Euroleague

The Euroleague is a high-caliber professional basketball league with teams from all over Europe.

Related Topics:
Basketball - Europe

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The Euroleague was established by ULEB, the Union of European Leagues of Basketball, which in turn was created by a group of 24 elite club teams. Most of the founding clubs came from Spain, Italy and Greece.

Related Topics:
ULEB - Spain - Italy - Greece

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The Euroleague is currently contested in four phases.

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The first phase is the regular season, in which 24 teams, divided into three groups of eight, participate. Each team plays two games (home-and-home) against every other team in its group. At the end of the regular season, the field is cut from 24 to 16; the surviving teams are divided into four groups.

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The second phase, known as the Top 16, then begins. As in the regular season, each Top 16 group is contested in a double round-robin format.

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New for the 2004-05 season was a quarterfinal round. Before, only the group winners advanced to the Final Four (see below). Now, the first- and second-place teams from each group advance. In the quarterfinal round, the first-place team from each group is matched against a second-place team from another group in a best-of-three series, with two of the three possible games scheduled at the first-place team's home court.

Related Topics:
2004 - 05 - Final Four - Best-of-three series

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The Final Four, held at a predetermined site, features the winners of the four quarterfinal series in one-off knockout matches. The semifinal losers play for third place; the winners play for the championship.

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The 2005 Final Four was held in Moscow, Russia. The semifinals took place on May 6, with the third-place and championship games on May 8. The following teams were involved:

Related Topics:
2005 - Moscow - Russia

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• CSKA Moscow
• Maccabi Tel Aviv
• TAU Cerámica (Spain) (official club name: Saski Baskonia, or simply Baskonia)
• Panathinaikos (Greece)

The semifinal matchups were:

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• CSKA 78-85 TAU Cerámica
• Maccabi 91-82 Panathinaikos

In the final, Maccabi successfully defended its title, defeating TAU 90-78. The third-place game saw Panathinaikos erase a 22-point deficit in the third quarter and go on to defeat the hosts CSKA 94-91 in double overtime.

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The 2006 Final Four will be held at Sazka Arena in Prague, Czech Republic.

Related Topics:
2006 - Sazka Arena - Prague - Czech Republic

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Euroleague: Teams of 2005-2006 Euroleague ►