Tomorrow January 18, 2012 Basketball Euroleague 2011/2012 Top 16 is starting. The favorite teams have all qualified even if Emporio Armani Milan did it literally at the last minute. The NBA lockout is over so some players left their European teams.
Let’s take a look at the Top 16 groups.
Group E
Olympiacos Piraeus
CSKA Moscow
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
Galatasaray Istanbul
After the horrible Euroleague of the last season, CSKA Moscow showed they want to be back to the top finishing the regular season undefeated and Andrei Kirilenko will remain in the team. Olympiacos Piraeus didn’t have extraordinary results but I think it will be the second team in the group to go to the quarter-finals so the two Istanbul teams will be eliminated.
Group F
Bizkaia Bilbao Basket
Unicaja
Real Madrid
Montepaschi Siena
The group seems almost a subset of Liga ACB with three Spanish teams. Of these, however, only Real Madrid was convincing leading their regular season group. I think that the other team going to the quarter-finals will be Montepaschi Siena, which has some problems with injuries but has an excellent team chemistry so players who usually come from the bench can give a good contribution as members of the starting five as well.
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Group G
Fenerbahce Ulker
Panathinaikos Athens
Emporio Armani Milan
Unics Kazan
The group is balanced considering that Emporio Armani Milan struggled at the beginning to put together so many new players but is slowly finding some chemistry. Actually it seems to me the most balanced group: all teams have a chance to go through and in the end the ones who’ll find the best shape will prevail. In my opinion the teams that will go to the quarter-finals will be Panathinaikos Athens and Fenerbahce Ulker.
Group H
Bennet Cantù
Zalgiris Kaunas
Maccabi Electra
Regal FC Barcelona
Maccabi Electra and Regal FC Barcelona seem definitely the favorites to go to the quarterfinals. Bennet Cantù achieved an excellent result reaching the Top 16 with a team that’s a bit small for the Euroleague and Zalgiris Kaunas gave the impression of reaching the Top 16 mostly because some teams in their regular season group group were just weaker.
As always, may the best teams win! 🙂
