Many of Europe's top players over the last 18 years have gotten the chance to measure their game against the rest of the continent's best at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament. And Valencia Basket is thrilled to once again give its top young talents that opportunity with the upcoming ANGT Valencia.
Valencia relishes opportunity to host ANGT qualifier
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The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague club will be the host of the U18 tournament for the third straight season as Valencia will compete with seven other teams from December 27 to 29, 2020 for a spot at ANGT Finals, which will be played at the EuroLeague Final Four in Cologne, Germany, from May 28 to 30, 2021.
Valencia's youngsters from the 2018-19 season – players born in 2001 and 2002 – played at the ANGT Finals in 2019 and got the chance to experience first-hand the 2019 EuroLeague Final Four in Vitoria-Gasteiz after the team finished first at the first-ever ANGT event at the L'Aqueria del Basket in December 2018.
"To think that they have played [in the ANGT Finals] and reached the elite... It is a real stimulus for them," Valencia youth coach Xavi Albert said about his players seeing Europe's best players up close at the Final Four.
Albert hopes he can get his current generation to Cologne next spring. But the main thing is giving them the chance to develop.
"It's a very nice tournament and it's great to have one of the venues here, having the best clubs in Europe here and the boys being able to measure themselves against the highest level that we have in the junior category," Albert said.
Valencia in 2018 returned to the competition for the first time since 2010. And Albert said the club was excited about being back in the event.
"We entered with great enthusiasm without any pretensions other than competing to the fullest. We were taking part in one of the best tournaments that we can play in and were able to win it at home," said Albert, who led his team to first place in the 2018-19 ANGT Valencia, winning all three group games and then knocking off U18 Virtus Bologna in the first-place game.
In last season's ANGT Valencia, the host side won its first two games but then lost to U18 Unicaja Malaga to miss out on a chance for the ANGT Finals and ended up beating U18 FC Barcelona in the third-place game.
This time around, Albert is happy that the event will even take place during the pandemic, which has kept the Spanish youth championships on hold.
Given the few competitive situations that we are seeing this year, it will be a success just to be able to play it," said Albert.
Valencia will play in Group B with U18 Unicaja Malaga, U18 Joventut Badalona and U18 LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne while U18 ratiopharm Ulm, U18 Nanterre 92, U18 FC Barcelona and 2019-20 ANGT Valencia first place team U18 Herbalife Gran Canaria compete in Group A.
The goal will be to finish first in the tournament, but in the end, Albert is just happy that his players will get a chance to play.
"The important thing is that we can celebrate it, that we are lucky enough to do it here, and that generation after generation of the juniors that we have in the club have the opportunity to play," he said.