The Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament arrives in Croatia where Zadar will host the event for the first time on March 3-5. The 2016 continental champion, U18 FC Barcelona, highlights an eight-team field that also includes 2003 runner-up U18 Maccabi Tel Aviv and 2018 finalist U18 Stellazzurra Rome.
The winner of Sunday’s first-place game will lock up the third ticket to the ANGT Finals, which will be played at the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in Kaunas from May 19-21, 2023. That team will join U18 Joventut Badalona, which took top honors at the ANGT Patras, and ANGT Munich winner U18 Real Madrid.
The eight teams will line up in two four-team groups and face each other in round-robin style. The two group winners will square off on Sunday in the first-place game. Group A is made up of U18 Casademont Zaragoza of Spain, the Croatian-Slovenian cooperation U18 Cedevita Olimipija Ljubljana, Maccabi and Stellazzurra. The four teams in Group B are Barcelona, host U18 Zadar, U18 Helsinki Basketball Academy of Finland and U18 Next Generation Team Zadar.
Zaragoza will be playing for the fourth time - and fourth season in a row. After being held winless at Kaunas 2019-20, the Spanish side grabbed two wins at Istanbul 2020-21 to finish fifth. Last season, Zaragoza took fourth place at the ANGT Varese. Cedevita is making its 17th appearance, including the last five and 15th of the last 16 seasons. Ljubljana hosted a qualifying tournament for the first time last season and picked up one win for sixth place. That was the same result as from Belgrade 2020-21 and the team took sixth at Belgrade 2019-20 with two victories. Maccabi is also appearing in its fifth straight ANGT and 16th overall. The Israeli powerhouse won its group stage last season at ANGT Patras but lost to U18 Stellazzurra Rome in the first-place game. That led to Maccabi receiving a wildcard spot for the ANGT Finals, where the team went 0-3 in its seventh appearance in the final tournament. Maccabi took fifth place at Belgrade 2020-21 and fourth at Belgrade 2019-20 after also reaching the first place game of Munich 2018-19.
Stellazzurra will be appearing in the competition for the 15th straight season. It hosted one of the qualifying tournaments in Rome from 2008-09 to 2015-16. The highlight so far for the Italian side was reaching the 2018 ANGT Championship Game, where it lost to U18 Rytas Vilnius. Last season, Stellazzurra finished first at the ANGT Patras for its first qualifying tournament title since 2014-15 in Rome. At the ANGT Finals, Stellazzurra went 1-2. That was the same record as at the ANGT Finals in Valencia in 2020-21 after it had lost to U18 Real Madrid in the 2020-21 ANGT Istanbul first-place game. Stellazzurra also fell to Real in the 2019-20 ANGT Munich first-place game.
Group B is headlined by Barcelona, which claimed its sole title in 2016 by beating U18 Crvena Zvezda Belgrade 90-82 in Berlin. Barcelona, which has lost in three ANGT Championship Games (2008, 2013 and 2021), competes for the 18th time overall and the 16th in a row. The Spanish giant was just 2-2 at Patras 2021-22 for a fourth-place finish. That came after Barcelona finished first at the ANGT Valencia, which was preceded by two 2-2 showings in Valencia, giving Barcelona 5th place in 2018-19 and fourth in 2019-20.
Host Zadar returns to the ANGT competition for the third time - and first since 2009-10 when the Croatian club was winless at ANGT London. Helsinki is back for its second straight appearance after grabbing two wins in its debut at Patras 2021-22 and finishing fifth.