VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - We have arrived at the business end of the inaugural Basketball Champions League campaign with eight Play-Off Qualifiers to be held over the next few weeks.

The Regular Season provided plenty of drama, and I'm predicting even more all the way through to the Final Four, which will be staged 28-30 April.

The league is something special in the making. I'm not hearing complaints from coaches or players. I'm hearing praise, and I've spoken to a lot of the people that are involved.

"I think it's a very good competition," Maccabi Rand Media coach Arik Shivek said on Friday.

"I think this league is going to get better and better." - Shivek

Shivek, who has coached in continental competitions before and also led Israel's national team, steered his club to a fifth-place finish in Group B.

The Israeli outfit will host MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg in Rishon Le Zion on Wednesday in the opening leg of their Play-Off Qualifier.

"I can tell you that it's (league) very well organized," he said. "I give them credit that they adapted to the new situation of bringing a few teams more to the league from the Eurocup and making the fifth group. I think this league is going to get better and better."

The players have enjoyed it.

"It's a good experience," Kataja Basket's Daniel Mullings said. "It's fun to be able to travel around and play in all of these different countries and play these different teams."

Davin White has loved it and that's not surprising. The Iberostar Tenerife guard is the league leader in game-winning shots.

His 3-point play in the waning seconds gave the Canary Islanders a stunning win at Sidigas Avellino on 23 November and on 3 January at SIG Strasbourg, he was even better.

In a crucial game with implications on which team would finish first in Group D, White was just 1 of 8 from long range before connecting from deep with a minute to go for a 69-67 lead. He then drilled the winner with less than three seconds to play.

"It's a good experience," White said of the league. "It's fun to be able to travel around and play in all of these different countries and play these different teams."

Martin Zeno, who played for American college basketball legend Bobby Knight at Texas Tech, enjoyed this season with CSM CSU Oradea, even though they came up just short of the Play-Off Qualifiers.

"Honestly, I think it's great," he said. "It's very competitive from top to bottom. I think it's a great league."

The Basketball Champions League has given young players high-level experience. It's given clubs an opportunity to play in Europe for the first time, like Iberostar Tenerife. It's also given the fans a lot to talk about, from eye-opening plays to incredible finishes.

For me, if you have unforgettable moments or games, this says good things about a competition.

I think the two biggest moments were Jimmy Baron's 42-point explosion against Muratbey Usak Sportif and Tekele Cotton's game-winning 3-pointer at Dinamo Sassari.

There were many other fantastic finishes, though, like the one by Gedimas Orelik of Banvit against Aris.

There have been come-from-behind wins, like the one by Sidigas Avellino at Iberostar Tenerife, when they gained revenge from the narrow defeat in Italy.

Now come the Play-Off Qualifiers and after that the Round of 16. There's a lot more to come. This is only going to get better.

Jeff Taylor
FIBA

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