MIES (Switzerland) - Season 8 of the Basketball Champions League has  reached the Quarter-Finals phase. The Final Four is less than three weeks away, meaning it's time for another Power Rankings update.

We are trying to rank all eight teams based on their overall performance, not just their BCL record. That means that their domestic league results are also taken into account, because you'll feel better about a team that won 10 straight games overall, than about a team that won two BCL games, but lost eight games in their domestic championship.

You can revisit the previous editions of the Power Rankings here: Volume 1 |  Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4 | Volume 5 | Volume 6 | Volume 7 | Volume 8 | Volume 9 | Volume 10.

#8 Promitheas Patras (-1)

BCL record: 9-6
Domestic championship record: 14-9

This is nothing personal, Promitheas. It's just a matter of having no luck at all in the Quarter-Finals draw, and ending up against the hottest team in all of Europe right now. Anyway, keep the series alive and we'll talk next week about moving up the rankings.

(Or down, in actual fact. Since we're going 8-to-1 not 1-to-8 here.)

#7 MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg (-1)

BCL record: 8-8
Domestic championship record: 16-11

Horrible timing to go on a three-game losing streak, Giants. Horrible timing. First such streak since October, too. Even more horrible. Do-or-die now.

#6 Peristeri bwin (-1)

BCL record: 8-7
Domestic championship record: 16-8

Peristeri were up on Olympiacos on the road at the start of the fourth quarter over the weekend, so that's something. They lost the game, making it back-to-back defeats after that seven-game winning run we praised last week. Another thing about that Olympiacos game though is that role players like Nikos Chougkaz and Stelios Poulianitis stepped up and scored in double figures. Keep an eye on them in Game 2 against Bonn.

#5 Tofas Bursa (+3)

BCL record: 6-10
Domestic championship record: 10-16

Now wait a minute. A team that is 1-9 over their last ten games is fifth here!? A team with a combined 16-26 record in their two major competitions!? What is going on here? Let's try to rephrase it this way: Tofas were so close to upsetting Lenovo Tenerife on the road last week, they just deserve to be climbing up this ladder. See, here at Power Rankings HQ, we value the effort, not just the end result.

(But we still value the end result, too. That's why they aren't a top-four team.)

 #4 UCAM Murcia (=)

BCL record: 10-3
Domestic championship record: 18-10

Don't you just love it when teams include long-term plans into their system? Murcia have started doing the same thing Unicaja did about a year ago, just handing out new contracts to the players that have clicked perfectly with the club and the fans. You know how much that stability and job security means to players these days? You don't!? Well Murcia's 2025 could be similar to Unicaja's 2024, which is not by accident. Long-term planning is criminally underrated in modern sports. Anyways, this is our way of saying: Congrats, Murcia and Troy Caupain, for renewing your vows!

#3 Lenovo Tenerife (=)

BCL record: 9-4
Domestic championship record: 18-10

You know, one of these days, Tofas Bursa are going to be as stubborn as always, they'll stay attached to Lenovo Tenerife for 40 minutes, and then Marcelinho Huertas won't be around to win another game against the Turkish rivals, inflicting more heartbreak into Tofas fans' hearts. One of these days. Just not any time soon.

#2 Telekom Baskets Bonn (=)

BCL record: 9-4
Domestic championship record: 16-11

Here, give it a click, because Telekom Baskets Bonn have figured out the Ragland Riddle. Or have they? You know, those things are next to impossible to figure out anyway. But Bonn figured it out, surely. Right? They have Ragland right where they want him? Maybe they just figured it out for a game then...

#1 Unicaja (=)

BCL record: 11-2
Domestic championship record: 23-5

Just here to tell you that as of this weekend, Unicaja are (1) the only BCL team with 11 wins, (2) the new leader of the Spanish Liga Endesa, owning the tiebreaker over Real Madrid with just six games to play in the Regular Season, and (3) most importantly (obviously!), still the leader of the Power Rankings.

They are currently on their fourth streak of five or more wins in 2023-24. FOURTH! Yes, that's five or more wins in a row, FOUR times. Four, cuatro, vier, quatro, ოთხი, четири, četiri.

(That's in English for Ejim, Kalinoski, Carter and Taylor, Spanish for Barreiro, Diaz and Sima, German for Dylan Osetkowski, Portuguese for Augusto Lima, Georgian for Will Thomas, Bulgarian for David Kravish, and Montenegrin or Bosnian for Kendrick Perry and Nihad Djedovic, respectively.)

 
With those four streaks of 5+ wins, Unicaja are on pace to have another season with 40 wins or more. They had one last year already, back-to-back 40-win seasons happened only once in club history, back in 2000-01 and 2001-02. That's what we're witnessing here.

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