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EuroCup 15/04/2011, 11.23

Eurocup 2010-2011 Final Four preview

EuroCup

The 2010-2011 edition of Eurocup Basketball arrived to his main event: the Final Four. It's the second time that the last stage of Eurocup is a Final Four; the first time was last year when in Fernando Buesa Arena of Vitoria Valencia won the Eurocup after defeating Panellinios in semifinal and ALBA Berlin in final. (the other team who did the Final Four was Bizkaia Bilbao Basket).

In the first edition of which was known as the ULEB Cup Valencia (one of two teams to win twice the Eurocup, with Lietuvos rytas Vilnius) won the competition after defeating Krka Novo Mesto in a two-leg tie.

From 2003 to 2007 Eurocup had a playoff format and a single final match played in Spiroudome of Charleroi, then the format of the final stage changed in a Final Eight format played two times (2008 and 2009) in PalaIsozaki of Turin.

The teams who will participate to the Final Four are the hosts of Benetton Bwin Treviso (Italy), the russian powerhouse UNICS Kazan, Cedevita Zagreb (Croatia) and Cajasol Sevilla (Spain).

Kazan and Treviso were in the Final Eight of Turin, Kazan in 2008 edition and Treviso in 2009 edition but both teams were eliminated in quarterfinals.

Four teams, two goals. The team who will win the Final Four will win not only the 2010-2011 Eurocup but also the right to be in the 2011-2012 regular season of Euroleague Basketball, the main European club competition, and this is a big prize because two of the four teams competing in this Final Four never did the Euroleague (UNICS Kazan was eliminated this year in preliminary rounds and Cedevita Zagreb), while Sevilla did the Euroleague only twice in the 90s (the last appearance was in 1999-2000) and Treviso (an historical presence of the Euroleague in 90s and first half of 00s) misses the Euroleague since 2007.

Eurocup Basketball before the Final Four released his awards for this season. Only two players nominee in 2010-2011 Eurocup Second Team will not be in Treviso (Dwayne Anderson of Gottingen and Nik Caner-Medley of Estudiantes), while all players on 2010-2011 Eurocup First Team, three players of Second Team, the Rising Star and the Eurocup Coach of the Year will be in the Final Four to win the Eurocup.

The MVP of the competition is Dontaye Draper, the point guard of Cedevita, while in the First Team there are also Terrell Lyday and Maciej Lampe of UNICS, Devin Smith of Benetton Bwin and Tariq Kirksay of Sevilla.

In the Second Team with Anderson and Caner-Medley there are also Bracey Wright of Cedevita, Kelly McCarty of Kazan and Paul Davis of Sevilla.

The Eurocup Rising Star is Donatas Motiejunas of Benetton Bwin while Aleksandar Petrovic was nominee the Eurocup Coach of the Year.

We will release later today the previews of both semifinals, Cedevita Zagreb-UNICS Kazan and Benetton Bwin Treviso-Cajasol Sevilla. Stay tuned on Sportando.

 

E. Carchia

E. Carchia

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