REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - Christmas is just about upon us but pardon my looking forward to the annual post-Christmas present from the basketball gods known as the Adidas Next Generation Tournament (ANGT). 

This column will break down the first two of the four ANGT events - taking place in Rome from December 27-29 and in L'Hospitalet from January 4-6. The other two ANGT qualifiers will be played from January 15-17 in Kaunas and February 26-28 in Belgrade. 

The four winners of the qualifying tournaments will book spots for the ANGT Finals at the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four in Berlin from May 13-15. The four remaining spots will be given to wild cards teams. 

Stellazzurra Basketball Academy Rome won the Rome tournament last season for the first time and will be one of the top favourites to hoist the trophy again at the Altero Felici gym. The Italians have been drawn into Group A with CSKA Moscow, Efes Pilsen Istanbul and Virtus Bologna. Group B features Armani Junior Milano, Mega Legs Belgrade, Umana Reyer Venice and Unicaja Malaga. The winners of the two round-robin groups meet in the final. 

Stellazzurra will be a young team with eight players under-age at the U18 tournament. The Romans return three players from last season's team, two of them who played significant roles despite being two years younger. 

Serbian Lazar Nikolic is an intriguing 2.02m point guard while Njegos Sikiras helped Bosnia and Herzegovina to win the 2015 U16 European Championship this past summer. Gugliermo Caruso is a talented center while Emanuele Trapani will also have a major impact.

CSKA are actually record three-time champions of the competition but their last title came in 2006 and the last time they reached the finals was in 2007. Moscow will have six players returning from last season’s team including Daniil Trostin and Andrei Lopatin, the latter who played at the 2015 FIBA Europe U18 All-Star Game at EuroBasket 2015. 

Efes will send a weakened team as Turkey are holding a U16/U17 national team camp at the same time. Their top player will likely be Ismet Avsar. 

Virtus Bologna also isn’t expected to challenge for top honours though Tommaso Oxilia could have a strong showing. 

Moving over to Group B, Milano also have some experience back - six players - but it would be a tall task for the Italians to reach the Finals. If there’s any chance, Davide Toffali will need to have a great tournament while Michele Serpilli is also a nice talent.

Mega Leks could be very tough to beat with a strong mix, including seven players with ANGT experience. The leader will likely be Aleksandar Aranitovic, who will be playing his third ANGT tournament after winning the 2014 title and reaching the 2015 final with Crvena Zvezda. 

But Mega Leks have much more than just Aranitovic. Novak Music is an exciting player as is Nikola Miskovic while 2000 born Marko Pecarski is still two years younger than the rest of the competition and he should have a strong showing in his second go-around. 

Venice shouldn't have major expectations though they will be led by Riccardo Visconti and Michele Antelli. 

Unicaja meanwhile reached the Finals last season as a wild card but they seem to be a bit weaker this season. They lost their top five scorers from the 2015 team with Victor Aguilar the top returnee along with Manuel Vazquez and Ablaye Sow.

Let's not waste any time and jump into the L'Hospitalet ANGT, which was won last season by eventual title winners Real Madrid. 

The defending champions will be strong again this season but will not have the transcendent talent they had last time in Luka Doncic, who could still play this season and next in the ANGT - but he will be playing in the Euroleague and Liga Endesa.

Madrid have been drawn into Group A along with Union Olimpija Ljubljana, FIATC Joventut Badalona and Maccabi Teddy Tel Aviv. Group B has Barcelona, Seville, hosts Torrons Vicens L’Hospitalet and Brose Baskets Bamberg. The top two from the groups reach the semi-finals. 

Madrid have five champions back in the mix this season, led by Brazilian big man Felipe Dos Anjos. Others to watch for will be Domagoj Proleta and Dino Radoncic. 

Olimpija will feature David Kralj and Haris Cucovic while Maccabi have Yovel Zoosman and Amit Ebo.

The 2013 champions Joventut might have one of the best players in the tournament in Nenad Dimitrijevic. 

Odds on favorites to reach the semis from Group B are Barcelona and Bamberg. 

Barcelona are absolutely loaded with Eric Vila, Sergi Martinez, Pol Figueras, Atoumane Diagne and Andrija Marjanovic. 

Bamberg meanwhile have a strong team with Arnoldas Kulboka, Moritz Sanders and Nicolas Wolf as well as loaned players Lars Lagerpusch and Isaac Bonga. 

Seville have six returning players including Leo Cizmic and Eduardo Lada as well as Giorgi Tvalabeishvili from Georgia.

L'Hospitalet meanwhile will be an underdog in all three group games and will be looking to repeat their historic feat from last season, when they won their first game in competition history. Returnee Dani Garcia would need a big game for another upset to occur.

The last non-Spanish team to win the L'Hospitalet tournament was eventual champions Lietuvos Rytas in the 2011-12 season. Could Bamberg ruin the Spanish party and become the first German team to qualify for an ANGT Finals?

We'll find out shortly after Christmas.

David Hein

FIBA

FIBA's columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

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