VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - It wasn't hard to decipher the real meaning of Joan Plaza's remarks just seconds after Unicaja Malaga's 86-78 win at CSKA Moscow on Friday night.

In what had been a battle of the Euroleague's only unbeaten sides, an emotionally-charged up Spanish club prevailed with France international Edwin Jackson's eye-popping 24 points and Lithuania's Mindaugas Kuzminskas's 22 leading the way.

Jackson, who played for France at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, drilled six of eight three-pointers against CSKA and Kuzminskas, a leading player at EuroBasket 2015 for Lithuania, hurt the Russian giants with a nine-of-12 effort from the floor, including a three-of-five success rate from the arc.

The victory over CSKA punched Unicaja's ticket to the next phase of the competition, something they have now done for 11 straight years.

Who knows? Jackson, the 2013 French league MVP while at ASVEL Villeurbanne, could be about to have a huge season.

The victory over CSKA was played just three days after an announcement that there will be a new 16-team "competition model" for the 2016-17 Euroleague that guarantees spots for 11 A-licence clubs, the Eurocup champion, three unspecified league champions and one place for the winner of qualifying rounds featuring eight (unspecified) teams.

The A-licence clubs are Anadolu Efes Istanbul, CSKA, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, FC Barcelona Lassa, Fenerbahce Istanbul, Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz, Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv, Olympiacos Piraeus, Panathinaikos Athens, Real Madrid and Zalgiris Kaunas, and Euroleague Basketball said they had agreed on the new competition model "as the final step forward". 

A party had been announced and Unicaja, a member of the Euroleague family, had not been invited.

So when Plaza, a no-nonsense, honest, hardworking and excellent coach stood on the court in the immediate aftermath to give his comments about the win over CSKA, he spoke forcefully and with a little anger.

"The first thing I want to say is that Unicaja have made it to the Top 16 for 11 years in a row," he said.

"With this game that we have won, we are 5-0!

"We are mathematically classified for the Top 16 and there are only four teams in all of Europe that have played for 11 consecutive years in the Top 16!"

In other words, "Why haven't we been invited to next year's Euroleague party?"

From a competition standpoint, you have to wonder why Unicaja wouldn't be included.

Maccabi Tel Aviv, FC Barcelona and Panathinaikos Athens, all former champions, are the only other teams trying to reach the Top 16 for an 11th consecutive season as Unicaja already have.

Unicaja have not won the title but did reach the 2007 Final Four.

Their club info page on the Euroleague website says Unicaja "had confirmed its status among the European elite" by reaching that Final Four.

Plaza would have liked for that elite status to have been reconfirmed this past week with their inclusion in Euroleague Basketball’s plans for next season.

There was no mention by Euroleague Basketball in their statement about the new competition model of FIBA's new system of competition or calendar, which goes into effect in November 2017.

Over a four-year cycle from 2017 through 2021, national teams will play regular home and away games to qualify for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the 2021 FIBA Continental Cups.

There will be several windows during the year when domestic leagues and continental club competitions around the world will take breaks so players can join up with their national teams to play the qualifying games.

Jeff Taylor

FIBA

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