History

The history of Budivelnik started in 1945 after World War II, when veteran Vladimir Shablinsky have been demobilized from Soviet Army. 35 year old rookie coach formed a new team SKIF basing on the students of the Kyiv Sports Institute. For years it would become the greatest Ukrainian basketball club ever.

Having some teething problems caused by the war consequences, Shablinsky, however, showed himself as a talented scout. By 1953 he founded a number of prospects in Ukraine, particularly, recruiting Boris Vdovichenko, Vitaly Kovyanov, Nikolai Bagley, who became the team stars later. SKIF played three seasons in division B of the Soviet championship and finally qualified to the top competition. During some years Kyiv’s team became one of the leaders in division.

Shablinsky succeeded with SKIF, but he never stopped always trying to improve his team’s performance. He developed and implemented some tactical method which appeared to be revolutionary in European basketball. Particularly, he was the first coach in the Soviet Union who used zone press in defense and alley-oops in offense. The team style assumed to fast and smart game.

In 1962 SKIF faced the problem of losing of some players because they graduated from the Sports Institute. After getting a huge sponsorship from one of the building companies, SKIF was renamed to Budivelnik (Russian variant - Stroitel). In 1960-s the team used to be in the top-three of the championship. Budivelnik were two times silver and bronze winners being the great problem for the powerhouses such as CSKA Moscow, SKA Riga, Dynamo Tbilisi. But they never won gold medals.

However, in 1967 Shablinsky led Ukrainian Republic team, who were based on Budivelnik players, to the great win in the Soviet Spartaciade – a type of huge country-level competition such as Olympics. Ukrainian team posted 73:45 win beating Moscow team in the final.

Budivelnik had a number of world known players at that years - Vitaly Kovyanov, Nikolai Bagley, Vladimir Stremoukhov, Albert Valtin, Nikolai Poguliay, Leonid Poplavsky, Yuriy Vystavkin, Anatoly Polivoda. Some of them played in USSR national team at Olympics.

However, after the years on top Budivelnik felt to a kind of stagnation. After winning another set of bronze medals in 1970 Kyiv team managed to return to the third place just in 1974. Budivelnik suffered a number of problems with a roster after some players, particularly team’s captain Vitaly Kovyanov, called it a career. “The period from 1972 till 1974 was the toughest for me”, - remembered Shablisnky. – “The roster was strong enough but we had a lack of real team. We won bronze in 74, but we weren’t happy about that. My future as a coach was done: I was replaced by Aleksandr Klimenko”. However, Budivelnik’s players Sergey Kovalenko and Anatoly Polivoda had a big success winning the gold of Munich Olympics in 1972. These players became one of the club’s legends.

In late 1970 Shablinsky returned to Budivelnik as the assistant coach of team’s former player Vadym Gladun. They won silver medals in 1977. But in search of gold Budivelnik bosses changed the coaches. However, they had no big success: in 1979 Budivelnik finished with silver again.

In 1980’s Budivelnik stayed as a one of top-Soviet basketball clubs. The new coach Boris Vdovichenko, who played for SKIF in 1950’s, managed to gather a number of fine players. Such as Vladimir Ryzhov, Aleksandr Bielostenny, Aleksandr Volkov, Vladimir Tkachenko, Andriy Shaptala. Vdovichenko also made a deal with young Andriy Podkovyrov. By the gold season in 1989 Budivelnik won two set of silver and three of bronze. They finished after such powerhouses as CSKA and Zalgiris.

1980’s are also notable because of Budivelnik’s start in eurocups. In 1982 they had their debut in Korac Cup. Since that time they constantly participated in the European club tournaments. In 1987 Budivelnik were headed by Viktor Bozhenar which appeared to be crucial for the team history. After a season with CSKA Volkov returned to Kyiv, also they had a boost signing centers Yevhen Dolgov and Aleksandr Shevchenko, forward Vladimir Levitsky and guard Yevhen Murzin.

 “This was my best team ever”, - remembered Andriy Shaptala. “We had great mutual understanding, we formed plays on a court during the game. If we found free player he definitely scored a basket”.

From the very beginning of 1988-89 championship Budivelnik moved to the top. They beat all of their rivals with 15-20 points margin. They only suffered loss from Zalgiris with Rimantas Kurtinaitis and Arvidas Sabonis ahead. No wonder that Budivelnik and Zalgiris qualified to the gold medals best-of-two series.

Budivelnik beat Lithuanian team in the first encounter in Kyiv. They were up by six points by the end of the second game in Kaunas. However, Zalgiris managed to pull back – 87:87. With a few seconds till the finish Budivelnik had a chance to avoid the overtime. And they’ve done that! Volkov got the ball and without any hesitation made fantastic long-range shot with a buzzer – 90:87! But judges haven’t scored a basket calling overtime. Zalgiris finished with 98:93 win.

However, Budivelnik appealed against that decision. A day later on the Soviet Basketball Federation’s meeting was decided that Volkov made right shot and Budivelnik won the match! For the first time ever the team from Ukraine became Soviet champions.

In 1990 after the top players left a team Budivelnik were supplied with a bronze.

After the USSR collapse Budivelnik became the top Ukrainian club. They won six championships in a row. Budivelnik was coached by a future national team and Basketball Federation head Zurab Khromaev. Kyiv powerhouse had such a talented players as Ihor Molchanov, Oleksandr Lokhmanchuk, Leonid Yaylo, Ihor Kharchenko, Denis Zhuravliov, Oleksandr Okunsky, Volodymyr Kholopov, Gennadiy Uspensky and also the future NBA player Vitaly “Ukrainian Train” Potapenko.

In 1995 Budivelnik were headed by Gennadiy Zaschuk, who came from Mykolayiv team with a future Euroleague star Grygorii Khizhniak. In 1997 Budivelnik won the last set of gold. They beat Bipa Moda Odessa in best-of-five series trailing 0:2.

However, after facing financial problems Budivelnik fell from the top. In 1998 they won silver, next season they were supplied with bronze. After that Budivelnik never won the Ukrainian championship medals. Moreover, they suffered outsiders role at the early 2000-s. In 2004 they finished on the sixth position and that was the great success by that time.

By receiving great sponsorship from Privat Group Budivelnik changed goals. The great traditions of the top Ukrainian club in a history are being revived step-by-step. In 2008 Kyiv team were headed by the former Zalgiris coach Rimantas Grigas. In 2009 Budivelnik won UBL Cup and the silver medals of UBL championship.

In 2009-10 Budivelnik entered as a one of the gold medals challenger. They proved to be the strong team finishing regular season at the top with 24-2 record.  Budivelnik lost no games in play-offs until the finals, where they were stopped by Azovmash. Kyiv squad managed to tie the series but failed to win championship at home losing decider 70-77.

2010-11 season was the best in the last decades. Budivelnik changed the roster before the start inviting such well-known and experienced players as Andy Betts, Lamayn Wilson, Billy Keys, Dewarick Spencer and Zach Morley. Also the Builders signed with a former Barcelona assistant coach Josep Berrocal. Despite some difficulties at the beginning, Budivelnik had a great start in EuroCup beating strong Gran Canaria in away game. Lately Kyiv side entered the second round of the tournament and finished on the 1st position. However, in quarterfinals they were stopped by another Spanish team - Cajasol Sevilla. 

Meanwhile, in the Superleague Budivelnik fought against BC Donetsk to finish on top in the regular season. But we failed. Despite this, Budivelnik entered the play-offs final beating Dnipro (3-1) and Ferro (3-0). In the great encounter Budivelnik took the lead but lost the game 2 and 3. Then the Builders tied the series at home but failed to take the lead in Donetsk. Again in Kyiv they returned to the track and it was all about the deciding game 7 in Donetsk. Budivelnik started it well but then let BC Donetsk to retake and maintain the lead. The home side was ahead before the third quarter leading by 9 points. But Budivelnik came out with a big desire to win and led by Dee Spencer and Zach Morley they tied the game in the fourth!!! Andriy Agafonov grabbed the most important rebound in his career after Morley missed and poured the easy 2 points to the basket - Budivelnik lead by 5! Donetsk were down and finally Budivelnik beat them, 69-62!