There is no shortage of storylines for the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals as the continent’s premier U18 club competition takes center stage this week in the Spanish city of Valencia.
Four former champs highlight ANGT Finals field
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The 18th edition of the ANGT Finals was originally scheduled to run alongside the 2021 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in Cologne, Germany. However, pandemic regulations resulted in the tournament's relocated to the state-of-the-art L'Alqueria del Basket facility in Valencia, where the first of this season's three qualifying tournaments was staged. The group games will take place from June 3-5 with the ANGT Championship Game scheduled for June 6.
Four former champions headline the eight-team field, including the most recent winner U18 Real Madrid, which will be looking to become the first repeat champion since U18 FMP Belgrade in 2009. Real has hoisted the trophy on two occasions, just like U18 Zalgiris Kaunas, and should either team win on June 6 it would match U18 CSKA Moscow as a record three-time winner. U18 FC Barcelona and U18 Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade are the other two past winners in the field. Real (twice), Zalgiris (3) Barcelona (1) and Zvezda (2) all have additional appearances in the ANGT Championship Game.
Two other 2021 ANGT Finals participants will be aiming to finally reach the summit after coming up just short. U18 Mega SoccerBet Belgrade has been to two ANGT Championship Games; it lost in 2017 and 2019. U18 Stellazzurra Rome lost to U18 Rytas Vilnius in the 2018 title game. Should either Mega or Stellazzurra win the championship, or either of the other two participants - host U18 Valencia Basket or debutant U18 LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne - they would become the 11th club to be crowned U18 continental champion.
The eight teams are broken down into two groups with each team playing the others in the group in round-robin style. The top finisher in each group will then face off on Sunday in the ANGT Championship Game. Group A has Zvezda, ASVEL, Real and Zalgiris while Group B is made up of Barcelona, Mega, Stellazzurra and Valencia.
The 2014 champion Zvezda is appearing in the ANGT Finals for the 10th straight time and 11th overall. In addition to its 2014 crown, the club also reached the ANGT Championship Game in 2015 and 2016. Zvezda finished runner-up at the ANGT Belgrade and was awarded a wild card for the Finals. Fellow wild card recipient ASVEL is the sole first-timer in the competition in Valencia. The French club took sixth place at the ANGT Valencia. The 2015 champion Real has become a regular at the ANGT Finals, with its seventh straight appearance and eighth overall. The Spanish powerhouse, which lost to Zvezda in the 2014 ANGT Championship Game and beat the same club in 2015, took first place at the ANGT Istanbul to book its spot in the ANGT Finals. Zalgiris finished third at the ANGT Istanbul and was given a wild card to reach the Finals for the 15th time in 18 editions. The Lithuania club won the crown in 2003 and 2007 and lost in the title game in 2005, 2006 and 2011.
In Group B, Barcelona hoisted the trophy in 2016 after coming up just short in 2008 and 2013. The Spanish side took first place at the ANGT Valencia to make the Finals for the ninth time - but first since 2017. The Serbian team Mega claimed first place at the ANGT Belgrade to make the Finals for a fifth consecutive season. It was the runner-up in 2019 when it lost to Real in the ANGT Championship Game, meaning a repeat of the 2019 title bout is possible. Stellazzurra hopes to keep that from happening as it makes its third appearance in the Finals, following 2015 and 2018 - the latter of which it lost in the final. The Italians were ANGT Istanbul runners-up to Real and received a wild card. The other team in Group B is Valencia, which received a wild card as the host team to participate in the Finals for a second time after debuting in 2019.