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On October 11, 2012, the Euroleague 2012/2013 starts. The first game won’t be played on Monday like in the last seasons and above all the games will be generally played on Thursday and Friday. The idea is to reduce the overlapping with the football European cups games. Only time will tell whether this is a good idea or there are too many problems for the teams in their national championships.
Technically the Euroleague started at the end of Semptember with the qualifying rounds but this year only eight teams were involved for one berth in the regular season so inevitably the intererest was more reduced than ever.
The format was modified. The regular season is still a round-robin with 24 teams divided in 4 groups each playing 10 games. What changes is that the best 4 teams of each group advance to the Top 16, a second round-robin where the best 16 teams are divided in 2 groups of 8 teams each and each team plays 14 games. The best 4 teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals which are played in best of 5 games series. The winners will play the Final Four.
Group A
BC Khimki Moscow Region
Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul
Mapooro Cantù
Panathinaikos Athens
Real Madrid
Union Olimpija Ljubljana
Panathinaikos Athens and Real Madrid seem to be the two best teams in the group but BC Khimki Moscow Region, the winner of the last EuroCup, and Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul, which reinforced with players such as Bo McCalebb, David Andersen and Romain Sato, don’t seem far behind. Last season, Mapooro Cantù played a great tournament but for the Italian team and Union Olimpija it will be very difficult to reach the Top 16.
Group B
Alba Berlin
Asseco Prokom Gdynia
Elan Chalon-Sur-Saone
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv
Montepaschi Siena
Unicaja Malaga
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv and Unicaja Malaga seem to be the best teams in the league. Montepaschi Siena changed several important players and the newcomers must prove they’re at the same level but the team should be able to reach the Top 16. The other three teams will play for the last place on the Top 16 and I think ultimately Asseco Prokom Gdynia will be the one to go to the next round.
Group C
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
Caja Laboral Vitoria
Cedevita Zagreb
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
Olympiacos Piraeus
Zalgiris Kaunas
Olympiacos Piraeus and Caja Laboral Vitoria seem to be the best teams in the league. Anadolu Efes Istanbul don’t seem far behind and EA7 Emporio Armani Milano wants to reach at least the quarter-finals. If these teams don’t have problems during the regular season, I think they’ll be the ones to go to the Top 16.
Group D
Besiktas JK Istanbul
Brose Baskets Bamberg
CSKA Moscow
FC Barcelona Regal
Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius
Partizan mt:s Belgrade
CSKA Moscow and FC Barcelona Regal are two teams that aim to win the Euroleague and are definitely the strongest of the group. The other four will play for the other places in the Top 16 and I think Besiktas JK Istanbul and Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius will be the ones to go to the next round but I wouldn’t be surprised if the qualifications were decided at the last game.
As always, may the best win! 🙂
