Translated material
Mass start
The draw for the ULEB Euroleague and the European Cup took place
The draw for the qualifying stage and the first group stage of the tournament of the best men's basketball teams of the Old World - the ULEB Euroleague took place in Barcelona, Spain. If for CSKA, which reached the Final Four of the continental club championship eight times in a row, the results of this procedure are not particularly important, then for the participants in the selection of Khimki near Moscow and UNICS Kazan they are very important.The first edition of the ULEB Euroleague, that is, the Union of European Basketball Leagues, took place in the 2000/01 season in parallel with the so-called FIBA Suproleague. Starting next year, a single club championship began to be held in the Old World, and questions no longer arose about which team was the strongest on the continent. As for the qualifying round, it appeared in the Euroleague only last season and then eight teams competed for two spots in the main stage. This time the number of clubs admitted to the selection has doubled. Khimki, which were full participants in the 2009/10 competition, have now received the status of “qualifiers”.
Based on the results of the draw, the selection grid looks like this: Alba (Germany) - Roanne (France), Gemofarm (Serbia) - Hapoel (Jalil, Israel), UNICS (Russia) - Groningen ( Holland), Nymburk (Czech Republic) -- Charleroi (Belgium), ASVEL (France) -- Buducnost (Montenegro), Le Mans (France) -- Banvit (Turkey), Khimki "(Russia) - "Caserta" (Italy), "Budivelnik" (Ukraine) - "Maroussi" (Greece). Since Russian clubs are in different halves of the bracket, and their designated and potential opponents are quite passable, it is very likely that there may be an unprecedented number of our representatives at the group stage - three.
Here are the results of the main draw. Group "A". "Caja Laboral" (Vitoria, Spain), Maccabi (Tel Aviv, Israel), "Partizan" (Belgrade, Serbia), "Prokom" (Gdynia, Poland), "Zalgiris" (Kaunas, Lithuania), "qualify" from the bottom of the net (potentially Khimki). Group "B". Olympiacos (Piraeus, Greece), Real Madrid (Madrid, Spain), Unicaja (Malaga, Spain), Virtus (Rome, Italy), Bamberg (Germany), qualifying from the top of the bracket (potentially UNICS). Group "C". Barcelona (Spain), Montepaschi (Siena, Italy), Lituvos Rytas (Vilnius, Lithuania), Fenerbahce (Istanbul, Turkey), Cibona (Zagreb, Croatia), Cholet (France) . Group "D". CSKA (Russia), Panathinaikos (Athens, Greece), Valencia (Spain), Efes Pilsen (Istanbul, Turkey), Armani Jeans (Milan, Italy), Olympia (Ljubljana, Slovenia).
Qualification will take place from September 21 to October 8. The first group stage will end on December 23, and the top four participants from each top six will advance to the next stage, “Top 16.” The second round will take place from January 16 to March 3, after which eight teams will compete for spots in the Final Four in a best-of-three playoff series.
“It’s hard to compare groups now, because the two winners of the qualification are not yet known, who can change the balance of power, and most of the teams have not yet decided on their lineups,” the official website of PBC CSKA quotes the commentary of the new head coach of the “red-blues” Serb Dusko Vujosevic. - Therefore, it will be easier to give an assessment at the end of the summer. However, I think that we were faced with a difficult option. For example, in my opinion, Panathinaikos is the strongest rival from the representatives of the second basket. As of now, we can say that Valencia and Olimpia will have a more difficult time in the coming season - the clubs are experiencing difficulties. Just like Efes Pilsen, which will have fewer quality basketball players, but at the same time I expect better team play from it. There is too little information about Armani Jeans right now.”
In the second most important European Cup, also held under the auspices of ULEB, but partly jointly with FIBA-Europe, the overall picture for Russian clubs from the outside looks somewhat strange. Objectively, the weakest of our participants, “Red Wings” from Samara (8th place in the Russian Championship), as a finalist of the least significant continental FIBA EuroChallenge tournament, was directly admitted to the group stage. But the capital's Dynamo (the fourth team in the country in the 2009/10 season) and St. Petersburg's Spartak (sixth position in the now defunct Super League) will have to go through the selection sieve. Dynamo will meet with Zagreb (Croatia) on September 29 and October 6, and Spartak will fight with the Greek PAOK at the same time. The losers of these and six other couples will go to the EuroChallenge, the victory of which is not taken seriously by anyone.
Joining the Volga team and nine other seeded clubs in the group stage of the European Cup will be eight winners of the qualification and 14 losers of the ULEB Euroleague selection. That is, theoretically, five of our teams can gather in the second continental tournament at once.
Krasnodar "Lokomotiv-Kuban" will definitely perform in the EuroChallenge. The winner of the Super League “B” Nizhny Novgorod will play an internal qualifying match with the Krasnoyarsk “Yenisey”, the Moscow region “Triumph” will meet with one of the foreign teams at the initial stage. Thus, 10 out of 10 teams included in the new Russian Professional Basketball League will compete in European competitions. Last year's record was broken, when all nine representatives of the Super League "A" division started on the international stage.