2005–06 Euroleague

Main article: Euroleague Basketball

Euroleague 2005-06
League	Euroleague
Sport	Basketball
Season
Season MVP	Anthony Parker (Maccabi Tel Aviv)
Top scorer	Drew Nicholas (Benetton Treviso)
Final Four
Champions	CSKA Moscow
Runners-up	Maccabi Tel Aviv
Final Four MVP	Theo Papaloukas (CSKA Moscow)

The Euroleague is an international professional basketball club competition for elite clubs throughout Europe. The 2005–2006 season featured 24 competing teams from 13 different countries. The final of the competition was held in Sazka Arena, Prague, Czech Republic, on April 30, 2006 with CSKA Moscow defeating defending champions Maccabi Tel Aviv 73-69.

Format

Regular Season

The first phase is a regular season, in which the competing teams are drawn into three groups, each containing eight teams. Each team plays every other team in its group at home and away, resulting in 14 games for each team in the first stage. The top 5 teams in each group and the best sixth-placed team advance to the next round. The complete list of tiebreakers is provided in the lead-in to the Regular Season results.

Top 16

The surviving teams are divided into four groups of four teams each, and again a round-robin system is adopted resulting in 6 games each, with the top 2 teams advancing to the quarterfinals. Tiebreakers are identical to those used in the Regular Season.

Quarterfinals

In the quarterfinals, the top placed teams from each Top 16 group play second placed teams from a different group in a best-of-three playoff series, with the winners of those series advancing to the Final Four.

Final Four format

The culminating stage of the Euroleague in which the four remaining teams play a semifinal match and the winners of those advance to the final. The losers play in a third-place playoff. The team which is victorious in the Final will be Euroleague champion.

Regular Season

Key to colors

	Top five places in each group, plus highest-ranked sixth-place team, advance to Top 16
	Eliminated

Tiebreakers:

• 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

Group A

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Tau Cerámica	14	11	3	1130	976	154
2.	Climamio Bologna	14	10	4	1114	989	125
3.	Žalgiris	14	9	5	1065	1037	28
4.	Benetton Treviso	14	8	6	1042	1134	8
5.	Bamberg	14	7	7	975	1023	-48
6.	Union Olimpija	14	5	9	1059	1080	-21
7.	Strasbourg IG	14	3	11	972	1058	-86
8.	AEK Athens	14	3	11	940	1100	-160

Group B

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Maccabi Tel Aviv	14	9	5	1220	1135	85
2.	Efes Pilsen	14	9	5	1025	995	30
3.	Winterthur FCB	14	8	6	1079	1021	58
4.	Lietuvos Rytas	14	8	6	1068	1012	56
5.	Olympiacos	14	7	7	1085	1059	26
6.	Cibona	14	6	8	917	1054	-137
7.	Prokom Trefl	14	5	9	997	1066	-69
8.	Armani Jeans Milano	14	5	9	1036	1085	-49

Group C

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Unicaja Málaga	14	12	2	1100	1015	85
2.	Panathinaikos	14	12	2	1219	1063	156
3.	CSKA Moscow	14	10	4	1116	950	166
4.	Real Madrid	14	7	7	1012	1004	8
5.	Ülker	14	5	9	1000	1055	-55
6.	Montepaschi Siena	14	4	10	1001	1055	54
7.	Pau-Orthez	14	4	10	971	1103	-132
8.	Partizan	14	2	12	978	1152	-174

Top 16

The draw was held in accordance with Euroleague rules.

The teams were placed into four pools, as follows:

• Level 1: The three group winners, plus the top-ranked second-place team
  • Unicaja, TAU, Maccabi, Panathinaikos
• Level 2: The remaining second-place teams, plus the top two third-place teams
  • Climamio, Efes Pilsen, CSKA, Žalgiris
• Level 3: The remaining third-place team, plus the three fourth-place teams
  • Lietuvos Rytas, Benetton, Winterthur FCB, Real Madrid
• Level 4: The fifth-place teams, plus the top ranked sixth-place team
  • Olympiacos, Bamberg, Ülker, Cibona

Each Top 16 group included one team from each pool. The draw was conducted under the following restrictions:

1. No more than two teams from the same Regular Season group can be placed in the same Top 16 group.
2. No more than two teams from the same country can be placed in the same Top 16 group.
3. If there is a conflict between these two restrictions, (1) will receive priority.

Another draw was held to determine the order of fixtures. In cases of two teams from the same city in the Top 16 (Panathinaikos and Olympiacos, Efes Pilsen and Ülker) they were scheduled so that every week only one team would be at home.

Key to colors

	Top two places in each group advance to quarterfinals
	Eliminated from contention

Teams in bold type advanced to the quarterfinals.

Group D

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Winterthur FCB	6	5	1	448	434	+14
2.	Olympiacos	6	4	2	490	450	+40
3.	Unicaja Málaga	6	3	3	447	435	+12
4.	Žalgiris	6	0	6	425	491	−66

Group E

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Maccabi Tel Aviv	6	5	1	491	448	+43
2.	Real Madrid	6	4	2	446	412	+34
3.	Climamio Bologna	6	2	4	469	477	−8
4.	Ülker	6	1	5	415	484	−69

Group F

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	CSKA Moscow	6	5	1	441	391	+50
2.	Tau Cerámica	6	4	2	453	422	+31
3.	Lietuvos Rytas	6	3	3	422	427	−5
4.	Bamberg	6	0	6	374	450	−76

Group G

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Panathinaikos	6	3	3	447	419	+28
2.	Efes Pilsen	6	3	3	446	447	−1
3.	Benetton Treviso	6	3	3	476	488	−12
4.	Cibona	6	3	3	458	473	−15

Quarterfinals

Each quarterfinal was a best-of-three series between a first-place team in the Top 16 and a second-place team from a different group, with the first-place team receiving home advantage.

Quarterfinal 1

	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Date
Game 1	Winterthur FCB	72 - 58	Real Madrid	Barcelona
Game 2	Real Madrid	84 - 78	Winterthur FCB	Madrid
Game 3	Winterthur FCB	76 - 70	Real Madrid	Barcelona

Quarterfinal 2

	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Date
Game 1	Maccabi Tel Aviv	87 - 78	Olympiacos	Tel Aviv
Game 2	Olympiacos	76 - 70	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Piraeus
Game 3	Maccabi Tel Aviv	77 - 73	Olympiacos	Tel Aviv

Quarterfinal 3

	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Date
Game 1	CSKA Moscow	66 - 57	Efes Pilsen	Moscow
Game 2	Efes Pilsen	71 - 75	CSKA Moscow	Istanbul

Quarterfinal 4

	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Venue	Date
Game 1	Panathinaikos	84 - 72	Tau Cerámica	Athens
Game 2	Tau Cerámica	85 - 79	Panathinaikos	Vitoria-Gasteiz
Game 3	Panathinaikos	71 - 74	Tau Cerámica	Athens

Final Four

Main article: 2005–06 Euroleague Final Four

Sazka Arena, Prague Czech Republic

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	April 28, Prague
	Maccabi Tel Aviv	85
					April 30, Prague
	Tau Ceramica	70
					CSKA Moscow	73
	April 28, Prague
					Maccabi Tel Aviv	69
	Winterthur FCB	75
	CSKA Moscow	84
					Third place
					April 30, Prague
					Tau Cerámica	87
					Winterthur FCB	82

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

April 28 17:30

(Report)

Maccabi Tel Aviv	85–70	Tau Ceramica
Scoring by quarter: 24-17, 27-15, 22-14, 12-22
Pts: Baston 20 Rebs: Vujčić 8 Asts: Vujčić 7		Pts: Scola 17 Rebs: Scola 11 Asts: Scola 5

Sazka Arena, Prague Attendance: 16805 Referees: Romualdas Brazauskas (LTU), Stelios Koukoulekidis (GRE), Ilija Belosevic (SRB)

Semifinal 2

April 28 20:30

(Report)

Winterthur FCB	75–84	CSKA Moscow
Scoring by quarter: 20-15, 18-19, 14-23, 23-27
Pts: Williams 24 Rebs: Fučka 10 Asts: Williams 4		Pts: Papaloukas, Holden 19 Rebs: Smodiš 12 Asts: Langdon 3

Sazka Arena, Prague Attendance: 16805 Referees: Iztok Ramot (ISR), Nikolaos Zavlanos (GRE), Fabio Facchini (ITA)

Third Place

April 30 17:30

(Report)

Winterthur FCB	82–87	Tau Cerámica
Scoring by quarter: 19-26, 17-21, 24-15, 22-25
Pts: Navarro, Fučka 20 Rebs: Fučka 9 Asts: Williams 4		Pts: Drobnjak 19 Rebs: Scola, Drobnjak 7 Asts: Prigioni 6

Sazka Arena, Prague Attendance: 16805 Referees: Milivoje Jovcic (SRB), Nikolaos Zavlanos (GRE), Tolga Sahin (ITA)

Final

April 30 20:30

(Report)

CSKA Moscow	73–69	Maccabi Tel Aviv
Scoring by quarter: 18-18, 17-12, 14-18, 24-21
Pts: Papaloukas 18 Rebs: Smodiš 8 Asts: Papaloukas 7		Pts: Solomon 20 Rebs: Baston 15 Asts: three players 2

Sazka Arena, Prague Attendance: 16805 Referees: Carl Jungebrand (FIN), Stelios Koukoulekidis (GRE), Ilija Belosevic (SRB)

Euroleague 2006 Champions
CSKA Moscow 5th title

Final standings

	Team
1.	CSKA Moscow
2.	Maccabi Tel Aviv
3.	Tau Cerámica
4.	Winterthur FCB

Individual statistics

Rating

Rank	Name	Team	Games	Rating	PIR
1.	Anthony Parker	Maccabi Tel Aviv	25	513	20.52
2.	Jorge Garbajosa	Unicaja Málaga	18	348	19.33
3.	Luis Scola	Tau Cerámica	25	470	18.80

Points

Rank	Name	Team	Games	Rating	PPG
1.	Drew Nicholas	Benetton Treviso	20	369	18.45
2.	Scoonie Penn	Cibona	20	341	17.05
3.	Louis Bullock	Real Madrid	20	316	15.80

Rebounds

Rank	Name	Team	Games	Rating	RPG
1.	Mirsad Türkcan	Ülker	16	143	8.94
2.	Darjuš Lavrinovič	Žalgiris	20	166	8.30
3.	Robertas Javtokas	Lietuvos Rytas	20	164	8.20

Assists

Rank	Name	Team	Games	Rating	APG
1.	Pablo Prigioni	Tau Cerámica	25	156	6.24
2.	Tyus Edney	Olympiacos	23	103	4.48
3.	Shammond Williams	Winterthur FC Barcelona	25	107	4.28

Other Stats

Category	Name	Team	Games	Stat
Steals per game	Jeff Trepagnier	Ülker	20	3.05
Blocks per game	Darjuš Lavrinovič	Žalgiris	20	2.10
Turnovers per game	Massimo Bulleri	Armani Jeans Milano	14	3.79
Fouls drawn per game	Scoonie Penn	Cibona	20	5.80
Minutes per game	Yotam Halperin	Union Olimpija	14	36:04
2FG%	Tomas Masiulis	Prokom Trefl	14	0.666
3FG%	Giacomo Galanda	Armani Jeans Milano	14	0.536
FT%	Nikolaos Chatzis	Olympiacos	20	0.969

Game highs

Category	Name	Team	Stat
Rating	Spencer Nelson	Bamberg	48
Points	Luis Scola	Tau Cerámica	36
Rebounds	Spencer Nelson	Bamberg	20
Assists	Vrbica Stefanov	Ülker	12
	Lonnie Cooper	Pau-Orthez
Steals	Jeff Trepagnier	Ülker	11
Blocks	Maceo Baston	Maccabi Tel Aviv	6
Turnovers	Igor Rakočević	Real Madrid	9
	Ioannis Kalampokis	AEK Athens
Fouls Drawn	Jaka Lakovič	Panathinaikos	15

Awards

Euroleague MVP

• Anthony Parker ( Maccabi Tel Aviv )

Final Four MVP

• Theodoros Papaloukas ( CSKA Moscow )

All-Euroleague Team 2005-06

Position	All-Euroleague First Team	Club Team	All-Euroleague Second Team	Club Team
PG	Theodoros Papaloukas	CSKA Moscow	Pablo Prigioni	Tau Cerámica
SG/SF	Juan Carlos Navarro	Winterthur FC Barcelona	Vassilis Spanoulis	Panathinaikos
SG/SF	Anthony Parker	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Trajan Langdon	CSKA Moscow
PF/C	Luis Scola	Tau Cerámica	Jorge Garbajosa	Unicaja Málaga
PF/C	Nikola Vujčić	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Darjuš Lavrinovič	Žalgiris

Best Defender

• Dimitris Diamantidis ( Panathinaikos )

Rising Star

• Andrea Bargnani ( Benetton Treviso )

Alphonso Ford Top Scorer

• Drew Nicholas ( Benetton Treviso )

Alexander Gomelsky Coach of the Year

• Ettore Messina ( CSKA Moscow )

Club Executive of the Year

• Sergey Kushchenko ( CSKA Moscow )

References and notes

Euroleague Competition Format

External links

• Euroleague.net - Official Euroleague homepage.
• Eurobasket.com - Popular basketball news site.
• TalkBasket.net - Basketball forum.