The lineup for the 2015 EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT finals is set after INSEP Paris, Spars Sarajevo, Unicaja Malaga and VEF Riga accepted invitations to compete
Four invitees complete ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT finals field
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They will be competing alongside the four teams that guaranteed their places via qualifying tournaments throughout the winter: Stellazzurra Basketball Academy Rome, Real Madrid, Zalgiris Kaunas and Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade.
These eight teams will compete to be crowned European junior club champion at the 13th edition of the annual tournament finals, which run from Thursday, May 14 through Sunday, May 17 in conjunction with the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four in Madrid, Spain. The first three days of the event will be played at Magarinos, however Sunday’s championship game will take place at Barclaycard Center on the same floor where later that evening the Euroleague champion will be crowned.
Stellazzurra was the first team to book a spot in the EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT finals, by winning the Rome qualifying tournament, where it beat Unicaja Malaga in the title game. Real Madrid did not lose a game in capturing its second straight L'Hospitalet title. Crvena Zvezda won its fifth consecutive title at the ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT 'Marko Ivkovic' Belgrade. Zalgiris won the Kaunas tourney by beating VEF Riga in the title game.
Like VEF Riga and Unicaja, INSEP also lost only one game – to Zalgiris – in its qualifying tournament. The same is true of Spars, which finished third to Stellazzurra and Unicaja in Rome despite winning all but one of its four games. Crvena Zvezda, Real Madrid and Zalgiris competed at the tournament finals in Milan, Italy, last season. Crvena Zvezda defeated Madrid for the 2014 crown. Zvezda will try to become the first team to repeat as champion since FMP in 2009.
As the place where future stars are born, the ANGT alumni club is already a who's who of European basketball greatness. Many players who participated in previous events can be seen on Turkish Airlines Euroleague and Eurocup rosters today, including Mirza Begic (Laboral Kutxa Vitoria), Nihad Dedovic (FC Bayern Munich), Mario Hezonja (FC Barcelona), Mantas Kalnietis (Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar), Lukas Lekavicius (Zalgiris Kaunas), Jonas Maciulis (Real Madrid), Milan Macvan (Partizan Belgrade), Cedi Osman (Anadolu Efes Istanbul), Dario Saric (Anadolu Efes Istanbul) and Milos Teodosic (CSKA Moscow), to name a few.
As always entrance to all games of the EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT finals is completely free of charge, which allows local and visiting fans to be the first to see many of the upcoming elite talents in European basketball compete against each other, all in the same place.