Eurocup 2009–10 | |
---|---|
League | Eurocup |
Sport | Basketball |
Duration | October 20, 2009 – April 18, 2010 |
Season MVP |
Marko Banić (Bizkaia Bilbao) |
Top scorer |
Darius Washington (Galatasaray Café Crown) |
Finals | |
Champions | Power Electronics Valencia |
Runners-up | Alba Berlin |
Finals MVP |
Matt Nielsen (Power Electronics Valencia) |
2009–10 Eurocup Basketball was the eighth edition of Europe's second-tier level transnational competition for men's professional basketball clubs, the EuroCup. The EuroCup is the European-wide league level that is one tier below the EuroLeague level. It began with qualifying round matches on October 20, 2009, and ended with the Eurocup Finals on April 17 and 18, 2010, at Fernando Buesa Arena in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country, Spain. The competition was won by Spanish club Power Electronics Valencia, who won their second EuroCup title, and also secured a place in the 2010–11 edition of the EuroCup's parent competition, the EuroLeague.
For the first time, the EuroCup conducted a four-team final round, as in the EuroLeague. To accommodate this change, a quarterfinal round was introduced. As in the EuroLeague, where the top two teams from each of the four groups in its Top 16 phase advanced to the quarterfinals, the top two teams from each group in the analogous Last 16 phase advanced to the quarterfinals. However, the structure of the EuroCup quarterfinals was very different from that of the EuroLeague — instead of a best-of-5 series, as in the EuroLeague, each EuroCup quarterfinal was a two-legged tie, with the winner determined on aggregate score. Unlike virtually all other basketball competitions, the quarterfinals did not use overtime, unless necessary to break an aggregate tie.
The quarterfinals were two-legged ties determined on aggregate score. The first leg of the Bilbao–Nymburk tie was played on March 23, with all other first legs played on March 24. All return legs were played on March 31. The group winner in each tie, listed as "Team #1", hosted the second leg.
The first-ever "final four" in the history of the competition, officially called the Eurocup Finals, was held at Fernando Buesa Arena in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. Euroleague Basketball Company was initially noncommital on whether it would schedule a third-place game, but ultimately decided to do so.