1997–98 FIBA EuroLeague

1997–98 FIBA EuroLeague
1997–98 FIBA EuroLeague
	The Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona hosted the final Four
Season	1997–98
Dates	September 18, 1997 – April 23, 1998
Number of teams	24
Finals
Champions	Kinder Bologna (1st title)
Runners-up	AEK
Third place	Benetton Treviso
Fourth place	Partizan Zepter
Final Four MVP	Zoran Savić
Statistical leaders
Points
Points	Peja Stojaković
Rebounds	Dejan Tomašević
Assists	Willie Anderson
	← 1996–97 1998–99 →

The 1997–98 FIBA EuroLeague was the 41st installment of the European top-tier level professional club competition for basketball clubs (now called simply EuroLeague). It began on September 18, 1997, and ended on April 23, 1998. The competition's Final Four was held at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, with Kinder Bologna defeating AEK in the EuroLeague Final, in front of 11,900 spectators.[1]

Benetton Treviso finished in the third position, while Partizan finished fourth.

Competition system

24 teams (the national domestic league champions from the best leagues, and a variable number of other clubs from the most important national domestic leagues). The competition culminated in a Final Four.

Teams

Country ranking

For the 1997–1998 EuroLeague, the countries are allocated places according to their place on the FIBA country rankings, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 1994–95 to 1996–97.[2]

Country ranking for 1997–1998 FIBA EuroLeague

Rank	Country	Points	Teams	Notes
1	Spain	279.667	3
2	Greece	275.000
3	Italy	190.833
4	France	117.500
5	Turkey	96.667	2	+1, Ulker got wild card
6	Russia	70.542		Lost one berth ^{[Note FIBA]}
7	Germany	55.389		Lost one berth ^{[Note FIBA]}
8	Croatia	50.833
9	Israel	43.048	1	+1, Hapoel Jerusalem got wild card
10	Slovenia	38.833
11	FR Yugoslavia	25.000
12	Portugal	23.071
13	Belgium	22.500	0
14	Poland	21.206
15	Lithuania	19.416
16	Ukraine	15.762
17	Hungary	9.667
18	Czech Republic	7.139
19	Slovakia	6.555

Rank	Country	Points	Teams
20	Macedonia	6.111	0
21	Austria	5.445
22	Sweden	5.333
23	Cyprus	4.333
24	England	4.167
25	Latvia	3.722
26	Switzerland	3.083
27	Bulgaria	2.694
28	Romania	2.389
29	Finland	1.861
30	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1.778
31	Estonia	1.500
32	Netherlands	1.500
33	Georgia	1.500
34	Luxembourg	1.444
35	Albania	1.361
36	Denmark	0.167
37	Moldova	0.111
38	Belarus	0.056

Note

^
FIBA: In Euroleague, teams finishing 6th in the Second Stage of 1996–97 FIBA EuroLeague (groups E-H) lose a berth for their country in next season. These berths are gained by those countries whose teams reach the Semifinal Round in the 1996–97 FIBA EuroCup. As a general rule, a federation cannot have more than 3 teams in Euroleague. Should a semi-finalist in EuroCup provide one more berth for its country, in case it already has 3 berths assigned in Euroleague, this berth will be transferred to the next federation in FIBA Ranking which has 2 teams (as long as one of its teams reached the 1/4 Final Round in EuroCup during the same season)..

Team allocation

Regular season
FC Barcelona Banca Catalana (1st)	Benetton Treviso (1st)	Efes Pilsen (1st)	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv (1st)
Real Madrid Teka (2nd)	Teamsystem Bologna (2nd)	Türk Telekom PTT (2nd)	Hapoel Jerusalem (WC)
Estudiantes (3rd)	Kinder Bologna (3rd)	Ülker (WC)	Alba Berlin (1st)
Olympiacos (1st)	PSG Racing (1st)	Cibona (1st)	Union Olimpija (1st)
AEK (2nd)	Pau-Orthez (3rd)	Split (2nd)	Partizan Zepter (1st)
PAOK (3rd)	Limoges CSP (4th)	CSKA Moscow (1st)	FC Porto (1st)

First round

Group A

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Olympiacos	10	7	3	722	702	+20
2.	Efes Pilsen	10	6	4	718	674	+44
3.	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	10	5	5	747	739	+8
4.	CSKA Moscow	10	5	5	763	756	+7
5.	Real Madrid Teka	10	4	6	787	793	−6
6.	Limoges CSP	10	3	7	662	735	−73

Group B

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Benetton Treviso	10	9	1	782	664	+118
2.	Estudiantes	10	6	4	753	747	+6
3.	PAOK	10	6	4	729	672	+57
4.	Türk Telekom PTT	10	5	5	711	716	−5
5.	Split	10	4	6	747	768	−21
6.	FC Porto	10	0	10	688	843	−155

Group C

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Kinder Bologna	10	9	1	773	655	+118
2.	FC Barcelona Banca Catalana	10	7	3	828	793	+35
3.	Pau-Orthez	10	5	5	739	750	−11
4.	Partizan Zepter	10	4	6	793	807	−14
5.	Ülker	10	3	7	734	769	−35
6.	Hapoel Jerusalem	10	2	8	680	773	−93

Group D

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	AEK	10	6	4	683	653	+30
2.	Teamsystem Bologna	10	6	4	753	788	−35
3.	Cibona	10	5	5	741	732	+8
4.	Alba Berlin	10	5	5	752	754	−2
5.	Union Olimpija	10	4	6	701	716	−15
6.	PSG Racing	10	4	6	668	655	+13

Second round

(The individual scores and standings of the first round are accumulated in the second round)

If one or more clubs are level on won-lost record, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:

Head-to-head record in matches between the tied clubs
Overall point difference in games between the tied clubs
Overall point difference in all group matches (first tiebreaker if tied clubs are not in the same group)
Points scored in all group matches
Sum of quotients of points scored and points allowed in each group match

Key to colors
	Top four places in each group advance to Playoff

Group E

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Olympiacos	16	12	4	1176	1098	78
2.	Efes Pilsen	16	12	4	1232	1106	126
3.	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	16	11	5	1236	1152	84
4.	Split	16	5	11	1185	1243	−58
5.	Türk Telekom PTT	16	5	11	1131	1185	−54
6.	FC Porto	16	0	16	1071	1356	−285

Group F

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Benetton Treviso	16	12	4	1213	1100	113
2.	CSKA Moscow	16	9	7	1217	1159	58
3.	PAOK	16	9	7	1119	1083	36
4.	Estudiantes	16	8	8	1171	1191	−20
5.	Real Madrid Teka	16	7	9	1187	1165	22
6.	Limoges CSP	16	6	10	1099	1199	−100

Group G

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Kinder Bologna	16	13	3	1196	1058	138
2.	Alba Berlin	16	9	7	1203	1208	−5
3.	FC Barcelona Banca Catalana	16	9	7	1273	1255	18
4.	Union Olimpija	16	8	8	1144	1136	8
5.	PSG Racing	16	7	9	1062	1054	8
6.	Pau-Orthez	16	6	10	1144	1173	−29

Group H

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	AEK	16	11	5	1123	1055	68
2.	Teamsystem Bologna	16	10	6	1206	1232	−26
3.	Cibona	16	10	6	1245	1204	41
4.	Partizan Zepter	16	6	10	1234	1261	−27
5.	Ülker	16	5	11	1201	1242	−41
6.	Hapoel Jerusalem	16	2	14	1090	1243	−153

Top 16

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg	3rd leg
CSKA Moscow	2–1	FC Barcelona Banca Catalana	81–79	63–75	88–76
Olympiacos	0–2	Partizan Zepter	74–78	60–72
Teamsystem Bologna	2–1	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	96–93	72–88	68–65
Kinder Bologna	2–0	Estudiantes	86–62	67–62	{{{8}}}
Efes Pilsen	2–0	Cibona	75–59	102–98	{{{8}}}
Benetton Treviso	2–0	Union Olimpija	81–79	70–61	{{{8}}}
Alba Berlin	2–1	PAOK	77–75(o)	60–81	104–71
AEK	2–0	Split	76–46	62–54	{{{8}}}

Quarterfinals

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg	3rd leg
Partizan Zepter	2–1	CSKA Moscow	87–72	52–77	89–77
Kinder Bologna	2–0	Teamsystem Bologna	64–52	58–56	{{{8}}}
Benetton Treviso	2–1	Efes Pilsen	67–57	58–59	76–68
AEK	2–0	Alba Berlin	88–68	82–58	{{{8}}}

Final four

Semifinals

April 21, Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Partizan Zepter	61–83	Kinder Bologna
Benetton Treviso	66–69	AEK

3rd place game

April 23, Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Partizan Zepter	89–96	Benetton Treviso

Final