The road to the Final Four has been very logical for three of the four teams that made it to Athens. All of the three regular season champions - Panathinaikos, Tau Ceramica and CSKA Moscow - made it to the Final Four and took the right way there. Unicaja had a more up-and-down season but took advantage of playing in the most balanced Top 16 group. Unicaja took advantage of its chances, particulary when it came to tie-break situations, and that helped them to get the homecourt advantage in the playoffs and advance to the Final Four. It was a bit of a surprise compared to what happened to Winterthur FC Barcelona and Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv, teams that were supposed to be two of the top candidates for this last Final Four spot. At the same time, the countries represented in this year's Final Four are pretty logical, too. It more or less represents the situation of European basketball right now. Two Spanish teams, a Greek and a Russian. It clearly shows the status of European basketball right now. No Italian teams or players are here, which shows its basketball in a bit of a crisis. Some people did not go past the regular season and the rest of them fell in the Top 16, with Benetton being the only team with playoff chances in the final date of this stage. As for Italian coaches, however, we have Ettore Messina and Sergio Scariolo here, showing the... more