ANTALYA (Turkiye) - The Basketball Champions League field will be set at the end of this week, as 24 teams fight for the last four tickets to the Regular Season.
The Qualification Round includes four tournaments, held at the Gloria Sports Arena in Turkiye.
Who is playing in Tournament 1?
There are six clubs in this tournament, with the same format as in the previous editions of the Basketball Champions League Qualifiers. Four teams will play the Quarter-Finals round, while two await in the Semis.
In Tournament 1, Rilski Sportist from Samokov, Bulgaria are taking on BC Nokia from Nokia, Finland. The winner of that game moves on to the Semi-Finals to face SL Benfica from Lisbon, Portugal.
The other half of the bracket will see in BC Sabah from Baku, Azerbaijan go up against Sweden's Norrkoping Dolphins in the Quarter-Finals. The winner of that duel meets Fribourg Olympic from Switzerland in the Semi-Finals.
Has anybody played the BCL Regular Season before?
SL Benfica will look to make it a threepeat of Regular Season appearances, as they reached the main draw in 2022-23 and 2023-24. Their best result was playing the Play-Ins in 2023, where Darussafaka eliminated them (2-0).
Fribourg Olympic made the Regular Season in 2018-19. In a different, eight-team format, they finished the group stage with a 3-11 record, far from a place in the top 16.
Who are the players to watch in this Tournament?
BC Nokia's Kahron Ross is a player that could go off on any given day, as he averaged 12.8 points and 4.9 assists per game last season, playing as the point guard. Antti Kanervo is another major scoring option for them, coming back to Finland at 35, after a year abroad in Iceland.
The same way Ross is big for Nokia, Sabah will consider keeping Michael Holton on their roster a major success, as he had 12.0 points and 3.4 assists per game in the FIBA Europe Cup last season.
Fribourg Olympic also brought back their major weapon at the "one" position from last season, as Eric Nottage will attempt to go even better than his numbers a year ago - 14.5 points, 6.1 assists, 5.6 rebounds per game in the Swiss League. Nottage also had 14.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 7.0 assists in the BCL Qualifiers last September.
The Norrkoping Dolphins have one of the best shooters of the tournament in Marcus Tyus, who shot 40.5 percent from deep in the Swedish League last season, while attempting nearly six triples per game.
The 35-year-old Chavdar Kostov will lead Rilski Sportist once again, searching for another double-digit scoring season in his long and successful career.
SL Benfica's top player Aaron Brussard is fighting off an injury, but the club brought in Marcus Thornton to provide a bit of everything. He has avearged double digits in each of his last five seasons in Europe.