19 September, 2017
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Basketball Champions League Regular Season set for tip-off

MIES (Basketball Champions League) - The 32-team Regular Season for the Basketball Champions League tips off this week with every side having just one thing in mind.

Borrowing from one of the most used of sporting clichés, clubs will be taking a one-game-at-a-time approach that hopefully ensures each progresses to the Play-Offs.

So what's different about this, the second edition of the Basketball Champions League? With eight less clubs in the Regular Season, the top four in each of the four groups will advance to a Round of 16 and the clubs that prevail in those showdowns will move on to the Quarter-Finals.

Both the last 16 and the last eight will be home-and-away ties with the aggregate score deciding the winner.

The Final Four will be staged May 4 and May 6.

"We're really enthusiastic to build on last year's inaugural edition," said Patrick Comninos, the Basketball Champions League Chief Executive Officer. "The excitement for our second season has been growing across Europe ever since the Final Four weekend in Tenerife back in April, which was very well received. We are now looking to build on the success of the very first season and demonstrate the impact of the Basketball Champions League."

There are new outfits in this year's competition. Defending champions Iberostar Tenerife will not be Spain's only representatives. There are also UCAM Murcia and Movistar Estudiantes.

While Murcia's finish in the 2016-17 Spanish Liga Endesa campaign gave them a spot in the Regular Season, Estu had to win a Qualification Round 3 clash against Donar Groningen of the Netherlands.

That home and away tie was so close that the Madrid side needed overtime in the second leg because the aggregate score had been level after 80 minutes.

There are a lot of new and very good teams taking part, but also some excellent sides returning, like last season's runners-up Banvit, Final Four sides Umana Reyer Venezia and AS Monaco Basket and of course, champions Iberostar Tenerife.

The Canary Islanders will go into the clash after a narrow home defeat to defending Spanish Liga Endesa champions Valencia Basket.

Umana Reyer go into this season's competition flying high, winners of the 2016-17 Italian title and fresh off a 79-78 triumph over Aquila Basket, a result that improved the club to 2-0 on the domestic front. Monaco are back with a lot of ambition, looking to improve on their third-place finish.

Their excellent shooting guard, Sergii Gladyr, can't wait to get started against a visiting Juventus Utena, a Lithuanian outfit that advanced from the Regular Season in 2016-17. Utena won a Qualification Round 3 tie against Lukoil Academic to make it back to the second edition.

"We have our plan and we must follow it," Gladyr said. "If we execute coach's (Zvezdan Mitrovic) ideas in the right way, we can manage to win. Everything starts from defense.

"Also, it will be very important to keep the rhythm the entire game, avoiding ups and downs."

Monaco go into the contest on the back of a big home triumph over ASVEL in France, a clash Gladyr's side won, 83-68.

"We would extremely appreciate if we will have as great fan support as we had on Sunday against ASVEL."

Gladyr is back after a solid first season in the Basketball Champions League

Mitrovic is fired up to return to the Basketball Champions League battles though he anticipates a tough first game.

"We are not in the best situation due to short break between ASVEL and Utena games," he said.

"With Juventus, we must stay focused all 40 minutes. If you have seen, during the first qualification game in Bulgaria agaist Lukoil Academic, they were down by 16 points after the third quarter but managed to turn the game into opposite direction in the end while winning the 4th quarter by 17 points.

"Defensively, we must pay attention on the perimeter as Utena has shot 43.5% from 3-point range. Their game depends a lot on Anthony Ireland, who can energize the team."

Unlikely Monaco, the Lithuanians have endured a poor start to their domestic season, losing their first five games.

"Juventus have had bad start in Lithuanian league but, of course, they will try to look different in BCL, especially as they are used to having a good experience last year when they have managed to start their European campaign in qualification round and ultimately reached the play-offs."

I am looking forward to another season of intense, high-level competition which provides amazing entertainment for fans in arenas and watching on TV and which provides a great experience for all the players and their clubs.Comninos

Estu are coming off a sound beating at home to Gipuzkoa Basket, who won 92-75. It was not the type of result that coach Salva Maldonado was looking for before his team hit the road to play at AEK Athens, another side set to play in the Basketball Champions League for the second time.

There are plenty of big games this week, including a Gaziantep clash with newcomers Capo D'Orlando, an MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg home game against PAOK, a contest of last year's Final Four sides Umana Reyer Venezia and Banvit, a Besiktas v Sidigas Avellino showdown in Istanbul and a Dinamo Sassari/Pinar Karsiyaka tilt in Sardinia.

An indication of how successful the first edition of the competition was is that so many teams decided to play again.

"We are delighted that all but one of last year's teams who qualified for the 2017-18 season have chosen to return and play in the competition and the merit-based qualification system means that Basketball Champions League will again feature national champions, or the next most successful available clubs from all over Europe, not just a handful of leagues," Comninos said.

"I am looking forward to another season of intense, high-level competition which provides amazing entertainment for fans in arenas and watching on TV and which provides a great experience for all the players and their clubs."