08 October, 2019
04 October, 2020
Basketball Champions League Power Rankings: Volume 6
28/11/2019
Long Read
to read

Basketball Champions League Power Rankings: Volume 6

MIES (Switzerland) - Basketball Champions League is back, which also means that our Power Rankings are here to stay, too. The format remains the same as last season, domestic results are taken into account, because you can't view this as an isolated competition, but as part of what a basketball team is going through all season long, in all competitions, all the time.

32

Only team without a win in the Basketball Champions League. Mornar Bar are powerless, which is not a good thing when you open up something called Power Rankings.

31

Nothing positive to say about Polski Cukier Torun's defense when they allow 125.1 points per 100 possession, five points worse than anybody else in the Basketball Champions League, 30 points worse than league leaders ERA Nymburk in that department.

30

More plaudits are headed towards VEF Riga, but not because of their play. It's because of Arturs Kurucs, who is one of our four early season candidates for the Best Young Player award.

29

Just here to tell you that Juvonte Reddic is as big of a beast across Social Media as he is on the floor. Falco Szombathely are enjoying his confidence, but it seems that they are slipping down the standings here after back-to-back defeats.

28

Something is wrong with Besiktas Sompo Sigorta. They lost to Neptunas Klaipeda 86-80 in the Basketball Champions League. And followed it up with a defeat to Tofas in Turkey. Which wouldn't be all that weird, but the final score there was... 86-80!!!

27

FIVE STRAIGHT WINS FOR SIG STRASBOURG! But in the French League. Three straight defeats for SIG in the Basketball Champions League...

26

Filou Oostende just need to win one away from home in the Basketball Champions League. Until that happens, they will be flirting with 20s, when it happens once they will be in 10s, and once they collect two wins on the road, they are gunning for Top 10 here.

25

Nicolas De Jong suffered a horrific injury which will see him miss the rest of the Regular Season. That kind of a blow may just be too much for EB Pau-Lacq-Orthez, who were already down at 2-4 even before the big guy got injured.

24

Eppur si muove! And yet it moves, that's what PAOK fans must be thinking after their team won three of their last four games in all competitions. By comparison, they had just two (YES, TWO) wins in their previous 11 games this season. It moves.

23

You know how they say that it will take a certain time for a team to get used to the new coach and the new system? Well, Telenet Giants Antwerp are the epitome of that thesis, because they were in the upper half of the offensive rating ranking last season, and are now in the bottom five, putting up just 100.6 points per 100 possessions. Work in progress, I guess...

22

Gaziantep probably have the top play of the season so far. That's all you need to know.

21

Don't look now, but Lietkabelis are among the hottest teams we have in this field here. They've got four straight wins, out of nowhere, because they were only 1-5 over the previous six games.

20

Young teams usually do that, can't focus on two competitions at the same time, so when Teksut Bandirma are defeating people in the Basketball Champions League, they were losing in the Turkish League. And now that they are losing in the BCL, they are dominant in Turkey, so much so that they are 7-2 over the nine games played there. Impressive! Now time to turn the 2-4 to at least 4-4 here...

19

Five game losing streak for Nizhy Novgorod in all competitions. Keeping them in Top 20 here because they are 3-3 in here, still looking really good in terms of Round of 16 tickets. Yes, it's time to talk about Round of 16 tickets already.

18

Good news for Peristeri winmasters? They have the third best defense of the competition, if you consider the defensive rating as the ultimate measure of good or bad defense.
Bad news for Peristeri winmasters? They have the fourth worst offense of the competition, if you consider the offensive rating as the ultimate measure of good of bad offense.

17

Here you go with the most unlikely stat of the season: Casademont Zaragoza have the lowest offensive rating of the competition, getting 98.6 points per 100 possessions. With all the offensive talent over there, it's crazy that they never made it past 78 points in a BCL game.

16

Here you go with the most unlikely opinion of the season: UNET Holon, despite having one of the hottest arenas with one of the hottest crowds all over Europe, are actually a better road team than a home team. They are 1-2 at home, 2-1 on the road.

15

I'm just here to show you this amazing video of San Pablo Burgos fans on the road. Oh, and to tell you that the best way out of a six-game losing streak is to win three straight, like Burgos just did.

14

Happy Casa Brindisi are 5-1 over their last six games. Adrian Banks is now their all time leader in points scored in the club history, he was the MVP of the week in Serie A, and he'd probably win by a landslide if he ran for mayor in Brindisi. Still, Happy Casa needs to become Happy Bus because they will not get that far in this competition if they don't start winning on the road. 

13

What!? Anwil Wloclawek in 13th!? Yes. Because that's the reward you get when you defeat Bandirma in Turkey.

12

Telekom Baskets Bonn would've been Top 5, but it's impossible to ignore their 1-7 record in the Bundesliga. I already told you that Bonn usually played great in Germany and not so great here, but this season, it's the other way around. It's like the Bizarro Jerry episode of Seinfeld.

11

BAXI Manresa would've been Top 5, but it's impossible to ingore their 1-4 record over the previous five games in all competitions. Also, Manresa's 4-2 record still needs to be taken with an asterisk because all four wins came at home, both defeats came on the road. So in theory, they are still just another 7-7 team at the end of Gameday 14.

10

Neptunas Klaipeda are 9-1 over their last ten games in all competitions. So this is probably their best version yet, even though they have already been an impressive team in the Basketball Champions League over the previous seasons.

9

JDA Dijon will probably be happy to see November end. They went 6-1 in October, but fell to 4-4 in November, including 1-4 since November 12. Wake me up when September November ends.

8

For the first time ever Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem lost two straight games in the Basketball Champions League. Nice to know that they bounced back in the most satisfying way possible, by defeating arch-rivals Maccabi Tel Aviv in Tel Aviv in the Israeli Cup. That win alone is worth keeping them in Top 10 despite a two-game slide.

7

AEK are 7-1 over their last eight games in all competitions. They could've been 8-0, but...

6

...they faced one of the biggest surprises of the competition, named Rasta Vechta. Huge win in Athens, that will help them move past the fact that their five game winning streak in Bundesliga ended over the weekend. It's okay, they are still looking way better than during their 0-3 start to the season. 

5

Speaking of looking better than at the start of the season, here's Brose Bamberg in fifth spot. Started 0-2, up to 4-2 now in the Basketball Champions League, looking once again as the team to beat. But get this. Even though they are fifth best team of the entire competition, according to these Power Rankings, of course, they are only the third best team from Group C.

4

One of the reasons why Bamberg are fifth - ERA Nymburk. Eight straight wins. In fact they are 56-4 in 2019. Only teams to defeat them: Antwerp in January, Hapoel Jerusalem in January, Bamberg in February, Tenerife in November. That's a good year right there.

3

Best newcomer of the season? Turk Telekom have been dominant in Group A, losing only away to Manresa by five, winning all the other games while posting offensive rating of 112.3 and defensive one of 101.3, giving them the third best difference between the two, trailing only ERA Nymburk and...

2

...Dinamo Sassari! The Italians are +12.2 over their opponents over 100 possessions, they are 5-1 in the Basketball Champions League and 6-3 in Serie A, so all the numbers are going their way. Manresa are coming to town on Gameday 7, that could give the Italians a chance to climb all the way to number one in these Power Rankings next time we publish them. 

1

Death, taxes, Iberostar Tenerife wins in the Basketball Champions League. Things you can't avoid. Since early October, Tenerife won 11 of their 13 games, with the two defeats being a one-point one against Baskonia, in a game which saw them miss multiple go-ahead shots over the last minute; and the other defeat was 77-73 away at Joventut when they had troubles with their flights and only made it to the hotel way past midnight. So long term, if you want to defeat the islanders, you have to hope for a traffic jam or wild mistakes in closing seconds. Good luck, people. Good luck.


*The power rankings are entirely subjective and is in no way a true, accurate ranking systems. All comments are purely those of the author.

Igor Curkovic

Igor Curkovic

Igor Curkovic is Basketball Champions League's writer and editor since day one of the competition, specializing in Live Blog coverage of the games and sorting out the teams on Mondays, in the Power Rankings. When he's not watching basketball, he's commentating Croatian Second Division soccer games for TV.