7DAYS EuroCup newcomer, Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv (13-5) came in third in Group B after losing just once in the second half of the regular season. Umana Reyer Venice (9-9) lost its last two games of the regular season to finish sixth in Group A and has dropped five of its last six games on the road. Meanwhile, Hapoel was 8-1 at home. However, experience may favor Reyer, which has qualified for the knock-out stages in three of the last four seasons.
The MVPs
Since Round 7, the MVPs of the round in the EuroCup have come from four teams. Three of those teams have had multiple MVPs of the round. And two of those teams are Hapoel and Reyer. Power forward Derek Willis was the Round 7 MVP for Reyer after he posted 19 points and 13 rebounds for a PIR of 31. In Round 15, center Mitchell Watt gave Reyer its second MVP of the round with 22 points on near-perfect shooting and a PIR of 34 against Germani Brescia. In between, most of the MVPs went to Hapoel players with Jordan McRae picking up three (Rounds 9, 10 and 14) and J’Covan Brown (Round 11), Chinanu Onuaku (Round 13) and Jaylen Hoard (Round 14) getting one each. Add in Brown's first MVP in Round 2 and Hoard's two in Rounds 4 and 18 and these teams have had the players of the round in more than half the rounds this season!