By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
The 2019-20 Basketball Champions League is set to kick off today (15/10) at 18:00 CET in what shows promise to be the most exciting season yet in the competition history.
Previous champions, as well as title-contenders – such as Iberostar Tenerife, AEK, and Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem – have stayed for another season to repeat or finally make it to the top but they won’t only have to worry about the old faces.
Plenty of teams (11 to be exact) have risen to the occasion and made it to the BCL regular season for the first time, and some of them have the firepower to make a splash.
Here are the squads to keep an eye on, in no particular order:
Casademont Zaragoza
It may be Zaragoza’s debut, and it may have been three years since the last time they played a European competition, but the Spanish squad’s arrival to BCL has been highly anticipated, and they are considered to be one of the strongest title contenders.
And for a good reason. Last season, they made it to the Spanish League playoffs and got past Baskonia in the quarterfinals (2-0) before losing to Barcelona. This year, they started with three out of four wins while they also had a great preseason beating teams like Tenerife and Real Madrid.
Robin Benzing, Nicolas Brussino, and Nemanja Radovic started strong for Zaragoza, but the squad’s got depth and championship experience with D.J. Seeley, Renaldas Seibutis and Fran Vazquez.
Happy Casa Brindisi
The Italian team finished fifth last year in the Italian League regular season but fell against Dinamo Sassari in the quarterfinals.
However, don’t let the fast playoffs exit fool you since the squad came back even stronger this season, and it already shows. They won three out of four games in Italy with the last two coming against EuroCup and EuroLeague teams in Olimpia Milano and Brescia.
Key players? The three times Israeli League All-Star and 2018 Sixth Man of the Year in Adrian Banks will have a say without a doubt. Kelvin Martin, who won BCL last year with Virtus Bologna, will be right behind, followed by Tyler Stone, John Brown, and Darius Thompson.
Peristeri winmasters
Peristeri will not only debut in BCL, but they are set to play in a European competition for the first time in 15 years.
They had a great run last season in the Greek League, finishing second in the regular season and fourth after the playoff losses against Panathinaikos and AEK. They started this season strong as well with three wins in three games and have a balanced roster ready to step on the big stage.
Will Hatcher, 35, will, without a doubt, be a significant factor in the squad due to his three-season BCL experience with three different teams (Partizan, Dinamo Sassari, PAOK).
The 35-year-old captain Panagiotis Vasilopoulos will also help lead the team while Moses Kingsley, who played with Telenet Giants Antwerp last season, which made it to the BCL Final Four, might be up for a breakthrough.
Another Spanish team made the list, and although San Pablo Burgos finished 11th in ACB last season, they have been showing that they earned the place in BCL.
They made it through the qualifiers past Kyiv Basket in a convincing manner while they also won all three of their games in Spain so far.
The Brazilian duo of Vitor Benite and Augusto Lima lead the way for Burgos along with some of the best scorers in Earl Clark in Thadd McFadden.
Turk Telekom
Turk Telekom will debut in BCL, but they had some experience on the European stage in EuroCup last season, although it ended in the group stage.
They’ve had more success int Turkey finishing seventh before getting eliminated by Fenerbahce (2-1) in the playoffs, and Fener is also the only team beating Turk Telekom in the first three games this season. Galatasaray and Afyon weren’t as lucky.
The Turkish team has changed significantly and has a young roster at the average age of 25. Nonetheless, their starting five won’t be an easy task for any defense – Terrance Campbell, Nick Johnson, R.J. Hunter, Kyle Wiltjer, and Moustapha Fall.
Honorable mentions
Six squads didn’t make the cut, but don’t think that they won’t have a significant impact this year. EB Pau-Lacq-Orthez is a French team with a big tradition and will aim to win their first European title since the FIBA Korac Cup in 1983-84.
RASTA Vechta has had a fantastic run in Germany last season and will make the BCL debut as will VEF Riga, BAXI Manresa, Falco Szombathely, and Polski Cukier Torun.