All statistics correct as of 9 November 2023.1 Sponsored name, referring to BKT.
The 2023–24 EuroCup Basketball season was the 22nd season of Euroleague Basketball's secondary level professional club basketball tournament. It was the 16th season since it was renamed from the ULEB Cup to the EuroCup, and the first season under the new title sponsorship name of BKT[1] The season began on 3 October 2023 and will end at the latest on 17 April 2024 with the Finals.
Dreamland Gran Canaria were the defending champions after refusing to take part in the 2023–24 EuroLeague via spot granted to the title holders,[2] but were eliminated in eighthfinals.
Paris Basketball swept Mincidelice JL Bourg to achieve its first continental crown by winning its first EuroCup title in an almost perfect season with 22 wins and only one loss balance that earned it the right to secure a spot in the 2024–25 EuroLeague. It was also the second French side to win the EuroCup after AS Monaco triumph in the 2020–21 season.[3][4]
Format changes
The format changes consisted of reformatting the Playoffs. Access to the stage has been reduced with only six teams per group qualifying instead of eight, with the top two from each group bypassing the Eighthfinals and proceeding directly to the Quarterfinals. Furthermore, the Semifinals and Finals have been switched back to a best-of-three series format, returning to it after two seasons.[5][6]
Team allocation
A total of 20 teams from 14 countries participatedin the 2023–24 EuroCup season. On June 29, 2023, Euroleague Basketball confirmed the team list for this season.[5][7] Three new teams joined the competition and Wolves will make their debut appearance.
Teams
League positions after playoffs of the previous season shown in parentheses (TH: EuroCup title holders).
Qualified teams for 2023–24 EuroCup Basketball (by entry round)
The 20 teams were drawn into two groups of 10, with the restriction that teams from the same league could not be drawn against each other, except when there were more than two teams from the same league participating in the regular season. For the draw, the teams were seeded into 10 pots, in accordance with the Club Ranking, based on their performance in European competitions during a three-year period and the lowest possible position that any club from that league can occupy in the draw is calculated by adding the results of the worst performing team from each league.[11][9]
The fixtures were decided after the draw, using a computer draw not shown to public, with the following match sequence:[8]
Note: Positions for scheduling do not use the seeding pots, e.g., Team 1 is not necessarily the team from Pot 1 in the draw.
Round
Matches
Round 1
10 v 5, 6 v 4, 7 v 3, 8 v 2, 9 v 1
Round 2
1 v 10, 2 v 9, 3 v 8, 4 v 7, 5 v 6
Round 3
10 v 6, 7 v 5, 8 v 4, 9 v 3, 1 v 2
Round 4
2 v 10, 3 v 1, 4 v 9, 5 v 8, 6 v 7
Round 5
10 v 7, 8 v 6, 9 v 5, 1 v 4, 2 v 3
Round 6
3 v 10, 4 v 2, 5 v 1, 6 v 9, 7 v 8
Round 7
10 v 8, 9 v 7, 1 v 6, 2 v 5, 3 v 4
Round 8
10 v 4, 5 v 3, 6 v 2, 7 v 1, 8 v 9
Round 9
9 v 10, 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5
Round
Matches
Round 10
5 v 10, 4 v 6, 3 v 7, 2 v 8, 1 v 9
Round 11
10 v 1, 9 v 2, 8 v 3, 7 v 4, 6 v 5
Round 12
6 v 10, 5 v 7, 4 v 8, 3 v 9, 2 v 1
Round 13
10 v 2, 1 v 3, 9 v 4, 8 v 5, 7 v 6
Round 14
7 v 10, 6 v 8, 5 v 9, 4 v 1, 3 v 2
Round 15
10 v 3, 2 v 4, 1 v 5, 9 v 6, 8 v 7
Round 16
8 v 10, 7 v 9, 6 v 1, 5 v 2, 4 v 3
Round 17
4 v 10, 3 v 5, 2 v 6, 1 v 7, 9 v 8
Round 18
10 v 9, 8 v 1, 7 v 2, 6 v 3, 5 v 4
There were scheduling restrictions: for example, teams from the same city in general were not scheduled to play at home on the same round (to avoid them playing at home on the same day or on consecutive days, due to logistics and crowd control).[8]
Location of teams of the 2023–24 EuroCup regular season. Red: Group A; Green: Group B.
The regular season started on 3 October 2023 and ended on 7 February 2024. In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format where only six teams advanced to the playoffs. Moreover, the top two teams in each regular season group received first round playoff byes, skipping the eighthfinals to be placed directly into the quarterfinals. At the tail end of the standings, four teams from each group were eliminated after the regular season. Alongside 17 returning teams from last season, Wolves made its debut appearance, and Aris Midea and Beşiktaş Emlakjet welcomed back to the EuroCup eight years later.
In the playoffs, teams played against each other in a knockout tournament into four rounds from eighthfinals to finals. At the end of the regular season, the six teams from each group with the most wins qualified for the playoffs. The two top teams from each regular season group received a bye and qualified directly to the quarterfinals. The remaining eight qualified teams entered the eighthfinals to compete in a single-game format in which the third-placed teams of each group faced off against the sixth-placed teams of the opposite groups and the fourth-placed teams of each group faced off against the fifth-placed teams of the opposite groups. The four winning teams from eighthfinals entered the quarterfinals to faced off in a single-game format in the home of the two top teams from each regular season group. The higher-placed regular season team in each matchup enjoyed home court advantage in eighthfinals and quarterfinals. From semifinals onwards, teams played in best-of-three series with the first leg and third leg, if necessary, in the home court of the higher-placed regular season team to crown the EuroCup champion.[12][13]