MIES (Switzerland) - Season 8 of the Basketball Champions League is one step before the halfway point of the Round of 16, so  we are headed towards the crucial stage of the season, meaning it's time for a Power Rankings update.

We are trying to rank all 16 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 Volume 1 by clicking this link. Then, you can find Volume 2 here. Or, if you don't like really old news, just visit the latest edition, Volume 3 right here. The last checkup was in early December, Volume 4.

Finally, Volume 5 was the last one to feature all 32 teams that played in the Regular Season. Last week, we had Volume 6 after the first Round of 16 games.

#16 AEK BETSSON BC (-2)

BCL record: 5-3
Domestic championship record: 7-10

Could it be? Could we witness the first ever four-game losing streak by AEK!? UCAM Murcia are coming to Athens this week, that's as tough of a matchup as there can be, but the Queen will rely on some positive numbers to avoid a negative record. Over the last ten games at home, AEK are 9-1. A win over Murcia would not only save them from their longest losing slide in BCL history, but also propel them back into the battle for the Quarter-Finals.

#15 Pinar Karsiyaka (-6)

BCL record: 5-6
Domestic championship record: 13-6

Is it even possible to win a road game anymore? No? Okay. Cool.

#14 SIG Strasbourg (-1)

BCL record: 4-4
Domestic championship record: 10-12

Ehm... Two straight blowout defeats. Three defeats in last four games in all competitions. Six defeats over the last eight games in all competitions. Is everything okay, SIGmen? We have a piece of advice for you:

 

#13 Galatasaray EKMAS (-1)

BCL record: 5-5
Domestic championship record: 9-10

Another coaching change in the BCL this season. Zvezdan Mitrovic's time at Galatasaray EKMAS ended with a series of close defeats and lost clutch games, with the final drop coming last week. Somehow, incredibly, Galatasaray lost a game in which they led by 25 points with 13 minutes to play. It's still early days in the Round of 16, but they could use a big win before the break, just to give the new playcaller some much needed peace.

 

#12 Peristeri bwin (-2)

BCL record: 5-5
Domestic championship record: 11-6

Trying to write about Peristeri without mentioning Joe Ragland again... is impossible. His last four games in all competitions: three points-assists double-doubles. Peristeri won their last four Greek League games, Ragland delivered 9 assists per game in that run, but his BCL hot streak is over. He had three straight double-doubles, before struggling on the road in Tenerife, getting just 3 assists on the day. That's the problem for Peristeri, what happens when Ragland doesn't dish out 50 clean passes in a game?

#11 MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg (-5)

BCL record: 6-5
Domestic championship record: 12-7

There will not be a lot of games where Ludwigsburg's leading scorer is somebody operating inside the arc, but in order to have that inside-outside balance, it has to happen now and again. That's why coach Josh King must be ecstatic about Eddy Edigin's recent form. He had got 13 points and 9 rebounds in a defeat to Bonn last week, then followed up with a monster 20-point, 10-rebound game in just 17 minutes of action in the win over Gottingen in the German league. Remember, he doesn't need to win a game for them. He just needs to occupy the defense from time to time.

#10 Tofas Bursa (+6)

BCL record: 5-6
Domestic championship record: 8-11

Would it be all that crazy to think Austin Wiley could win the MVP award in both the BCL and the Turkish BSL? He currently has the second-best efficiency rating in the Basketball Champions League, and also the second-best efficiency rating in the Basketbol Super Ligi. Would it be all that crazy to see him win two MVP awards? It would, you're right. BUT WHAT IF YOU'RE NOT!? Wiley's good. Tofas is good. A step closer to the Quarter-Finals after last week's win.

#9 Promitheas Patras (-1)

BCL record: 6-4
Domestic championship record: 9-8

Hunter Hale is the BCL MVP of the Month for January, and all of his teammates expected it to happen.

#8 Hapoel Holon (+7)

BCL record: 6-5
Domestic championship record: 5-4

Call it bad luck. Just days after being named to the Team of the Month for January, Holon's leading scorer and rebounder Justin Smith picked up an injury in their domestic championship game against Maccabi Tel Aviv. Smith will be out this week, meaning Holon have a mountain to climb facing Promitheas Patras on Tuesday. Cue music, "Ain't no mountain high enough..."

#7 JDA Bourgogne Dijon (+4)

BCL record: 6-2
Domestic championship record: 11-11

History! JDA became the first ever team to win on the road after overturning a 25-point deficit, and they became the first team to trail by 20 in the final quarter and still end up on top. "Only in basketball you can see this kind of situation," coach Laurent Legname exhaled after the buzzer, celebrating a historical win for his club. Instead of being down and out, Dijon are very much in nowadays, chasing another Quarter-Finals berth.

#6 Cholet Basket (-3)

BCL record: 6-5
Domestic championship record: 11-11

No need to waste ink here. Coach Diccon Lloyd-Smeath has got you covered on the hot topic of Cholet Basket being a sort of a Cinderella story this season. Put Laurent Vila in the Coach of the Year conversation, too.

#5 Telekom Baskets Bonn (+2)

BCL record: 5-3
Domestic championship record: 12-8

The defending champs are on a four-game winning run in all competitions, their second longest of the season (they won five games in a row in October). If they take down Dijon in the BCL this week, they have a chance to extend the streak to a season-best sixth straight win over the weekend, in the 2023 German League Finals rematch with Ulm. Impressive, right? So how come they're only fifth here? It's because they set unreal standards last season, collecting 18 wins in a row, including the two BCL Final Four games. 

#4 UCAM Murcia (+1)

BCL record: 7-1
Domestic championship record: 12-9

A seven-game winning streak is looking good in the BCL! One more, and they tie their club's record in this competition, as they picked up eight straight Ws this time of the year back in 2019. All eyes are on Dylan Ennis, he's already playing his 50th BCL game, and he warmed up for it with 19 points and 7 assists in 25 minutes against Bilbao Basket in the Liga Endesa over the weekend.

#3 Lenovo Tenerife (+1)

BCL record: 6-2
Domestic championship record: 12-9

We've written tens of thousands of words about Marcelinho Huertas, but this time we're leaving the writing to somebody else. Our friends over at Eurohoops.net had a whole gigantic piece about the greatness of the Brazilian point guard just months ahead of his 41st birthday. How crazy is this for a stat? Marcelinho is averaging 14.5 points per game in the BCL this season, which makes it his highest scoring campaign in any European competition. Not too bad for somebody who first played in a continental competition 20 years ago...

#2 Unicaja (=)

BCL record: 6-2
Domestic championship record: 17-4

Describe Ibon Navarro-ball in two sentences or less: Unicaja's bench unit scores 44.8 points per game, the highest average of any team in the BCL in Season 8. They are the only team in which the bench players score more points than their starting lineup (38.3 per game) in the League this season. Navarro-ball! Unlikely to win any sort of individual award, since their whole philosophy is sharing the ball, sharing the minutes, sharing the workload. You remember when the five Atlanta Hawks' starters won the Player of the Month award for January 2015? That's Unicaja 2024 for you. There's no "I" in "team."

#1 Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem (=)

BCL record: 7-1
Domestic championship record: 7-4

Good news for all other BCL teams? Hapoel lost a League game on Sunday. That proves they are beatable, even though they had won their previous eight games in all competitions leading up to the weekend. Bad news for all other BCL teams? That narrow two-point defeat to Ironi will only make Jerusalem angrier... Top of the Power Rankings until they lose a game, no doubt about it! 

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