MIES (Switzerland) - The Basketball Champions League's Season 9 gets underway in the first week of October. The format remains the same, with the winners of the eight Regular Season groups moving to the Round of 16 directly, while the fourth-placed teams in each group will be eliminated from the competition.
The second and third-placed teams from adjacent groups (A2 vs. B3, B2 vs. A3) will face each other in the Play-Ins, in best-of-three series, with the winner of each of these eight series snapping up the last eight tickets to the sweet 16 phase.
With that kind of a competition system, it's important to know what's going on in the other group, which is why we are previewing the Regular Season two groups at a time.
The favorites
Group A: Hapoel Netanel Holon will hope they can recreate some 2022 magic, when they reached the BCL Final Four in Bilbao.
Holon have brought back the vertical threat of Michale Kyser, while loading up their backcourt in typical Holon fashion with ball dominant guards in Elijah Mitrou-Long and Jalen Adams.
With Yiftach Ziv, Idan Zalmanson, Niv Misgav and others, they have a solid homegrown rotation just as coach Guy Goodes likes it, putting in a convincing case as a team with all the key pieces in place to win Group A.
Group B: The defending champions, Unicaja, are the clear favorites to win the group, especially after their FIBA Intercontinental Cup and Spanish Supercup triumphs in the last couple of weeks.
The team is nearly identical as in the previous two seasons, if not even stronger with Aleksander Balcerowski and Killian Tillie giving them even more depth in the frontcourt.
The toughest part would be to single out just one player on this team, as Tyson Carter, Kendrick Perry, Dylan Osetkowski and Kameron Taylor all won MVP awards as Unicaja won four major trophies across the last 19 months.
Play-Ins as the minimum target
Group A: Igokea m:tel and Nanterre 92 are both hoping for spots in the next round, if not even for the top spots in their group.
Igokea are entering their fifth straight BCL Regular Season campaign, and after picking up two tough road wins to start their Adriatic League season, the champions of Bosnia and Herzegovina seem to be more optimistic than ever.
Nanterre 92 are back to the BCL for the first time in six years, with plenty of familiar faces on the roster, led by Paul Lacombe and Justin Tillman.
The French side are off to a new page in their history books as they embark on their first season without the legendary head coach Pascal Donnadieu since 1987. Philippe Da Silva is now calling the plays for the green and white team from the western suburb of Paris.
Group B: Filou Oostende are one of only three teams to have played in each of BCL's nine seasons (alongside La Laguna Tenerife, AEK Betsson BC), with clutch wins and dramatic series as part of their European trademark by now.
Coach Dario Gjergja has the same recipe as always: strong domestic core balanced with electric rookies such as Timmy Allen, Davion Mintz and Chase Audige.
Oostende will have to stop one of their former players if they want to reach the next stage, as Breein Tyree looked like a superhero for Aliaga Petkimspor during the Qualifiers in September.
Petkimspor are the 13th different team from Turkiye to reach the Regular Season - a BCL record - with hopes of emulating Pinar Karsiyaka or Banvit, the only two Turkish teams to have reached a BCL Final.
Here to complicate things
Group A: FIT/One Wurzburg Baskets could not only spoil the proceedings in the battle for the Play-Ins or the top of their group. They actually looks like a team built for major upsets in their first BCL season.
The German club brought in Jhivvan Jackson, a top five scorer in the German Bundesliga last season, while keeping Zac Seljaas on board after his impressive run which saw him finish ninth in the efficiency per game stat in Bundesliga last season.
They are one of the youngest teams in all of Europe, with a 32-year-old Owen Klassen being their oldest player on the roster. Coach Saso Filipovski already has the experience of reaching a BCL Final, with Banvit back in 2017, while the club's previous European campaign also culminated in a Final, in the FIBA Europe Cup in 2019.
Group B: King Szczecin finished bottom of their Regular Season group last time around, but only by points difference at 2-4, tied with Banco di Sardegna Sassari.
That experience could come in handy this season. They did go through a lot of changes over the summer, however Andy Mazurczak is back once again, ready to challenge for the best passer milestone, as he averaged a whopping 8.1 assists per game in Poland across 30 games last season.