Euroleague: 58th Season set to tip off

The 58th year of Europe’s highest level of basketball, currently known as the Turkish Airlines Euroleague, is set to tip off in Vilnius, Lithuania on Tuesday, October 1 with the Qualification Round. Eight clubs will square off in a single elimination competition with the winner grabbing the 24th spot in the Euroleage, playing in Group D.

On Tuesday Cimberio Varese will face EWE Baskets Oldenburg and host club Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius will square off with VEF Riga. On Wednesday Khimki Moscow Region will meet Telenet Ostend, and CEZ Basketball Nymburk will play Banvit Bandirma. The winners will play on Thursday, with the title game to be played on Friday.

With the winner rounding out Group D, the rest of the clubs head to the EuroCup.

Euroleague 2013-14 group assignments:

Group A
FC Barcelona
CSKA Moscow
Fenerbahce Ulker
Partizan MT:S Belgrade
JSF Nanterre

Group B
Real Madrid
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
Zalgiris Kaunas
Brose Baskets Bamber
EA7 Emporio Armani
Strasbourg

Group C
Olympiacos Piraeus
Montepaschi Siena
Unicaja Malaga
Galatasaray Istanbul
Stelmet Zielona Gora
FC Bayern Munich

Group D
Panathinaikos Athens
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv
Laboral Kutxa Vitoria
Lokomotiv Kuban
Crvena Zvezda
Winner of Qualification Round

The Regular Season will begin on October 17th and run through December 20th and will consist of 10 games, each team play the other teams in their group twice. After the Regular Season round, the top four teams from each Group will head to the Top 16 Round and make up Groups E and F. During the Top 16 Round each team will play the other seven in their group twice for 14 more games and will be contested from January 2nd to April 11th. The top four clubs in Groups E and F will then head into the Playoffs with the Final Four heading to Milan, Italy from May 16th through May 18th.