is still working on her laptop. Seeing that and realizing how much hustle that is, and how much work they put in, I just wanted to get away and basically give them a chance in the future to have a better life. Keeping that in mind, keeping my family in mind, and thinking about my future made me want to pursue a degree in a more developed country. I also just love basketball, I always wanted to be a part of an NCAA or Usports team just to experience a different side of basketball. I started playing professionally pretty early and never got a chance to play University basketball. The opportunity to play University basketball in Canada was too exciting for me, and I couldn’t really turn that down.
Marcus: When you found out that you were all set to come here, was it difficult to leave Ukraine?
Vova: It wasn’t as difficult as you might think, honestly the whole build-up behind the process of me being ready to leave my country gave me an idea on what the long-term goal was. Most people would struggle a lot more leaving their family and friends. Being able to hang out with your friends is a short-term goal, I needed to make that sacrifice to attempt to give my family a better life in the long-term.
2. What’s your favourite food you’ve had in Canada since you’ve been here, that you can’t get in Ukraine?
Vova: Oh man, Poutine, 100%. Can’t remember the first time I had it though.
Marcus: Montreal? (We went on a team trip to Montreal in 2016)
Vova: Might’ve been, The best poutine in PG is at Nancy O’s though, if you get the chance to go to Nancy O’s then you better be getting some poutine.
3. Approximately how many times did you try to murder me in the weightroom?
Vova: Listen, you asked for it. That’s what you get in offseason workouts with me
(Vova routinely refused to let me take weight off the trap bar deadlifts, once it goes on it doesn’t come back off.)
4. Chris Paul or Luka Doncic?
Vova: Oooo tough one, Chris Paul. Chris Paul in his prime.
Marcus: Ok, Chris Paul or Svi Mykhailiuk?
Vova: OOOOOHHH I wish I knew Svi a little bit better. Chris Paul still.
(Svi Mykhailiuk is a Ukrainian NBA player for the Detroit Pistons, he’s an elite level shooter who deserves more minutes god damn it.)
5. When you first got to Canada, was there much of a culture shock when you came here?
Vova: Good question, a lot of people ask me about that. I feel like before coming here, I prepared myself pretty well. I put a lot of work into learning the language, and I also felt that I’ve always known that the European/Ukrainian culture wasn’t really for me. I wouldn’t say I felt singled out ever, I’m not a super introverted person by any means. Some parts of the culture were not really for me, I was always watching American Tv shows and American Movies growing up. I was never really a part of the culture back home, so when I came here I was like hell yeah, this is exactly how I pictured it.
Marcus: How much did Dan Stark mitigate any of your discomfort in coming here?
Vova: His help was just tremendous, from day one. He was literally the first person I met when I landed in Prince George, anyone who knows Dan is aware that you really can’t put a price on that.
Marcus: One hell of a guy to set the tone hey?
Vova: I’m really grateful to call this guy my friend. He showed me the best spots in Prince George, he showed me the ropes about how Canadian life works. He told me everything about the student-athlete life and helped me make so many connections. It might be the most important part of our relationship, because if I didn’t have him I don’t meet people that helped me get a job or make new friends.
(Dan Stark is one of our teammates from UNBC who Vova has lived with since he came to Canada. Within one week of living with Dan, Vova sent a photo to our group chat saying he was too busy to come hang out. The photo was him and Dan holding toy shotguns with weird Opera-style Bird masks on. I love Dan.)
6. What’s your favourite moment so far in a UNBC uniform?
Vova: Man, beating Winnipeg in their own gym to get our first ever playoff win. The whole team effort and everything that went into that game, you can’t beat that. I feel like we share the same moment?
(We absolutely do.)
7. Describe the City of Brandon Manitoba in one word.
Vova: Ugly
(He had a lot more to say about Brandon, but one word is enough to get the picture.)
8. When you coach kids, or when you run camps for kids, what’s one value you want them to have after playing under you?
Vova: Every time I step on the court to coach, I always want to share the mentality of work ethic. Once you enter the gym, nothing else matters. You have to focus, especially in those camps when it’s not exactly about teamwork all the time. I really put a lot of emphasis on focusing on every single detail, always pay attention, and how to actually work really hard. It’s so important for kids to develop that work ethic and mentality from a young age. Everything becomes so much easier later in life if you have a solid work ethic. This doesn’t only relate to basketball either, It helps a lot in the classroom and everything else you want to do in life.
9. Who’s better going to the rim? You or your girlfriend?
Vova: Oh man, Madi is insane, I keep telling people that. She averages more points per game than me so the answer is definitely Madi, she’s a force.
(Vova’s GF = Madison Landry on the UNBC women’s basketball team. Madi is averaging 19.3 ppg this year on 54% fg shooting, I’ve barely ever shot 54% in a singular game before.)
10. What’s your favourite trip we ever went on?
Vova: Montreal, hands down. I’m never going to forget that trip, it was insane.
11. Who’s the hardest player you’ve had to guard in Usports?
Vova: Lawrence Moore.
Marcus: GOOD ANSWER. He’s a different type of terrifying for a guard.
Vova: When we went to Sask, keeping that guy in front of me was exhausting. Their game plan was pretty much to feed him the ball and watch him dance. 80 minutes that weekend of trying to stay in front of him is nearly impossible. Props to him man, he can straight up hoop.
12. How is the outlook on this season for the UNBC Men’s team different than it has been in years past? You have such a different collection of guys than you are probably used too, especially with the amount of freshman and sophomores who have to play big minutes. I don’t want to say that there are different goals in place this season, but can you explain the learning curve a little bit?
Vova: Yeah definitely. One of the most important things at the start of this pre-season was having the older guys give as much knowledge as possible right away. Just to make them understand the expectations of playing on this team, and what they are going to need to do out on the floor as 1st and 2nd year players. We lost a lot of experienced and talented guys that last 2 years, and now we have to play with a little bit more pace, find some easier buckets, ease the younger guys into playing minutes. It’s definitely a little bit more of a grind this year, it’s just about understanding the game and your strengths and weaknesses a bit more, which is something younger guys struggle with. We made an emphasis to be positive 100% of the time this year though, so when one of the young guys takes a bad shot or something, we’re doing better at rolling with that and maintaining positivity and encouragement. They’re still coming around to the idea of how to be “role players”, but the experience will be really good for them.
13. Either from past or present, which teammates have the worst and best sense of fashion?
Vova: Yikes, Listen ok.
Marcus: I’m fully expecting you to say me that’s ok
Vova: Nah, I was gonna that you and James Agyeman have the best sense.
Marcus: REALLY? WHY? I was fully expecting you to be like “nah man, you have the worst sense, you dress like shit.”
Vova: For different reasons of course, I like your drip on the floor. When people give you shit for wearing colorful socks and stuff I love it man. James in a more sustainable sense has great style.
Marcus: Worst dressed?
Vova: Aw man, I’m going to get on Chris’ head man. This guy wears the same outfit every single day, he needs to expand his arsenal a little bit.
(Chris Ross is a lovely human being who’s widely known as someone who is going to be an excellent dad, but he also dresses like an excellent dad.)
14. If you had to compare your game to an NBA Player, who comes to mind first?
Vova: Growing up I really wanted to be a Chris Paul type of guy. I’m ready to take the heat for this but I’m going to say Kyle Lowry. He’s got the heart of a champion, and you can’t really say no to that, man has a ring now. A couple years ago I wouldn’t have said that, but now that I have grown up a bit, I fully appreciate everything Kyle Lowry does for his team. Everything you really need from a point guard, he’s got it.
(Never forget that KYLE LOWRY IS AN NBA CHAMPION BABY.)
15. Quick one, Lebron or Jordan?
Vova: Jordan, all day.
16. On a scale of 1 to 10, how mad were you when Rhys called you Vodka by accident?
Vova: 11, unacceptable.
(Rhys Elliott is an Aussie teammate of ours who got way more Austrailian the more beer he consumed. Beer may have been involved here.)
17. Describe some of the main differences you’ve experienced between North American and European style of basketball
Vova: Just the pace. Dan Kopf can support me on this one. When he came in for his first practice this season that’s the first thing he told me that the pace was nuts. I remember my first year here it felt like we were pushing the ball on every single possession trying to get downhill. European basketball is a little more organized, and less hectic. Players spend more time in half-court sets and trying to create advantages out of that. The pro basketball scene in europe is definitely super physical, a bunch of old dogs are trying to rip you apart either in practices or games.
(Daniel Kopf is the UNBC team’s newest import from the Czech Republic)
18. What’s the number one thing people don’t understand about being a student-athlete? If you had to outline just one thing that people don’t get about playing University sports, what would it be?
Vova: I think people underestimate the time management, we put in so much more work on this floor than people understand. 2-4 hours a day spent on the floor, add this to whole schedule you have without basketball (work, school etc.), you have to sleep, study, cook for yourself. All of those things add up, and all of a sudden you have a situation where we did the time management lesson with Todd, DO YOU REMEMBER THAT?
Marcus: I definitely do
Vova: We wrote down the hours we commit to things in our life and deciphered how much extra time we had to study, I ended up with -2 hours on my equation. You have to be so well organized, student athletes just don’t have time man. No one really gets enough credit for going through 5 years of this.
(The time management session we had with our head coach was one of my favourite memories for so many reasons, the giggling that ensued because all of us got a negative amount of free time on our timetables was priceless. The only locker room meeting that could even compare to this was when we tried to organize our class schedules for favourable practice times, it was like herding cats.)
19. Who are some of your role models in your basketball career or just in life in general? And maybe a couple of things that they taught you?
Vova: Role models, hmmm. I kinda want to just give shoutouts to a few people that have really helped me since I came here. I obviously touched on how much Dan Stark means to me, he set a really good example on how to work hard, having a full-time job while playing his last year is a super difficult thing to do but he wanted to make it work. He came through for us despite his schedule being so crazy. Man I could name everyone from the squad when I was red-shirting in 2016-2017. So I’m just gonna mention guys like Marcus MacKay, Sam Zhang gave me rides pretty much everywhere. Austin Chandler is like one of the most social dudes, Todd picked me up from my house on one of my first days and Chandy was in the car. This guy was asking me all sorts of questions, I’m like man my English ain’t that great yet, I could barely answer. That first year was an awesome experience though, guys like Saje, Anthony, Neal all were so inclusive. Y’all made me feel at home, it was so easy for me to just take it all in.
Marcus: :’)
20. What are some things you would want kids to know who have desires of playing University basketball?
Vova: Just to highlight one thing, I kind of mentioned the importance of working hard. I think that in this case though, consistency is a super important concept. You have to be able to come in on Monday at 4 pm, step on the floor, put everything else aside, and concentrate on the next 2 hours. On Tuesday, 9 am lift, you walk into that room and Dave is waiting for you, you listen to dave, put the work in, you don’t complain, you don’t think about the midterm you have tomorrow, you just suck it up and YOU F*CKING WORK. You come in later on Tuesday, you’re thinking “oh my back is sore, oh I’m hurting”, no, f*ck that. You have 12 other guys out on the court demanding you to show up ready. You have to be ready to stay in game mode 24/7.
21. Describe how cut-throat playing professional basketball in Europe is.
Vova: A lot of guys ask me about this, and it’s really important to understand the whole system behind it. High school basketball isn’t really big in those european countries, so if you’re good, you get recruited to a sports school. These are schools that literally focus on individual sports, so you go to this school where you don’t pay to play basketball, and it creates a lot of competition. It creates this feeling of knowing there are so many kids that fight for the same spot that I play in, and if I don’t play hard, I might as well go home. If you want it bad, you really have to work at it. From a young age you’re recruited to these sport schools, I’m talking like 12 years old. For me, I had to be on the same team as way older guys, I was playing with 18 year olds when I was 13. You eventually get noticed by a big basketball club if you’re deemed talented enough, these clubs have their own schools that they recruit you too. They try to tie you up with long-term contracts, even when you’re 13, they’re trying to get you to sign your life away. You’re parents usually don’t know enough about this if they didn’t play sports, so if they assume you want to play basketball then they’ll sign it for you. It’s actually part of Alex Len’s whole NBA story, when he went to Maryland in the states, he was still under contract in Ukraine for one of these clubs he signed with when he was a kid. He got on a plane to go to Maryland without his club back home even knowing he was gone. He basically said that he wasn’t going to go back, he wanted to be at Maryland. Unfortunately, kids in europe get tied up in this sort of stuff all the time. When you turn 15, a lot of the time you’re playing on a squad with 30 year olds, and those guys are super physical. A lot of players end up giving up when they turn 18 or 19 because of the intense system. If you want to succeed playing basketball over there you have to fight so hard, if you get intentionally elbowed in the face, you have to be willing to give it back to them, you have to fight for your spot on the team. This is how you build the respect of your older teammates, create the image of yourself being a fighter. It’s just what you have to do if you want to succeed, no one is going to take it easy on you.
22. What are some of your favourite Artists/Albums/Tracks right now? Rap, Hip-Hop, doesn’t matter. Shout out whoever you want.
Vova: Listen, Anderson.Paak is my guy, I love that guy. Dan introduced me to his stuff, he’s got some much of that good shit. I love JCole, I love Kendrick Lamar, DAMN is definitely one of my favourite albums. I love Hip-Hop for sure, but listen, Coldplay? Those are my guys, I need someone to get me tickets. I want to see them live so bad, big Linkin Park fan as well, listened to them a lot back home.
Marcus: Someone reading the blog right now please buy Vova some Coldplay tickets.
Huge shoutout to Vova for taking the time to let me interview him, I had a blast and y’all should closely follow his career over the next 2 years.
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