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Hapoel Jerusalem general manager Gidi Dodi
"What can I say? All the groups in this competition are already very strong. But ours is especially tough. Aris is one of the biggest teams in Europe so I am sure it will be very hard. We played them a few years ago, very strong team, hot gym... all the teams have loyal fans. Aris of course is teh favorite but we will do our best."
BC Spartak St. Petersburg sports director Alexei Karvanen
"I think most of the teams that participate are very good ones. For me, personally I expect a high level of competition from every team we will play against. In our group we have the added drama of not knowing who is going to be the foutrh team, Donetsk or Bilbao, but both of those teams are very strong and we are looking into a good level of competition."
Crvena Zvezda vicepresident Bozidar Maljkovic
"At this very moment I like this competition better than the Euroleague, basically because there are no favorite teams in it. In Euroleague, of course, you have more quality, better teams and more money, but in the Eurocup, the competition is more interesting. Talking about our group, Benetton has a lot of tradition, Cholet is also playing well this season and Dynamo has lost a lot. They are in a transition period I'd say. Crvena Zvezda has also some money problems, that's why I am trying to help a little. Our team is like the Boston Celtics: an old team with fame and trophies like Barcelona and Madrid for instance. But are a humble team, still with no second foreigner. But we have players like Bjelica or Keselj which I am sure both will end up playing in big leagues like in Spain, for instance."
Brose Baskets sports director Ivan Pavic
"I think we are in a good group with good opponents. Not the biggest names, but Biella and Ventspils are historic clubs and we know Nymburk really well from pre-season games. Nymburk is not far from Bamberg and we play against them in almost every pre-season. I think it will be a togh group for us and our initial goal is to make it to the Last 16 and take it from there. We made it to the Euroleague Top in 2006 but we have a new program, with a new coach and it is a new start of it. We brought back Casey Jacobsen and will try to be more successful this year. Definitely, we want to make it to the next round."
Spirou Basket sports director Jacques Stas
"I think Turk Telekom is the leader of this group we fell in. But watch out, we could be playing Bilbao, who reached the Eurocup semifinals last season and that means something. We will have to try one of those two teams at home trying to hope to make into the next round."
Lauretana Biella president Marco Atripaldi
"For us this is tough. It is the first time ever for us in a European competition so every opponent is tough for us. But this is important for our club, we are proud to participate here. I think the round-robin for us will be difficult, but not impossible. We will do the best we can, we will start I think against Ventspils, who played Benetton in the Euroleague Qualifying Rounds, and we know them very well. Brose Baskets is an important team in Germany, they have also played the Euroleague and have more experience than us. And CEZ Nymburk is the team that wins the Czech League every year easily, so every team have big experience in Europe. We are the rookies here, so we will try to do our best. That's all I can say right now."
Triumph Lyubertsy Head of International Department Dmitry Ternopol
"It is a tough group, with three very strong teams like Le Mans, Hemofarm and Valencia. We already played against Hemofarm when we were Dynamo Moscow region and it was a tough matchup. Le Mans and Valencia are also famous and strong. No matter what roster they have or which season it is, we are going to fight until the end. We will try to be the underdogs in this group and I am sure that out players and coached will do everything possible to show we deserve to play here. We will try to win every game. We had an enormous budget last season, almost like a NBA team, and could not make it to the Eurocup. We have the opposite situation this season - a really small budget but are leading the Russian League right now. We have good chemistry and the team is really hungry to do well and play hard every game."
Cholet Basket general manager Thierry Chevrier
"It will be difficult fors us because we fell in a group with three good teams. Dynamo, Benetton and Crvena Zvezda are all tough rivals and I hope we will manage to win the games at home to have some options."
Alba Berlin Head of Communications and Media Justus Strauven
"On one hand, we are disappointed for not surviving the Euroleague Qualifying Rounds but at the same time, this is a very interesting competition with really good teams to play against. This is exactly what happened in our group. Needless to say, all opponents in the whole competition are very hard to beat but especially in our group, Azovmash and Galatasaray are national and Eurpean forces. I cannot say much about Teramo right now, I will have to find out more but they were third at the end of the Italian League regular season so that says it all. We expect all three teams to be very strong opponents. Hopefully, we hope to be successful in the Eurocup this season."
SLUC Nancy sports manager Julien Marboure
"I think it was a good draw for our team because we played in a very strong group in the Euroleague last season with teams like Montepaschi, Panathinaikos or Barcelona. This group is not as difficult as that, of course, but Gran Canaria is a really strong team. I expect Turow and Panellinios to be tough, too, because all Eurocup teams are always difficult to play against. We hope that we will have a good calendar, too, because we will play a lot of domestics games in December and January and we want to prepare our road games as well as we can."
Telekom Baskets Bonn events director Sebastien Adelt
"First of all, we are happy to be back in the Eurocup. We have a very interesting regular season group with three really strong teams like Joventut, Unics and Besiktas. We will see how far we can go but this is defintitely a very tough group, one of the hardest ones, no doubt about it. We always try to improve what we did the year before. We made it to the German League finals last season so we hope to go one step forwards this season - and also do well in the Eurocup."
PGE Turow Zgorzelec general manager Waldemar Luczak
"I think it has been a good draw for us, as we face interesting teams like Gran Canaria, Sluc Nancy and Panellinios. It will be a very strong group and this is good for us. All our fans in Poland will have the chance to see us compete against three very good teams. We will try to repeat the success we had two years ago, when we made it to the Final Eight. Making it to the quarterfinals would be a great achievement for us."
CEZ Nymburk general manager Jiri Zidek
"Like last year, I have to say that all the clubs taking part in this year's Eurocup are strong, high-quality opponents. It is early to make predictions but all four teams are strong and it is difficult to choose who are the favourites to make it to the next round. Bamberg is geographically close to Nymburk and this is good for both teams. Our fans can get there by car and watch the game. We expect to fight in very tough battle, give our best and try to finish first or second in order to advance. We missed the Last 16 by a single basket two years in a row, so this would be our goal."
BK Ventspils general manager Martins Ribens
"A draw can always be worse or better, and you are never sure until the games start. I can definitely say that we face three respectable and experienced teams with great history in European basketball at both domestic and international level. Those will be hard games against three teams that will do their best to win. We will see how difficult it is when the competition starts. Of course, we will do our best. We are a young, ambitious team that will try to win every game and do whatever it takes to play the best basketball possible."
Panellinios BC general manager Iakovos Filipposis
"I think this is a very difficult group because all teams are strong, experienced and dangerous on the road. We need to do our best if we want to make it to the next round. On the other hand, we have to feel lucky because some other teams are very, very strong. In any case, we will do our best. This is our third consecutive Eurocup year and we made it to the Last 16 last season. This should be our initial goal - and then try to go one step forwards. The Eurocup is very important for us and we are an ambitious team. We believe we can succeed in this very difficult group."
Aris BSA 2003 president Ioannis Damianidis
"First of all, this is a new start for Aris, with a new, very good coach that came back to work in Greece after four years like Fotis Katsikaris. We will make the changes that our coach needs to do well. Aris always has big goals and is a team with a lot of fans. We will play to honour the reputation of our club and try to make it at least to the Eurocup Finals. We are in group in which all four teams - Aris, Zadar, Siauliai and Hapoel - have good fan bases. We will try to do our best and like I told you, our first team will be to make it to the Last 16 and then see how hard the way to the Final Four becomes."
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