Yesterday the 2012-2013 Euroleague kicked off with the first eight matches (officially Turkish Airlines Euroleague Basketball for advertising reasons), the Champions League of wedges. Tonight another five matches will complete the first day of the four initial groups which, at their end, on 14 December, will decide the Top 16. This is the thirteenth edition since the top European club competition has been organized by the ULEB and presents some new features compared to the previous years: first of all the matches will be played on Thursdays and Fridays, no longer on Wednesdays, this to avoid the coincidence (especially on TV) with the football Champions League, while as far as the format of the tournament is concerned, the 16 teams qualified after the first phase will no longer be divided into four other groups, but into only two groupings of eight teams (therefore for each of them there will be many more matches to play, 14 instead of 6). The first four of the two groups will be promoted to the quarterfinals. Furthermore, the two maxi groups will no longer be defined by drawing lots but on the basis of the position obtained by the various teams at the end of the first phase. The rest has remained unchanged, with the quarter-finals (also these will not be drawn but will result from pairings already defined) to the best of 5 games. From here will come the four best teams that will compete in the Final Four, which this year will take place at the 02 Arena in London from 10 to 12 May 2013.
The holders of the trophy are the Greek team Olympiacos Piraeus, who last May won their second title in their history by surprisingly beating the favorite CSKA Moscow in the final in Istanbul. The team with the highest number of cups on the bulletin board (obviously also counting the "old" Champions Cup) is instead, as in football, Real Madrid with 8 victories, but if we consider the successes by nation, Italy is ahead with 13 trophies thanks to 5 victories in Varese, 3 in Milan, 2 each for Virtus Bologna and Cantù and a triumph in Rome. However, most of these victories are now distant in time, with the last success by Bologna in 2001. Behind Italy they are making up under Spain with 11 victories (in addition to Real, Barcelona won twice and once Joventut Badalona) and Greece with 8 (6 brought home by Panathinaikos).
Once again this year, the teams favored to battle are the usual: according to many, CSKA Moscow (winner of the event six times) should have the strongest roster, which this season is led on the bench by our Ettore Messina, returning from not too positive NBA adventure in the Los Angeles Lakers staff and who in his palmares can already count 4 triumphs in the Euroleague, the two with Bologna and two more with CSKA in 2006 and 2008. Immediately behind are the two Spanish, Barcelona and Real, with the Catalans who have largely confirmed the group of recent seasons and now play by heart, while the Blancos can count on the return home of Rudy Fernandez after the USA experience. Defending champions Olympiacos are unlikely to repeat last season's feat, but they are certainly part of a group of teams that will fight for a place in the Final Four, which includes Panathinaikos' rivals, the ever fearsome Maccabi Tel Aviv (5 times winner of the cup), as well as Anadolu Efes Istanbul and Simone Pianigiani's reinforced Fenerbahce Ulker, who will try to conquer Europe this time starting from Turkey, after various attempts on the Siena bench. Speaking of Siena, which was the last Italian to make it to the Final Four in 2011, losing in the semifinal against Panathinaikos, then winner of the tournament, while last year it interrupted its progress in the quarterfinals, defeated 3 to 1 by Olympiacos, as regards the three Italian players involved (in addition to Siena there are Milan and Cantù) in the hypothetical initial grid they are behind, apparently far from the first.
If we want to try and be optimistic, the one that could go the furthest this year could even be Milan and not Siena, given Olimpia's excellent signing campaign and the downsizing, at least on paper, of Montepaschi, with the Sienese team unfortunately in the last few years of absolute domination in Italy it has not managed, sometimes for very little or by bad luck, to establish itself also in Europe, despite having a roster of the level of the other squadrons on the continent. In Cantù, pleasantly returned to occupy a position in basketball that counts at least in Italy and protagonist of the feat of beating Siena in the Super Cup two months ago, objectively one shouldn't ask too much but treat her as a real outsider, especially after the defeat debut last night. In fact, the team from Brianza, which arrived at this edition after passing a preliminary round which culminated with victory in the final against Le Mans, started off on the wrong foot, coming out of the match 84-71 (best scorer Pietro Aradori with 16 points) against the Slovenians of Union Olimpija, a bad and above all unexpected misstep that now puts Trinchieri's boys chasing their opponents in a group that immediately became uphill, if they want to repeat last year's good experience when only for the difference baskets did not even reach the quarterfinals. Next week's opponents of Panathinaikos, Fenerbahce, Real Madrid and the Russians of Khimky are also present in the Mapooro Cantù group. EA7 Milano and Montepachi will make their debut tonight against Anadolu Efes and Alba Berlin respectively, both at home and on stage at the same time, 20 and 45, in two matches well within the reach of the two Italians who must win in order not to risk complicating their respective groups right away, in which however on paper they should be part of the teams that will move on to the second phase.
Both are returning from a start to the season with ups and downs, with Olimpia already losing in the second league match on the Bologna pitch and Mens Sana missing out on their first seasonal title, the Italian Super Cup, as well as not having made a good impression, neither, in their respective recent prestigious friendlies with NBA teams during their pre-season (Milan took a lesson from the Boston Celtics while Siena lost big to San Antonio and Cleveland); therefore tonight a prompt response is expected from both of our formations. The EA7 Milano group also includes Zalgiris Kaunas, Olympiakos, the Spaniards of Caja Laboral and the Croatians of Cedevita. Montepaschi, on the other hand, will also have to contend with Maccabi, the French from Chalon, the Spanish from Unicaja and the Poles from Asseco Prokom. In yesterday's matches, in addition to Cantù, CSKA Moscow's narrow victory by only two points at home against Lietuvos Rytas, the winning debut of Olympiakos in a hard-fought match against Caja Laboral, the away victory of Maccabi on the Unicaja field and the convincing affirmation of Pianigiani's Fenerbahce against Khimky. So the run-up that leads to London has begun and we need to get serious right away, the hope is to be able to bring an Italian back among the top 4 in Europe, but as we have already seen, the road will be long and full of obstacles.
