Eurocup: European Basketballs 2nd Most Important Tournaments Final 4.

This weekend is the final 4 of the Eurocup, formerly known as the ULEB Cup (2002-2008). It's in Vitoria (Gazteiz in bask), Spain. The teams taking part in it are: Bilbao Basket (Bilbao, Spain), Alba Berlin (Berlin, Germany), Power Electronics Valencia (Valencia, Spain) and Panellinios Gymnasticos Syllogos (Athens, Greece). The Eurocup is the second most important European club basketball tournament after the Euroleague. The winner gets to play in next years Eurolegue.

The semifinals will be on Saturday and the final and the 3rd and 4th game will be on Sunday.

The semifinals are:

Power Electronics Valencia vs. Panellinios Gymnasticos Syllogos

This will be the first game, on Saturday the 17th at 18:00h ( Spanish time; ET +1).

P.E. Valencia should be the favourite, as they are playing good in Europe, don't have to travel long and are doing great in the Spanish basketball league (ACB).

Bilbao Basket vs. Alba Berlin

This will be the second game on Saturday at 20:45 (again Spanish time; ET +1)

In this game Bilbao Basket has the edge, because it's like playing at home (Vitoria is about 40 minutes away from Bilbao) they are going to have the biggest amount of supporters (as of today one third of the stadiums seats was already sold to Bilbao Basket fans) also they have been playing great in Europe, where they have only lost 3 games that didn't matter. They also have the Euroleague MVP Marko Banic and are only one of two team to make the semifinals two years in a row (prior one was Estudiantes, from Madrid, Spain).

The rules are a little different from the NBA, being the most important difference the lenght of the quarters: 10 minutes instead of 12:30, which makes the game 10 minutes shorter (that's why you don't see so high scores in European basketball leagues).