7days EuroCup 2018/2019
EuroCup is second best competition in Europe under coverage of ULEB. EuroCup's first phase is the Regular Season, in which 24 teams participate. Each team plays two games (home-and-away) against every other team in its group. After the regular season, a number of teams cut to Top 16 and they are sorted in four-team groups. The group winners and runners-up advance to the third phase, the Playoffs. Each playoff series is best-of-three, and the winners of each series advance to the next round until finals.
The winner of EuroCup is qualified for next season Euroleague.
Number one favorite for winning a title is Valencia. They are a team with most titles wined in the history of the league.
Spanish club knows how to win this championship and they are great contenders even in the Spanish national league. Valencia Basket has reached an agreement with the American power forward Mike Tobey, shooting guard Matt Thomas while shooting guard Rafa Martinez and Valencia Basket have reached an agreement so that the captain continues linked to the team entity one more season, until June 30, 2019. So the next season, Rafa will begin its eleventh season in an orange jersey.
On the other side, the club has released Tibor Pleiss. It would be surprised if this experienced team doesn't win the league, but there are also other great teams to watch like Crvena Zvezda, Unicaja, Lokomotiv Kuban, Zenit, UNICS Kazan.
Crvena Zvezda MTS last 3 years played in Euroleague, but this year they are trying to get back through EuroCup. Club has announced new coach Milan Tomic, ex Olympiacos assistant coach.
Although the club is having financial problems, we can expect a great squad with good players.
Every year team lunch some young player, we will see who is going to be this year. The main question is will Taylor Rochester stay in the club or the club will need to find a new team leader.
One more great Spanish team with good chance to win this year championship. Unicaja has sold team best player Nemanja Nedovic to Olimpia Milano but they signed great Brian Roberts. Last year he played in Olympiacos, where reach the Euroleague Playoffs. Also, the club has announced the signing of Jaime Fernández for three next seasons and Kyle Wiltjer also from Olympiacos.
Lokomotiv Kuban is last years finalist of EuroCup. Coach Obradovic will probably stay in the club but he will have a lot of things to do and to rebuilt team squad completely.
The club has left Russian forward Denis Levshin, Ivan Nelyubov, Lithuanian forward Jonas Maciulis, Joe Ragland, Frank Elegar, Mardy Collins, Brian Qvale, Chris Babb and at the end club’s best player Ryan Broekhoff keeps his career going in NBA. Australian forward Ryan Broekhoff signed a contract with Dallas Mavericks.
Although the club has made first steps when it comes to signing player, the newcomer is a 29-year-old power forward J. J. Johnson. Last season, the American played for 2017 – 2018 EuroCup champions Darussafaka.
This is going to be one of the best EuroCup seasons so far. Many great games are expected. Who will go to next year Euroleague!?