REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - With so much attention on the NCAA Tournament the last two weeks, one bit of news went a bit overlooked in Europe - as the Euroleague finally did Unicaja Malaga right by giving them a wild card for the Adidas Next Generation Tournament (ANGT) Finals. 

Unicaja was one of four clubs which received extra invitations for the eight-team field at the Euroleague Final Four in Madrid from May 14-17, along with 2010 champions INSEP Paris, Spars Sarajevo and VEF Riga.

Sure there were a couple of good teams left out. Barcelona lost in the final of the L'Hospitalet qualifying tournament to Real Madrid, and Partizan Belgrade were downed by reigning ANGT champs Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade in the Belgrade qualifying tournament championship game. 

Also it would have been nice to see what Turkish big man Omer Yurtseven would have done with Fenerbahce after putting up monster numbers (24.8 points, 14.8 rebounds, 3.0 blocks, 1.5 steals and 1.3 assists) at the Kaunas qualifier - despite being a year younger at 16 years as a 1998-born player.

But the quartet of teams chosen all deserve to be in Madrid. And it's good that Euroleague decided to have four clubs from Europe join the four qualified teams - Real Madrid, Stellazzurra Basketball Academy Rome, Zalgiris Kaunas and Crvena Zvezda. For the past four years, Euroleague has given a wild card spot to national teams from outside of Europe - to Team China from 2011-2013 and to Team Brazil last spring. 

But this year four deserving teams received spots in the much-coveted tournament.

If you include the recent past, no team is more deserving than Unicaja, whose ANGT history would best be described as always a bridesmaid, never a bride. In losing to Stellazzurra in the Rome final, it was the fourth time Unicaja lost in a qualifying tournament final since 2009. Malaga were defeated in the L’Hospitalet finals in 2009 (versus Lietuvos Rytas), 2010 (to Cajasol Seville) and 2014 (against Real Madrid).

It should also be noted though that Malaga have a bunch of talent such as Romaric Belemene-Dzabatou and Viny Okouo from Congo, Romanian Rares Uta and Spanish point guard Carlos Corts. And their only loss came against Rome in the final.

VEF Riga's only defeat in the Kaunas qualifier came against host side Zalgiris in the final - for the second season in a row. And VEF’s appearance in Madrid means ANGT fans in Spain will see one of the most exciting players from the 1998 age group in Rodions Kurucs. It is great to see that Euroleague rewarded VEF Riga for their efforts this - and last - season. 

Euroleague awarded another team with just one loss from the Kaunas qualifier as INSEP were defeated by Zalgiris in the decisive final game in group play before knocking off Fenerbahce in the third place game.

The French club also has its fair share of exciting players including sharpshooter Bathiste Tchouaffe, power forward Stephane Gombauld and the ever-improving big man Jonathan Jeanne.

Spars meanwhile also only lost one game - in the Rome group - losing to Malaga in the final group game before beating Brose Baskets Bamberg for third place. The Bosnian club features a dynamic duo in Edin Atic and Amar Gegic with Fahrudin Manjgafic being a good inside-outside threat as well. 

The Euroleague did a good job in selecting the four wild card recipients - all deserving teams which will make the long weekend of games in Madrid that much more exciting. 

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.

FIBA takes no responsibility and gives no guarantees, warranties or representations, implied or otherwise, for the content or accuracy of the content and opinion expressed in the above article.