Differences between Basketball Champions League playoffs: 2018 and 2019
Differences between Basketball Champions League playoffs: 2018 and 2019
Basketball Champions League is already on the 3rd season and it is without a doubt the most dynamic European competition. There are a couple of differences between this BCL playoff and last season’s. Let’s review a couple of them:
- Surprisingly, no Italian team was present in the BCL playoff last season and now there are 2 teams, that can be also title contenders: Virtus Bologna and Umana Venezia
- 8 teams were qualified in both playoffs: Besiktas, Banvit (Turkey), AEK, PAOK (Greece), UCAM Murcia, Iberostar Tenerife (Spain), Nanterre 92 (France) and Neptunas (Lithuania)
- 8 new teams are new in the BCL playoff, many of them joining for the 1st time the European competition: Virtus Bologna and Umana Venezia (Italy), Hapoel Jerusalem (Israel), Le Mans (France), Brose Bamberg (Germany), Nizhny Novgorod (Russia), Antwerp (Belgium) and Promitheas (Greece)
- This season, more countries are represented. Last year the BCL playoff had teams from 8 countries, this year from 10 different countries, which makes the battle for the trophy more democratic.
- This season, top teams have left other European competition in order to join BCL, which makes the playoff stronger. I will mention the most important 2 of them: Hapoel Jerusalem and Brose Bamberg.
Gratian Cormos, info@brainbasketball.net
