Get ready for phase two of the 2011-12 Euroleague season, as today league officials will be determining the groupings for the Top 16 round. BallinEurope will be watching the live stream over at Euroleague.tv, though quite a few nations — Spain, Greece, and Israel among them — have local sports stations shows the draw as it happens as well.
Logo at left will be that of the 2012 Euroleague Final Four, just released/announced in the runup to the draw this afternoon.
The groups in the quest for that EL Final Four bid will be comprised as follows.
Group E
CSKA Moscow
Olympiacos
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
Galatasaray
Group F
Real Madrid
Montepaschi Siena
Unicaja Malaga
Gescrap Bilbao Basket
Group G
Fenerbahçe Ülker
Panathinaikos
Unics Kazan
Emporio Armani Milano
Group H
FC Barcelona
Maccabi Tel Aviv
Bennet Cantù
Zalgiris Kaunas
Perhaps the first Euroleague player tweets on the groupings came from Montepaschi Siena’s Shaun Stonerook and Nikos Zisis. Tweeted the former: “Should be fun.Can’n’t wait to get it started“. (Damn, he *is* excited.)
The latter had six minutes earlier weighed in with, “Very interesting groups in euroleague top 16! We are going to play 6 battles!!”
Does Montepaschi lead the Euroleague in tweeters? Here’s Igor Rakocevic, about a quarter-hour after his teammates: “Grupo muy interesante para nosotros en TOP16!!! Vamos a jugar 3 partidos en España! Eso me gusta mucho!!!”
(In English, that’s “Wow! Interesting groups for top16!! Our group with 3 Spanish teams!!! I like that!”
Real Madrid’s Martynas Pocius showed some nice sportsmanship with his tweet, “Was quietly hoping to see Zalgiris in the same group but not this time! Good luck Green&White!”
Kneejerk reactions from BiE? How about:
• How about that mini-Endesa Liga in Group F? Three Spanish sides plus Montepaschi Siena? BiE doesn’t know if that’s the oft-created “Group of Death,” but BiE’ll take it as the highest-scoring overall of these groups.
• BiE also digs the pairing of FC Barcelona and Maccabi Tel Aviv, both Final Four-Fearlessly Predicted™ teams — can’t wait to see that game early … and maybe later, too?
• Considering Group E, BiE’s hedging bets that CSKA Moscow extends its run to 16-0 going into the elite-eight tournament.
• Early Official Fearless Predictions™ will go with CSKA Moscow, Anadolu Efes, Real Madrid, Montepaschi Siena, Panathinaikos, Fenerbahce Ulker, FC Barcelona, Maccabi Tel Aviv … slightly boring, perhaps, but BiE just couldn’t talk himself into Milano or Unics Kazan…
