Regular Season, Group C analysis
|
 Euroleague defending champion Panathinaikos stays as one of top candidates to win it all yet again next season. Aleksandar Gomelskyi Coach of the Year Zeljko Obradovic is ready to lead his team to yet another Euroleague title by keeping a solid core of players who know each other very well, led by Final Four MVP Dimitris Diamantidis. With a sea of green fans backing them, Panathinaikos hopes to win back-to-back Euroleague titles for the first time in club history.
 As a model basketball organization that always stays competitive in the Euroleague scene, Winterthur FC Barcelona is ready to fight for each and every competition in 2007-08, just as in every season. Barcelona keeps star guard Juan Carlos Navarro is its franchise player, surrounded by the experience and talent of Gianluca Basile, Jaka Lakovic or Denis Marconato. Once it is time to face the decisive games in the Euroleague season, Barcelona will most probably be around.
 It took several years for Partizan to do something big in the Euroleague, but its hard work paid off when its core of young, yet experienced players led the team to the Top 16 last season. Partizan comes off a historical season, as not only it won its first Adriatic League title, but also managed to win its fifth consecutive domestic title. With road wins against Panathinaikos or Joventut last season, Partizan now knows is able to beat anyone, anywhere.
 A basketball giant is growing in the Eternal City, as Lottomatica Roma has the tradition, ambition and power to challenge the best Euroleague teams in the near future. With Dejan Bodiroga going from star player to general manager, Lottomatica loses a top player but may gain even more. Even when Lottomatica reached the Top 16 last season, Bodiroga may well set the basis for the club to become a Euroleague powerhouse very soon.
 Turkish League champion Fenerbahce Ulker has become the team to beat in its domestic competition and hopes to improve its recent Euroleague perfomance, as it missed the Top 16 last season. Fenerbahce found a new coach in Euroleague winner Bogdan Tanjevic, and also inked a top prospect like Emir Preldzic. Fener now hopes to extend its recent domestic success to Euroleague Basketball, as its many fans hope to help in taking Turkish basketball to new heights.
 The winningest team in Europe is back in the Euroleague, as Spanish League champion Real Madrid is back in the competition. Real Madrid won its last Euroleague title in 1995 and needed a decade to lift a European trophy, but won the ULEB Cup last season. Head coach Joan Plaza is keeping a rock solid core of players like Felipe Reyes, Alex Mumbru, Louis Bullock or Axel Hervelle, and with the arrival of quality free agents, Madrid is a top candidate to make it to the 2008 Final Four in the Spanish capital.
 Brose Baskets made history by becoming the first-ever - and only - German team to advance to the Top 16 in its first Euroleague appearance in the competition in 2005-06. Brose Baskets now returns to the Euroleague as the German League winner and led by Dirk Bauermann, one of the best head coaches in European basketball. His defensive-minded, team-oriented brand of basketball guarantee that all fans in Bamberg will see their team compete against the very best yet again this season.
 No team had to wait longer to return to the Euroleague than Chorale Roanne, that returns to the top competition for the first time since 1960. Roanne comes off its best-ever season, as it won the Semaine Des As title just months before lifting his second-ever French League title. Roanne already landed scoring machine Brion Rush as it tries to keep the same team structure that led the team to win it all last season.
|
|
Euroleague.net
|