MIES (Switzerland) - The Regular Season and the Play-Ins are over, and it is now time to focus on the Round of 16. Four groups of four teams each, with the top two teams in each group moving onto the Quarter-Finals.

The Basketball Champions League Season 8 wastes no time, and the Round of 16 starts already next week. That gives us just enough time to introduce the four groups, answering the four crucial questions. Let's look at  Group J.

		GAMES				GAME POINTS					POINTS
#	Team	P	W	L	%	For	Agt	+/-	FA	AA
1	JDA Bourgogne Dijon	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Telekom Baskets Bonn	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Galatasaray EKMAS	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

JDA Bourgogne Dijon (France)

How did they get here?
Five wins, one defeat in Regular Season Group B, storming clear towards first place even before the last gameday.
Have they been here before?
Third place in 2020, Round of 16 in 2022 and 2023.
What's their biggest strength?
Everything is much easier when David Holston is playing basketball. The legendary point guard has led JDA Bourgogne Dijon to an offensive rating of 116, making them one of the top offenses of the entire BCL.
What's their biggest weakness?
Coaches love to shout "BOX OUT!" and with Dijon this takes a whole new level. JDA win just 59.7 percent of all rebounds available under their own rim, meaning they are pretty vulnerable to offensive rebounds, second-chance points and points in the paint.

Telekom Baskets Bonn (Germany)

How did they get here?
Three wins, three defeats in Regular Season Group F, winning the first ever 3-3 group in BCL history. The points difference made the difference, Bonn could've easily been bottom of the group, but their +24 margin sent them to the top of the group instead.
Have they been here before?
They are the reigning champions! And they had another Round of 16 appearance in 2020.
What's their biggest strength?
Defense, collective effort, and coming up with 8.4 steals per game as they are in the top five of the BCL in that category.
What's their biggest weakness?
Sharing the ball is problematic for the title holders. Last season, they had TJ Shorts II to orchestrate the offense and dish out assists at will, but this season, they scored only just 57.7 percent of their points on assists. Only three teams had a worse assist percentage this season.

MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg (Germany)

How did they get here?
Three wins, three defeats in Regular Season Group D. That earned them homecourt advantage in the Play-Ins, where they faced Darussafaka Lassa and won the series 2-1.
Have they been here before?
Third place in 2022, fourth place in 2018, Quarter-Finals in 2017. First time they made it back to the Round of 16 in the post-John Patrick era, with coach Joshua King calling the shots now.
What's their biggest strength?
Jayvon Graves is one of the best stories of the BCL season. The 25-year-old is in his second European season, and after struggling to break double digits in Limoges in 2022-23, he's in the MVP running in the BCL in 2023-24. He is on a run of five straight games with 20+ points and 5+ assists at home, testing TJ Shorts' record of six such games in a single season. Graves is now averaging 19.2 points, 5.7 assists and 4.7 rebounds in Season 8.
What's their biggest weakness?
Expect them to shoot a lot. On their day, they can hit 18 threes in a single game and blow out any opponent, but the trouble is that sometimes it's not their day. True shooting percentage suggests they are actually the worst Round of 16 team, standing at 50.5 percent. In fact, BK Opava were the only team with a lower true shooting percentage this season (46.5).

Galatasaray EKMAS (Turkiye)

How did they get here?
Three wins, three defeats in Regular Season Group G, not enough to get homecourt advantage for the Play-Ins. It did not matter, as they stunned a 5-1 Bertram Derthona Tortona team, sweeping them 2-0 to reach the Round of 16.
Have they been here before?
They've made the Round of 16 in 2022 and 2023, but are yet to reach the Quarter-Finals of the Basketball Champions League.
What's their biggest strength?
Sharing is caring. Galatasaray EKMAS are the best passing team in the entire league this season, with 84.4 of their 100 possessions ending with an assist. No other Round of 16 team is above 73 in that category.
What's their biggest weakness?
Defense. They aren't exactly the worst defensive team in the world, but allowing 111.2 points per 100 possessions is far from where coach Zvezdan Mitrovic wants them to be for the season. They'll need to get it down to 105 or lower if they intend to book their first trip to the elite eight.