The globe’s premier youth club basketball competition comes to Germany when the first-ever Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Munich tips off this weekend.
Munich hosts its first ANGT qualifier
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Among the headliners will be 2015 continental champion U18 Real Madrid, which is the only previous title-winner in the eight-team field. Madrid joins U18 ALBA Berlin, U18 Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul and ANGT debutant U18 ratiopharm Ulm in Group B. Group A also has two German clubs with host side U18 FC Bayern Munich and U18 Brose Bamberg as well as U18 Olympiacos Piraeus and U18 Real Betis Energia Plus Seville. The teams will all play each other in their group round-robin style with the group winners facing off in Sunday’s ANGT Munich final. The victor of that game will book its ticket to the ANGT Finals at May’s Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four in Belgrade. The winner will be the third participant to guarantee its place at the eight-team ANGT Finals field along with U18 Divina Seguros Joventut Badalona and U18 Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius, which won the ANGT Ciutat L’Hospitalet and ANGT Kaunas events, respectively.
In Group A, Bayern will host an ANGT for the first time at the Audi Dome after playing in the competition in the last four editions. Bayern finished 1-3 and in seventh place in Coin last year after posting the same record and a sixth-place finish in Belgrade in 2016. Bamberg returns to the competition after missing last year’s event. In 2016, Bamberg lost to Real Madrid in the L’Hospitalet semifinals. The club’s best finish came in 2013, when it grabbed third place in Rome. Even though Olympiacos has achieved great things in the EuroLeague, the Greek giant will be making just its second-ever appearance in the ANGT following its 0-3 showing in the ANGT Finals in 2007. Betis is a regular in the competition though it has played under different names in the past. The club took fourth place in Coin last year with a 2-2 record. As Cajasol Seville, it reached the ANGT Finals in 2010 and 2014.
Madrid enters Group B having won its previous four qualifying tournaments - L’Hospitalet in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and Coin in 2017. Madrid has not lost an ANGT qualifying game since being defeated by U18 Divina Seguros Joventut Badalona in the final of the 2013 ANGT L’Hospitalet - an on-going streak of 19 games. ALBA has played in two ANGT Finals - both as EuroLeague Final Four host in 2009 and 2016. In 2017, ALBA took sixth place at L’Hospitalet with a 1-3 record after taking fifth place and third place in 2016 and 2015, respectively in Belgrade. Darussafaka will be making its second-ever appearance in the ANGT after finishing eighth in Coin last year with a 1-3 record. Ulm is making its debut in the competition.