The season's first Italian derby will see Virtus (5-2) look for a return to winning ways after seeing its five-game winning run ended in Madrid, while Milan (2-5) needs last week's big win over Valencia to be the launching pad for a string of victories.
Game Notes: Virtus vs. Milan

The highlight matchup of the game comes between two classy power forwards who have registered the best average PIRs in the competition so far, Toko Shengelia (23.1 PIR) and Nikola Mirotic (24.7 PIR). Elsewhere, Milan's all-action Shavon Shields will look for a return to form after a rare bad night last week (0 points on 7 field goal attempts), while Virtus will run its backcourt through Isaia Cordinier, who averages more playing time (24:38) than anyone other than Shengelia.


- These two great Italian rivals met in the EuroLeague for the first time this century last season in Round 7, and Virtus pulled out a 59-64 road win.
- Last season in the regular-season finale, Virtus beat Milan 89-84 behind Daniel Hackett's 25 points on 7-for-7 two-point shooting and a career-best 10 assists for a PIR of 36 to earn him MVP of the Round honors.
- The only other time they met in European competitions was in the 1997 EuroLeague eighthfinals when Milan won their best-of-three series that featured three home wins.
- Virtus guard Daniel Hackett played for Milan for a season and a half. Hackett joined Milan in December 2013 and stayed there until the summer of 2015. He was a teammate there of Nicolo Melli and the two helped Milan reach the 2014 EuroLeague Playoffs.
- Hackett and Melli not only played together at Milan in 2014 and 2015, but have also been teammates on the Italian national team along with Stefano Tonut, Luigi Datome, Giampaolo Ricci, Tommaso Baldasso and Paul Biligha.
- Hackett and Marco Belinelli played under Milan head coach Ettore Messina on the Italian national team in 2016.
- Hackett and Milan's Kyle Hines were teammates at CSKA for two seasons, from 2018 to 2020, they won the 2019 EuroLeague title together.
- Hackett and Milan's Maodo Lo were teammates at Brose Bamberg during the 2017-18 season.
- The Virtus trio of Hackett, Tornike Shengelia and Iffe Lundberg were teammates with Milan forward Johannes Voigtmann at CSKA Moscow. Hackett and Voigtmann were there from 2019-20 and Shengelia and Lundberg joined them for the next two seasons.
- Hackett made a career-high 6 three-pointers playing for CSKA against Milan in December 2019.
- Milan's Giampaolo Ricci played at Virtus for two seasons, from 2019 to 2021.
- Milan's Ricci, Stefano Tonut and Nicolo Melli were teammates of Virtus's Alessandro Pajola and Achille Polonara on the Italian national team last summer at the 2023 Basketball World Cup.
- Virtus's Awudu Abass played at Milan for two seasons, from 2016 to 2018. He has also been a teammate of Melli, Tonut and Ricci on the Italian national team.
- Maodo Lo and Virtus guard Jaleen Smith were teammates at ALBA Berlin for the last two seasons, from 2021 to 2023.
- Milan forward Shavon Shields and Virtus forward Toko Shengelia were teammates at Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz for two seasons, from 2018 to 2020.
- Shengelia dished a career-high 7 assists in last season's 89-84 home win over Milan.
- Shengelia matched his career-best with 4 steals last March in a home loss against Milan.
- Virtus forward Jordan Mickey and Milan's Billy Baron, Alex Poythress and Kevin Pangos were teammates at Zenit St Petersburg during the 2021-22 season.
- Mickey had a career-high 11 rebounds playing for Khimki Moscow Region against Milan in February 2021.
- Polonara set his career-high with 13 rebounds playing for Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz against Milan in March 2021.
- Iffe Lundberg collected a career-high 7 rebounds playing for CSKA Moscow against Milan in September 2021.