Eurocup

EuroCup (formerly known as ULEB Cup) is considered the second strongest cross-border European club competition, just behind EuroLeague ( the two competitions are organized by the same company, Euroleague Basketball ). Every year, the winner of EuroCup gets an automatic promotion to the following season’s EuroLeague.

Currently, the EuroCup regular season features 24 teams, divided into 4 groups of 6 teams. The best placed 4 teams from each group advance to the Top 16, followed by Quarterfinals. Unlike the EuroLeague format, in EuroCup there is no Final4. The teams play the Semifinals and Finals in a best-of-three series.

The first EuroCup season was played in 2002-2003 and was won by Pamesa Valencia (the team that won the competition 3 times).

The most successful teams in the history of the EuroCup are Valencia (3 titles won, 2 times runners-up), Lietuvos Rytas and Khimki Moscow (2 titles and 1 finals lost each). In fact, Spanish teams hold the record for the most titles won (6):  Valencia (3x), Real Madrid, Joventut Badalona, Unicaja Malaga once. Other 4 Spanish teams finished as runner-ups: Girona, Sevilla, Bilbao, Gran Canaria.

EuroCup featured plenty of talented players over the years, to mention just some of those who made an impact:  Igor Rakocevic, Milan Gurovic, Rudy Fernandez, Marc Gasol, Andrew Goudelock, Tyrese Rice, Kristaps Porzingis, Alexey Shved, Scottie Wilbekin.

Also, the list of coaches that have the EuroCup title in their CV includes legends such as  Dusan Ivkovic, Joan Plaza, Aito Garcia Reneses, Neven Spahija, Velimir Perasovic, David Blatt and others.