Top 16 Draw procedure

This season there has been a change in the Competition System during the Regular Season, going from three groups of eight teams each to four groups of six teams each. As a result the teams classifying for the Top 16 are the first four teams in each group following Game Day 10.

A. CRITERIA

The draw will be held according to seeds. The 16 classified teams will be divided into four seeds of four teams each, based on their final standings in the Regular Season, according to the following chart:

1 SEEDS
   
Unicaja
   
Regal FC Barcelona
   
Tau Ceramica
   
CSKA Moscow
2 SEEDS
   
Olympiacos
   
Montepaschi Siena
   
Lottomatica Roma
   
Real Madrid
3 SEEDS
   
Maccabi Electra
   
Panathinaikos
   
Fenerbahce Ulker
   
AJ Milano
4 SEEDS
   
Cibona
   
Asseco Prokom
   
Alba Berlin
   
Partizan


In accordance with the Euroleague Basketball Regulations, the criteria to define the classification will be as follows:

REGULAR SEASON: the final classification in each group will be based first on the highest number of victories, then in accordance with the Euroleague Basketball tiebreak procedures for teams that have played each other twice.

WHEN ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED EACH OTHER TWICE
1     Best record in head-to-head games between all tied teams.
2     Higher cumulative score difference in head-to-head games between all tied teams.
3     Higher cumulative score difference for the entire regular season.
4     Higher total of points scored for the entire regular season.
5     Higher sum of quotients of points in favour and points against of each match played.


Four successive draws will be held, one for each seed, starting with the 1 Seeds, and following with the procedure explained below.

B. RESTRICTIONS

An effort will be made to keep teams coming from the same Regular Season Group or teams from the same country from coinciding in the same Top 16 Group. Since it is impossible to respect these restrictions 100%, the following conditions will be enforced in order of priority, being 1 more important than 2.

1) Teams from the same Regular Season Group may not coincide in the same Top 16 Group.
2) A maximum of two teams from the same country may coincide in the same Top 16 Group.

C. PROCEDURES

    * Four draws will be held, one for each seed, starting with the 1 Seeds.
    * Teams will be drawn one by one from an urn containing only teams from the Seed, starting with the 1 Seeds through to the 4 Seeds, until all 16 teams have been selected.
    * For each spot drawn, the urn will be emptied and refilled with only the teams from the seed drawn who are available to be selected, taking into consideration the restrictions above.
          o Same Regular Season Group: In the Top 16, teams from the same Regular Season group may not coincide in the same group. When drawing teams from the 2 Seeds through to the 4 Seeds, only those teams from a Group different than the ones already drawn into the Top 16 Group will be placed in the urn.
          o Same Country: If a spot is to be drawn into a Group where there is already a team from a specific country, teams from that country will not be placed in the urn. The exception will occur if this would then cause a blocked situation in a different Group that is still to be drawn, in which case the team(s) from the same country will be placed in the urn. Also, if a certain team(s) cannot be drawn into a different Group that is still to be drawn because this would then block the different Group, this team(s) will be the only one(s) placed in the urn.
          o As a result a team may be placed directly into a Group in order to follow the restrictions.
    * Drawing the teams as explained above will allow all restrictions to be respected and will eliminate all possibilities of a blocked situation. You will find below two examples of how the urn will be configured with regards to the afore mentioned situations.


Example 1. Placing one team directly when not possible in the future.
Let's suppose we have a team from GRE to be drawn coming from Group D of the Regular Season. Since it must not coincide with the team from LTU because it also comes from Group D of the Regular Season, and at the same time it cannot go in Group G because there is already a team from Group D and also a team from GRE, then the only team to be placed in the urn, therefore going into Group F.

E     F     G     H
ISR (B)     SPA (A)     TUR (D)     ITA (C)
SPA (A)     ITA (B)     GRE (C)     LTU (D)
POL (C)     GRE (D)            


Example 2. Country restriction non-compliance.
Let's assume we have two more teams to be drawn, as shown below with the 3 Seeds to be drawn.

3 Seeds (RS Group)

FRA (A)
SPA (B)
SPA (C)
RUS (D)

Now let's see how the groups are made up so far:

E     F     G     H
ISR (B)     ITA (A)     SPA (D)     TUR (C)
SPA (A)     GER (D)     ITA (C)     GRE (B)


SPA (B) cannot be placed in Groups E or H because of the group restriction, nor in Group G because of the country restriction. Therefore, SPA (B) must be placed in Group F. We must then break the country restriction and place SPA (C) in the urn for Group E as it cannot be placed into Groups G nor H due to the regular season group restriction. The reason why both teams were not placed in the urn since the country restriction is to be broken is that one of the two teams also has the group restriction.

CALENDAR DRAW

A random computer draw will determine the final position of the teams within their group.

    * The pairings calendar for the Top 16 will be drawn by allocating numbers from 1 to 4 to the teams of each group. This will establish the match-ups for the entire Top 16.
    * The Top 16 games will be held according to the following chart:

      1st     Game Day     1-3 2-4
      2nd     Game Day     4-1 3-2
      3rd     Game Day     3-4 1-2
      4th     Game Day     4-3 2-1
      5th     Game Day     3-1 4-2
      6th     Game Day     1-4 2-3

      Non-coincidence numbers (when one team plays at home, the other plays away): 1 with 4; 2 with 3
    * Teams playing in the same city (Olympiacos Piraeus and Panathinaikos Athens): The non-coincidence numbers will be allocated to teams that play in the same city, so that when one team plays at home the other will play away.