FIBA Euroleague Women’s basketball doesn’t start until late October, but the season officially kicked off today with the ceremonial draws of groupings for both Euroleague and EuroCup Women competitions.
In Euroleague Group A, it’s Cras Basket Taranto; TEO Vilnius; Ros Casares; TTT Riga; UMMC Ekaterinburg; and Galatasaray. Group B has Gospic Croatia Osiguranje; CSKA Moscow; MiZo Pécs; Beretta Famila Schio; Halcon Avenida; and ESB Villeneuve.
Group C features KS AZS-PWSZ Gorzow; Maxima Broker Kosice; Bourges Basket; ZVVK USK Prague; MKB Euroleasing Sopron; and Rivas Ecopolis, while Group D squares off Szeviep Szeged; Gambrinus Brno; Fenerbahçe; Lotos Gdynia; Spartak Moscow Region; Tarbes.
Eurocup Women West Region sees a Group A with USO Mondeville; Sierre Basket; Seat Foton Györ; and AD Vagos. Group B has Gran Canaria; Medvescak Zagreb; Dexia Namur; and Olivais FC. In Group C, it’s Lattes Montpellier; Lemminkainen; MBK Ruzomberok; and CAB Madeira. Group D sports Puig den Valls Ibiza; Nyon Basket; CCC Polkowice; and TV Saarlouis Royals. And in Group E, squaring off will be Mann Filter Zaragoza; Jolly JBS Sibenik; and Wisla Can-Pack.
Eurocup Women East Region contains a Group F with Athinaikos; Chevakata Vologda; Besiktas; and Hatis Yerevan. Group G has Dunav Econt; Dynamo Moscow; Hapoel Tel Aviv; and CSS-LMK Sf. Gheorghe. In Group H, it’s KV Imperial AEL; Dynamo Kursk; Samsung Basketball (Turkey); and Municipal Targoviste. Group I features Apollon Kalamarias; Nadezhda Orenburg; Botas Spor; and ICIM Arad. And in Group J, it’ll be Paleo Faliro; Spartak Noginsk and KK Hemofarm.
(FIBA Europe) – The 2009-10 women’s club competition season officially opened on Tuesday, July 21, with the draws for EuroLeague Women and EuroCup Women being held in Freising, near Munich, Germany.
Representatives of the clubs were on hand to witness the proceedings.
The EuroCup Women’s Qualifying Round groups were drawn up first. The 38 participating teams were divided into two regions (East and West) and were drawn into eight groups of four teams and two groups of three teams. The best-placed 32 teams will advance to the Sixteenth-Finals.
“It is true that the current financial crisis has hit our sport hard, this is why we see a smaller number of clubs participating in EuroCup Women this season. For that the competition features some strong clubs, including a few former EuroLeague Women participants. EuroLeague Women, the top women’s club competition in the world remains as competitive as ever,” commented FIBA Europe Secretary General Nar Zanolin.
The EuroLeague Women features eight new clubs this season with no country numbering more than three clubs.
The 24 teams were divided in four groups of six clubs each for the Regular Season groups. The teams finishing at the top four positions in each group qualify for the best-of-three Eighth-Finals play-offs. The pairings for the Eighth-Finals will be decided by a provisional seeding of the 16 qualified clubs based on their results in the Regular Season.
The EuroLeague Women season will tip off on October 28 while EuroCup Women gets underway on November 12.
Leave a Reply