MIES (Switzerland) - The Basketball Champions League Season 8 tips off next week. A total of 32 teams will fight for glory, with Telekom Baskets Bonn coming back as the defending champions.

We will preview all the Regular Season action, group by group. We start  with Group A, which includes Unicaja, Peristeri bwin, Le Mans Sarthe Basket and Falco Vulcano Szombathely.

The favorite

Last season saw Unicaja reach the Semi-Finals and host the Final Four, but they could not climb to the top step of the podium. Most of the crew is back for another run, and that Spanish Cup run back in February serves as a constant reminder that Unicaja are in it to win it - not just in the BCL, but in the Liga Endesa and the Copa del Rey, too.

Coach Ibon Navarro had one major departure over the summer, with club legend Dario Brizuela joining FC Barcelona. One major arrival also occurred though as Kameron Taylor is back for his third Basketball Champions League stint, after playing with Brose Bamberg in 2019-20 and SIG Strasbourg in 2021-22.

A slow start in the domestic league will just fuel even more motivation into this club to get off to a quick start in the BCL and look for the cruise control drive to the Round of 16.

The underdog

They have won four Hungarian championships since 2019, including the last three in a row, and they are entering their fifth straight BCL Regular Season, with one Round of 16 appearance back in 2022.

However, Falco Vulcano Szombathely will still enjoy their role as the underdog, leaving others to be the focus of attention.  They can issue a reminder though that this is a team which has regularly defeated bigger names, especially in that fortress of their home arena.

Coach Milos Konakov kept the core of his team together. He intends to build around the available Hungarian talent, with Matt Tiby being the only American player on this roster, next to 10 Hungarian players, a couple of guys from Bosnia and Herzegovina natives and one Croat player.

The crucial matchup

If Unicaja are the hot favorites to win the group,and Falco Vulcano Szombathely are the underdogs, it's only logical that Peristeri bwin and Le Mans Sarthe Basket's head-to-head matchups will have major Round of 16 and Play-In implications.

Le Mans are back for their third BCL campaign, following a couple of Round of 16 appearances, in 2017 and 2019. Coach Eric Delord has one of the youngest rosters in the League since Wilfried Yeguete as a 32-year-old is the oldest player by some distance, and four players were born in 2001 or later.

Peristeri's biggest star is their coach Vasilis Spanoulis, who was also named the Greek national team head coach in October. The Peristeri roster has gone through major upgrades over the summer, with a clear message to the fans that they feel they belong in the top 16 of this competition.

To make matters better, Le Mans Sarthe Basket will face Peristeri bwin on the very first day of the new season, Tuesday, October 17. Every point matters in this format of competition, from October to December especially.

Players to watch

Unicaja have their usual suspects back: Kendrick Perry, Alberto Diaz, Melvin Ejim, Tyson Carter, Tyler Kalinoski, Yankuba Sima, Nihad Dedovic, David Kravish, Kameron Taylor, Dylan Osetkowski and Will Thomas are all well known names in European basketball.

Peristeri bwin brought in arguably the best BCL point guard of the last couple of seasons in Joe Ragland, surrounding him with former PAOK mateco standouts Elijah Mitrou-Long, Jaylen Hands and Nate Renfro, also adding former AEK sharp-shooter Kenny Williams. Meanwhile Nemanja Dangubic, Leonidas Kaselakis and Vassilis Xanthopoulos offer more international experience.

Le Mans Sarthe Basket don't mind handing everything over to DeVante' Jones. The American point guard opened up his account in France by averaging 15.0 points in just 22 minutes per game across the first six encounters of the 2023-24 Pro A campaign, while Williams Narace and Nate Mason also know how to get the job done in terms of scoring.

Falco Vulcano Szombathely's identity revolves around their MVP candidate,  Zoltan Perl. The 28-year-old Hungarian shooting guard is often around the 15-5-5 stat line, and the fact that he's a Szombathely native makes it even better. Keep an eye on Antonio Jordano, a Croatian sharp-shooter capable of hitting 5 or more threes in a single game.

Format reminder

The winner of Group A will move straight to the Round of 16 Group I, joined by Group E winner (EWE Baskets Oldenburg, Filou Oostende, Pinar Karsiyaka or SIG Strasbourg), and two Play-In winners.

The second- and third-placed teams in Group A will advance to the Play-Ins in January and will cross paths, respectively, with the third- and second-placed teams in Group B (BK Opava, JDA Bourgogne Dijon, Promitheas Patras, or Rytas Vilnius),  in a best-of-three series.

The bottom-placed team in Group A will be eliminated from the competition, ending their European run in December.