MANISA (Türkiye) - With four groups of three teams and the first-placed team from each group going directly to the Semi-Finals, whilst everyone else goes through to Classification Games, the format of this competition leaves almost no margin for error in the Group Phase.
Each team will play twice in the Group Phase and automatically know that only two wins will be enough to stay in contention for winning the Trophy. There is no room for starting the tournament slowly and peaking at the right time.
With that in mind, let's take a look at the runners and riders in Group B and see what we can expect from all three teams.
GUESS WHO'S BACK
As the title suggests, the first place to look here is last year's second-placed team, and Turkish giants, Galatasaray, are back.
An academy that produced club captain Goksenin Koksal and National Team legend Kerem Tunceri surprised most neutrals last year, when they found a way past hot-favorites Igokea m:tel to reach the Final in their debut season.
Captain Kerem Erdem and backcourt running mate Sarp Ugurluoglu were key players in that epic journey to the Final.
This year, they are back with several of that squad who were playing a year younger. Head coach Tolga Baser will be able to count on Mert Aydin, Alperen Duruksu, Alp Yildirim, Batu Anlar, and Yusuf Ersoy, who were all involved last year.
Duruksu scored 4 points in the Final, and Yildirim scored 12 points in the Semi-Final against Tofas.
Another welcome returnee is the Belgian powerhouse Filou Oostende.
The Coretec Oostende Academy took part in Season 1 and finished seventh after a 78-71 win over Spanish club UCAM Murcia. Jarne Elouna Eyenge had 22 points that day and has since gone on to join UNC Charlotte Basketball in the NCAA.
Oostende are renowned in Belgium for producing talent, having supplied the men's team in recent years with players like Keye van der Vuurst De Vries, Jean Salumu, and Quentin Serron.
They arrive this year with another squad stacked with names to know for the future.
Tim Waerniers, Daan Pieters, Vince T’Joncke, Jules Rotsaert, Lars Coppejans, and Edo Bruins are the players expected to make a big impact in Manisa this April.
THE FAVORITES
As exciting as the field looks with Oostende and Telekom Baskets Bonn (more on them later), it's hard to look past 2024 runners up Galatsaray as the favorites for this group.
The squad is led by players returning to this competition and have been competing in the Turkish U19 league this year. Throughout the season, several members of this roster have stepped up and had big games whilst playing in the competition a year younger.
Batu Anlar had 20 points againt Bursaspor, Mert Aydin had 13 points againt Tofas, Alp Yildirim put up 16 points and 6 assists against Besiktas, whilst Yusuf Ersoy had a huge 21 points and 12 rebounds double-double against Pamukspor.
THE WILDCARDS
Telekom Baskets Bonn will be making their debut this season and will provide that flavor of the unknown.
The Bonn Academy are the current West German U18 Cup Champions and compete under the name Bonn Rhöndorf in the U19 NBBL league. They also compete as Dragons Rhöndorf in the German ProB.
Head coach Francesco Tubiana has also been the Sports Director for the club's youth department since 2023 and will be counting on big contributions from Kenan Reinhart, Dusan Ilic, Josh Behrendt, and Vuk Scepanovic.
Reinhart, in particular, should be a high-impact player for Bonn. He averaged 3.7 points and 1.2 rebounds in the third division ProB, including big games against Ehingen and FC Bayern Munich scoring 14 points and 12 points, respectively.
He also averaged 4 points per game for Germany in last summer's FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup.
ONE TO WATCH
In a group stacked with talent, it's very difficult to pick out one name to watch, but if there is one player best-positioned to make a big impact at this year's event, it has to be Oostende's Tim Waerniers.
Waerniers is considered one of the biggest talents in Belgium from the 2008-born generation and made his debut this season for Filou Oostende men's team in the Basketball Champions League against Unicaja on December 3.
The 2.02 meter forward made history on November 30, when he became the youngest Belgian to debut in the BNXT league against Union Mons-Hainaut at 16 years and 4 months and has gone on to make four appearances.