Euroleague Dates 2006/07:
10.24.2006 - 02.02.2007. Two-round regular championship.
February-March 2007. Top 16: 4 groups of 4 teams (5 clubs are selected from each bullet in the regular season, plus the best of the sixth).
April 2007. Quarter-finals according to the scheme 1-1-1 (2 clubs from each group of the Top-16 are selected).
May 4-6, 2007. Final Four in Athens (Greece).
Group A: Dynamo Acceleration
TAUGRES (Vitoria, Spain)
Start: Prigioni, Erdogan, House, Chipped, Peker.
Reserve: Rakochevich, Planinic, Splitter, Vidal, Teletovich, Nikola, Fayardo.
Head coach: Velimir Perasović (Croatia).
The Basque club from year to year pleases the fans with a stellar cast. This season Tau invited Zoran Planinic from New Jersey, pulled Igor Rakochevich from Real Madrid, and, according to the official version, signed legendary veteran Marcelo Nicola because of health problems with Skola, Peker, Splitter and Vidal. Although, rather, for the collection.
OLYMPIAKOS (Piraeus, Greece)
Start: Penn, Matsiyauskas, Zizic, Stack, Schorzianitis.
Reserve: Mulaomerovich, Domercant, Aker, Harissis, Barlos, Vasilopoulos.
Head coach: Pini Gershon (Israel).
The "Reds" are not allowed to sleep calmly in the laurels of their neighbor and Panathinaikos' main rival. Because the club made, perhaps, the two most high-profile off-season acquisitions. First, the team was led by the legendary Pini Gershon, who decided to leave Maccabi. Secondly, Olympiacos acquired in the past the best Euroleague sniper Arvydas Matsyauskas, who did not have a career in the overseas New Orleans. True, Matsas due to injury will be able to enter the site only after the New Year, but even without him, the defensive pair of Skuni Penn (ex-Zibon) and Henry Domercant (ex-Ephesus Pilsen) remains one of the fastest in the Old World .
EFES PILSEN (Istanbul, Turkey)
Start: Jenkins, Nicholas, Granger, Hayslip, Kurtoglu.
Reserve: Akyol, Prkachin, Gonlum, Ermis.
Head coach: Oktay Makhmuti.
"Brewers" conducted a "spot" selection. Moreover, the points turned out to be bold: having retained the core of the roster, the Turkish club acquired the best Euroleague-05/06 snipers Drew Nicholas and the ULEB-05/06 Horace Jenkins Cup. The protection was strengthened by a special on block shots Marcus Hayslip.
CLIMAMIO (Bologna, Italy)
Start: Hamann, Belinelli, Bluetooth, Mancinelli, J. Thomas.
Reserve: Edney, Yevtimov, Schumpert, Janichenox.
Head coach: Fabrizio Frates.
The main objective of one of the most stable clubs in Europe was to keep the stars of the Italian national team Marco Belinelli and Stefano Mancinelli. When the plan was successful, the Bolognese fortified the reserve with the Euroleague-99 champion in the Zalgiris team, Tayes Eddie (the veteran was not needed by the rebuilt Olympiacos) and the young Latvian Kristaps Janicenoks.
SOPOT (Poland)
Start: Hamilton, Dalmau, Masulis, Vuychik, Besok.
Reserve: Hukich, Nordgaard, M. Andersen, Atkins, Dylevich.
Head coach: Eugeniusz Kievski.
Poland’s most successful club of the last five years has learned to win in the Euroleague, participated in the Top 16 and is eager to take the next step. Suppose that there are no first-class stars in its composition, but the selection of performers is good enough not to be afraid to change the top five to top five. The main acquisitions of the Sopotians are defender Justin Hamilton, forwards Jasmine Hukic and Donatas Slanina, and center Hussein Besok, which they have forgotten about in the last couple of years.
DYNAMO (Moscow, Russia)
Start: E. Gill, Hansen, Monya, Fotsis, Popadopulos.
Reserve: B.Popovich, Domani, Ivanov, Rachevich.
Head coach: Dusan Ivkovic (Serbia).
Debutants of the Euroleague made several high-profile acquisitions, having got Sergei Monya, one of the best European snipers Travis Hansen, who was fired from Sacramento and had no time to play in the disbanded Dynamo St. Petersburg Eddie Gill (ex-New Jersey). On the other hand, the other day, the “blue and white” unexpectedly parted with former leader Mire Chetman. According to the official version - the playmaker was not working out in defense, according to the real one - he was in conflict with Ivkovich ...
Le Mans (France)
Start: Amagu, Bogavats, Gregory, Campbell, Nitsevich.
Reserve: Bokolo, Agivanu, Skelin.
Head coach: Vincent Cole.
The future outsider of the group will not cause problems to the giants. Its staff is staffed by the hopes of the French national team and experienced “big” ones like Sandro Nitsevich and former Moscow army team Mate Skelin.
RHINE ENERGY (Cologne, Germany)
Start: Mallet, McElroy, Burrell, Grunheid, Gortat.
Reserve: Najfegi, Talts, Shlivanchanin.
Head coach: Sasha Obradovic (Serbia).
The German club, also debuting in the Euroleague, will fight with Le Mans for the penultimate place. The main star of the “power engineers” is their coach, who, alas, will not go to the site.
Group "B": restructuring of the giants
MAccabi (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Start: Bynam, Halperin, Buford, Arnold, Vuychich.
Reserve: Elyahu, Yasaytis, Sharp, Green, Burshtein, Chason.
Head coach: Neven Spahia (Croatia).
Without lowering the requirements for results, the club conducted a major restructuring. Partly not from a good life. The legendary coach Pini Gershon left, Tel Aviv left the main playmaker Willie Solomon, and one of the most striking European basketball players Anthony Parker is now working off his preseason at Toronto.
Who was added? Young point guard Will Bynam, who did not cling to the Golden State base, Rodney Buford, who played a lot for Philadelphia and starred in Panathinaikos and Lithuanian station wagon Shimas Jasaitis. Pini was replaced by Gershona, one of the continent's top coaches Neven Spahia, who, without hesitation, began to build up the established schemes of the two-time Euroleague champions. The Croatian specialist so far behaves as if he is caring for the future of the Israeli team: yesterday’s leaders of the local youth Lior Elyahu and Yotam Halperin appear on the first roles in his composition.
PANATINAIKOS (Athens, Greece)
Start: Diamantidis, Bechirovich, iškauskas, Tsarsaris, Tomashevich.
Reserve: Delk, Hatsivretas, Dikudis, Papanikolau, Yavtokas, Alvertis, Baptiste.
Head coach: Zeljko Obradovic (Serbia).
The beginning of the offseason strained the fans of the "green": both star defenders of the starting five - Yaka Lakovich and Vasilis Spanulis left. But the club management did not allow to be sad: the couple was replaced by Sani Bechirovich and Tony Delcom, at the same time acquiring Dimos Dikudis, twice recognized as the best defending player of the Euroleague, and Lithuanian collections Ramunas Siskauskas with Robertas Javtokas. Now Zeljko Obradovic again faces the difficult task of fashioning the champion team out of so many new recruits.
UNIQUA (Malaga, Spain)
Start: P. Sanchez, M. Brown, I. Welsh, Jimenez, Santiago.
Reserve: F. Petrus, Cabezas, Rodriguez, De Miguel, E. Lorbeck.
Head coach: Sergio Scariolo (Italy).
Newly-made champions of Spain want to achieve something worthwhile in the European arena. It will not be easy for them only at first: the injury left the top scorer in the history of the Euroleague Marcus Brown out of the game. But the newcomers are good - Jiří Welch bid farewell to Milwaukee and Carlos Cabezas of Spain with Inaki de Miguel.
CYBON (Zagreb, Croatia)
Start: Kus, Warren, Wright, Andrich, Bader.
Reserve: Manz, McCullough, Krasic.
Head coach: Drazen Anzulovich.
Never at the time of the Euroleague's existence, a club lacking stars from the sky will now be just an average person showing Europe new Croatian talents. The most titled rookie - MVP ULEB-2005 Cup Brent Wright.
OLYMPIA (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Start: Arslan, Milich, Ozbolt, Yurkovich, Kuzminskas.
Reserve: Rannikko, Markoishvili, D. Lorbek, Maraker.
Head coach: Tomo Mahorich.
The forge of basketball talent is going through hard times. Not only that, the club's management was struck with nostalgia, returning coach Tomo Máhorić and Slovenian legend Marco Milić to their native land. An important acquisition was the opening of the World Cup Ender Arslan. Young Sasho Ozhbolt, who also flashed in Japan, will attract a lot of attention.
PARTIZAN (Belgrade, Serbia)
Start: Cummings, Tripkovich, Kechman, Drobnyak, Perovich.
Reserve: Tepich, Bogdanovich, Pekovich.
Head coach: Dushko Vuyoshevich.
All the hopes of the champions of Serbia are assigned to the mature new generation - Uros Tripkovic, Costa Perovic and Luka Bogdanovich. The presence of the “uncles” of Predrag Drobnyak and Vontigo Cummings, who already performed leadership roles among the “partisans” last season, and the acquisition of another promising player, Milenko Tepich, will help young people.
LOTTOMATICA (Rome, Italy)
Start: Hawkins, Ilievsky, Bodyrog, Harry, Moiso.
Reserve: Righetti, Mavrokefalidis.
Head coach: Jasmine Repesa (Croatia).
Let the Romans not shine against the backdrop of the Phoenix, but by European standards they are capable of feats. Especially when you consider the acquisition of a player with the label of a hero - Dejan Bodiroga - and the eminent coach Jasmine Repesi.
HOWENTUD (Badalona, Spain)
Start: Bennett, P. Vasquez, Barton, Gaines, Betts.
Reserve: Archibald, R. Fernandez, Rubio, Sullivan.
Trainer: Aito Reneses.
The winner of the FIBA-05/06 Euro Cup wants to return the title of the best team of the continent as quickly as possible in the mid-90s. The most interesting player of the team that practically saved last year's squad is the offender of Russian juniors, the European champion at his age, the phenomenal Ricky Rubio, who can debut in the Euroleague at the age of 15.
Group C: Army Training Ground
CSKA (Moscow, Russia)
Start: Vanterpool, Holden, Smodis, Andersen, Savrasenko.
Reserve: Papaloukas, Langdon, van den Spiegel, Ponkrashov.
Head coach: Ettore Messina (Italy).
Repeating an achievement is always more difficult than winning for the first time. Therefore, the task of Ettore Messina is to maintain a victorious mood, sports hunger of the wards. Fortunately, the composition remained almost unchanged - with the exception of Captain Sergey Panov, who had hung sneakers on a nail, and Anton Ponkrashov, a young playmaker who had arrived.
Barcelona, Spain)
Start: Lakovich, Navarro, De la Fuente, Caciuzis, Marconato.
Reserve: Basile, Ukich, Kasun, F. Vasquez, Grimau.
Head coach: Dushko Ivanovic (Serbia).
The main competitor of the army team spent the off-season to strengthen the position of the most important positions. Two classroom dispatchers were invited at once - Yaka Lakovich and Roko-Leni Ukich, plus they managed to lure the lanky Mario Kasuna out of Orlando.
BENETTON (Treviso, Italy)
Start: Lidei, Zisis, Soranya, Gori, J. Bird.
Reserve: Mordente, Fram, Gigli, Nelson.
Head coach: David Blatt (USA / Israel).
The team of the head coach of the Russian national team, not making it to the quarterfinals of the previous playoffs, ended the season on a major note, becoming the champion of Italy. And now David Blat intends to drink blood from CSKA with the help of recruits Angelo Gigli, Terrell Lidea, Spencer Nelson and Richie Fram. At the same time, the core of the team, built around Nikos Zisis, Marcus Gori, Matteo Soranyi and Marco Mordente, remained the same.
FENERBAHCE-ULKER (Istanbul, Turkey)
Start: Solomon, D. Mrsic, Kutluay, Onan, Clark.
Reserve: Turkan, Flounder, Erden.
Head coach: Aydin Ors.
Now you can’t even say that the bankrupt Ulker disappeared from the Euroleague horizon. With the support of the same confectionery company and using the composition of the broken team, where Ibrahim Kutluay and Mirsad Turkan came from, the new Fenerbahçe is ready to follow victorious traditions. The transition from Willie Solomon's Maccabi will also contribute to this.
ZHALGIRIS (Kaunas, Lithuania)
Start: M.Popovich, Ginevicius, Penny, Mottola, T. Bird.
Reserve: Machado, Yankunas, Šilinskis, Stimac, Kalnetis.
Head coach: Ainars Bagackis (Latvia).
After the shock of last season, when the famous Kaunas club failed in the Euro 16 Top League (not a single victory!) And Lietuvos Rytas was defeated in the domestic championship, a lot of money was spent in the offseason to form the squad. In the past, Moscow Dynamo Hanno Mottola is obliged to help in scoring, and the transfer will be given to him by Marco Popovich. Marcelo Machado had high hopes, but the Brazilian rookie after an injury will return to duty a month and a half later. And close the embrasure at this time will be an experienced New Zealander Kirk Penny. Remained in Kaunas Tanoka Bird, which at 35 years old remains one of the best centers of the Old World. Naturally, Kaunas fans will worry about local pupils - Mantas Kalnetis, Paulus Yankunas, Jonas Matsyulis and Darius Šilinskis.
PO-ORTHESIS (Pau, France)
Start: A. Miles, Harrison, R. Greer, M. Wright, Mainmy.
Reserve: Ruper, Johnsen, D'Almeida, Fatou, Fershaw.
Head coach: Gordon Herbert (Finland).
The average composition of the Gascon club at the last moment was understaffed with good Americans - Aaron Miles and Michael Wright. For leadership in the championship of France at the disposal of a novice trainer Gordon Herbert there are enough forces. But you should not count on more.
ARIS (Thessaloniki, Greece)
Start: Castle, Panteliadis, Massey, Wilkinson, Yannulis.
Reserve: Abdul-Rauf, Serapinas, Kalaicis.
Head coach: Andrea Mazzon (Italy).
The first participation in the Euroleague in the Euroleague over the past ten years will be remembered only by entering the site of the scandalous "grandfather" Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, whose contract with the club will be renewed ... monthly!
NAPOLI (Naples, Italy)
Start: T. Brown, Larranaga, Moranda, Sisei, Chittadini.
Reserve: Fluttering, Rocca.
Head coach: Pierluigi Bucci.
It’s unusual to see an Italian club as an outsider, but you have to. The surprise of last season in the form of a victory in the Italian Cup and participation in the semi-finals of the national championship, which brought a ticket to the Euroleague, is unlikely to be repeated at a higher level.
Nikolai TSYNKEVICH