By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
With two different groups and 13 rounds to go, it’s time to rank again the 7DAYS EuroCup clubs, not only using their spots in the standings so far but also by taking a look at what they have done after the first five games of the season.
Different groups means also that sometimes you have to compare apples to oranges. That’s why Eurohoops has an unofficial rule of no more than a six-spot change in the rankings, positive or negative, depending on the results.
And in total, we have three teams making the full jump forward and one making a huge step backward. As the EuroCup jumps back into action, it’s time to take a look again at the contenders.
20. Dolomiti Energia Trento (0-5) –
There’s not much to add here compared to the first edition of the Power Rankings. Trento hasn’t had a win yet and has the worst point deficit (-68) compared to any team in the league.
19. Slask Wroclaw (0-5) -1
No win yet, so they lost one more spot, but pretty much they are in the same situation since the start of the season. However, it has to be noted that they lost their last three games by an average of 3.3 points, so they can hope for better days.
18. Veolia Towers Hamburg (2-3) -1
They started the season with a bang, beating Buducnost, but since then, they have only managed to beat Slask, so they need to do better.
17, U-BT Cluj-Napoca (2-3) -3
They are solid but simply put, there are better teams than them so far in the competition. Practically, what pushed them three spots behind is the defeat to Lietkabelis.
16. London Lions (2-3) -1
The Lions have two wins over Hamburg and Trento, so it’s clear they need to do more to improve.
15. Ratiopharm Ulm (2-3) -3
What applies to Cluj-Napoca applies also to them. They can do better, but the jury is not out yet on them, plus they lost to Lietkabelis.
14. 7Bet Lietkabelis Paneverzys (2-3) +2
They have the same record as Cluj-Napoca and Ulm, but they did beat them. So for the moment, they have to get at least some credit for that, jumping a solid two spots forward
13. Paris Basketball (3-2) +6
They have had an impressive start to the season and a positive record. So they deserve to get the biggest jump forward available according to our unofficial six-spot rule. The hard part for Paris will be to remain in this position.
12. Germani Brescia (2-3) -5
In theory, they should have performed better, but they have a negative record and that’s why they dropped out of the top eight. On paper, they are a better team than their record suggests so far.
11. Buducnost VOLI Podgorica (3-2) -1
Buducnost is pretty much where they started, pushed back one position due to losing to teams ranked much lower like Hamburg and London.