Turkish Airlines Euroleague Qualifying Rounds tip off today

 

Eight of the most-talented teams to ever play the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Qualifying Rounds gather this week in Ostend, Belgium, at Sleuyter Arena all sharing the same dream of snagging the 24th and final ticket to the 2014-15 Euroleague Regular Season. This season’s qualifying rounds contenders feature former Euroleague champs, All-Euroleague players, MVPs of the month and Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy winners. The win-or-go-home competition takes place over four days, starting with two games on Tuesday and two more on Wednesday. The winners of those games advance to Thursday’s semifinals. The finale is scheduled for Friday night. 

The first pair of games on Tuesday feature VEF Riga of Latvia and Strasbourg of France, the latter of which played in the Euroleague last season. The host club, Telenet Ostend of Belgium faces ASVEL Lyon Villeurbanne of France in Tuesday’s second game. Wednesday’s doubleheader opens with Hapoel Jerusalem of Israel against CEZ Basketball Nymburk of the Czech Republic. The final of the four opening round games pits Russia’s Unics Kazan against Poland’s Stelmet Zielona Gora, which also competed in the Euroleague regular season one year ago.