2023-24 BKT EuroCup groups all set after draw

The 2023-24 BKT EuroCup is officially underway after a draw was held in Barcelona on Friday to divide the 20 teams from 14 countries were divided into two groups.

The 18-game regular season opens on October 3 and extends through February 7. The top two teams from each group will advance directly to the quarterfinals while the second- through sixth-place teams will play in do-or-die single games in the eighthfinals against opponents from opposite groups. All post-season pairings will give home-court advantage to the teams that finished higher in their regular season groups.

See draw reactions from club officials.

Group A will be headed by Hapoel Tel Aviv of Israel, which made it as far as the EuroCup Quarterfinals last season in its competition debut. Next drawn was into the first group was Joventut Badalona, one of just two former EuroCup champions in the 20-team field. Nonetheless, plenty of firepower exists in Group A, beginning with last year’s semifinalist Prometey Slobozhanske of Ukraine, which played its games in Latvia last season, and perennial contender Umana Reyer Venice of Italy. Three more playoff teams from last season – London Lions of the United Kingdom, Veolia Towers Hamburg of Germany and Paris Basketball of France – are also in the Group A mix, while Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana looks to bounce back from a rare subpar season. Meanwhile, Besiktas Istanbul of Turkey returns to the EuroCup after seven seasons away and recently founded Wolves Vilnius of Lithuania will make its Euroleague Basketball debut in the 2023-24 EuroCup!

Defending EuroCup champions Dreamland Gran Canaria will be the team to beat in Group B, where it was selected first as the top seed. The Spanish club has an eclectic mix of challengers headed by the team it beat for the title last season, Turk Telekom Ankara. New German champion ratiopharm Ulm and perennial Montenegrin titlist Buducnost VOLI Podgorica follow in this group, which also features the return after seven seasons of Greek standard-bearer Aris Thessaoliniki, a onetime EuroCup finalists back in 2006. Two more teams that had playoff runs in the EuroCup last season, Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse of France and 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys of Lithuania, make this group tougher, while three who fell short last season — Dolomiti Energia Trento of Italy, Slask Wroclaw of Poland and U-BT Cluj-Napoca of Romania — will try to do that much better in the new one.