2002–03 ULEB Cup

The 2002–03 ULEB Cup was the inaugural season of Europe's secondary level professional club basketball tournament, the ULEB Cup, which is organised by Euroleague Basketball. The 2003 ULEB Cup Finals were played between Pamesa Valencia and Krka, and won by Valencia, their first title in a European-wide competition. As the winners of the 2002–03 ULEB Cup, Valencia qualified for the European top-tier level 2003–04 Euroleague.

ULEB Cup
Season	2002–03
Duration	15 October 2002 – 24 April 2003 (competition proper)
Number of games	150
Number of teams	24 (competition proper)
Finals
Champions	Pamesa Valencia 1st title
Runners-up	Krka
Finals MVP	Dejan Tomašević
Statistical leaders
Points Jamie Arnold 20.3 Rebounds K'zell Wesson 12.7 Assists Scooter Barry 5.3 Index Rating Chris Anstey 24.1
2003–04 →

Team allocation

A total of 24 teams from 10 countries, instead of the initial 32, participated in the 2002–03 ULEB Cup.^[1][2][3] The majority of champion teams that could not play in the Euroleague chose to compete in the 2002–03 FIBA Europe Champions Cup, apart from the champions of Russia, Netherlands and Belgium. The inaugural ULEB Cup also didn't feature teams from Greece, Lithuania and Israel as they chose to play in FIBA's competition.

Distribution

The table below shows the default access list.^[1]

	Teams entering in this round	Teams advancing from previous round
Regular season (32 teams)	4 best-placed teams from Spain 4 best-placed teams from Italy 4 best-placed teams from Greece 3 best-placed teams from France 3 best-placed teams from Adriatic 2 best-placed teams from Germany 2 best-placed teams from Belgium 2 best-placed teams from Portugal 1 best-placed team from Turkey 1 best-placed team from Israel 1 best-placed team from Russia 1 best-placed team from Yugoslavia 1 best-placed team from Poland 1 best-placed team from Switzerland 1 best-placed team from Great Britain 1 best-placed team from Netherlands
Elimination rounds (16 teams)		4 group winners from the regular season 4 group runners-up from the regular season 4 group third-placed teams from the regular season 4 group fourth-placed teams from the regular season

Teams

League positions after Playoffs of the previous season shown in parentheses:^[2][3]

Regular season
Adecco Estudiantes (4th)	Eurocellulari Roseto (9th)	RheinEnergie Köln (2nd)	Pivovarna Laško (3rd)
Pamesa Valencia (6th)	Metis Varese (10th)	Telekom Baskets Bonn (3rd)	Zadar (2nd)
Jabones Pardo Fuenlabrada (7th)	Snaidero Udine (12th)	Opel Skyliners (4th)	Ricoh Astronauts (1st)
Caprabo Lleida (8th)	Cholet (3rd)	Telindus Oostende (1st)	Ural Great (1st)
DKV Joventut (9th)	Élan Chalon (4th)	Spirou (2nd)	FMP (3rd)
Generali Group Trieste (7th)	Gravelines (5th)	Krka (2nd)	Darüssafaka (3rd)

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition was as follows.^[3][4][5]

Phase	Round	Draw date	First leg	Second leg
Regular season	Round 1	16 July 2002	15 October 2002
	Round 2		22 October 2002
	Round 3		29 October 2002
	Round 4		5 November 2002
	Round 5		12 November 2002
	Round 6		3 December 2002
	Round 7		10 December 2002
	Round 8		17 December 2002
	Round 9		7 January 2003
	Round 10		14 January 2003
Elimination rounds	Eighthfinals	15 January 2003	4 February 2003	11 February 2003
	Quarterfinals		25 February 2003	4 March 2003
	Semifinals		18 March 2003	25 March 2003
	Finals		15 April 2003	24 April 2003

Regular season

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The four first qualified teams advanced to the elimination rounds, while the two last teams were eliminated.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		GRA	JOV	URA	UDI	BON	FUE
1	Gravelines	10	7	3	851	796	+55	17	Advance to elimination rounds		—	88–82	86–68	91–83	88–63	83–72
2	DKV Joventut	10	6	4	837	824	+13	16			95–87	—	94–82	77–69	88–72	87–82
3	Ural Great	10	5	5	877	824	+53	15			87–94	101–73	—	86–61	96–84	117–89
4	Snaidero Udine	10	5	5	823	805	+18	15			84–67	84–90	90–86	—	92–78	93–64
5	Telekom Baskets Bonn	10	4	6	786	845	−59	14			84–80	81–78	72–64	76–84	—	99–81
6	Jabones Pardo Fuenlabrada	10	3	7	809	889	−80	13			78–87	78–73	81–90	90–83	94–77	—

Source:

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		FMP	VAL	ROS	LAŠ	SKY	OOS
1	FMP Železnik	10	9	1	796	669	+127	19	Advance to elimination rounds		—	80–67	78–76	81–62	82–60	92–52
2	Pamesa Valencia	10	8	2	847	710	+137	18			85–61	—	98–62	93–74	94–66	90–69
3	Eurocellulari Roseto	10	5	5	786	778	+8	15			72–82	77–57	—	89–76	84–79	85–69
4	Pivovarna Laško	10	4	6	751	828	−77	14			59–89	78–83	79–77	—	85–81	76–68
5	Opel Skyliners	10	3	7	731	795	−64	13			59–68	63–72	83–78	75–68	—	90–79
6	Telindus Oostende	10	1	9	748	879	−131	11			77–83	80–108	77–86	92–94	85–75	—

Source:

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		KRK	EST	KOL	TRI	CHA	DAR
1	Krka	10	7	3	869	802	+67	17	Advance to elimination rounds		—	92–74	85–75	101–83	75–71	79–76
2	Adecco Estudiantes	10	7	3	890	794	+96	17			88–79	—	87–66	121–76	76–78	105–79
3	RheinEnergie Köln	10	6	4	814	811	+3	16			87–83	79–74	—	84–80	86–76	98–60
4	Generali Group Trieste	10	4	6	806	849	−43	14			70–87	78–85	86–88	—	75–68	84–72
5	Élan Chalon	10	4	6	785	821	−36	14			102–99	72–78	91–85	70–88	—	78–75
6	Darüşşafaka	10	2	8	779	866	−87	12			76–89	95–102	89–66	73–86	84–79	—

Source:

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		VAR	LLE	SPI	ZAD	CHO	AMS
1	Metis Varese	10	6	4	784	769	+15	16	Advance to elimination rounds		—	87–78	75–69	88–86	81–76	80–72
2	Caprabo Lleida	10	6	4	838	794	+44	16			82–78	—	72–76	85–77	99–84	89–67
3	Spirou	10	6	4	780	764	+16	16			79–71	75–87	—	80–66	98–90	67–77
4	Zadar	10	5	5	794	828	−34	15			73–71	81–79	66–86	—	91–90	90–80
5	Cholet	10	4	6	830	820	+10	14			85–74	93–79	94–73	75–65	—	72–74
6	Ricoh Astronauts	10	3	7	761	812	−51	13			69–79	76–88	66–77	94–99	86–71	—

Source:

Elimination rounds

In the elimination rounds, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, with the overall cumulative score determining the winner of a round. Thus, the score of one single game can be tied.

In the draw for the elimination rounds, the four group winners and four group runners-up were seeded, and the four group third-placed teams and four group fourth-placed teams were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same country could not be drawn against each other.

Bracket

	Eighthfinals February 4 – February 11						Quarterfinals February 25 – March 4						Semifinals March 18 – March 25						Finals April 15 – April 24
	Spirou	64	57	121
	DKV Joventut	56	73	129
							DKV Joventut	80	68	148
							FMP	66	77	143
	Generali Trieste	73	86	159
	FMP	91	81	172
													DKV Joventut	82	66	148
													Krka	69	82	151
	Ural Great	84	69	153
	Caprabo Lleida	79	86	165
							Caprabo Lleida	91	77	168
							Krka	86	94	180
	Pivovarna Laško	78	69	147
	Krka	79	76	155
																			Krka	78	76	154
																			Pamesa Valencia	90	78	168
	RheinEnergie Köln	72	84	156
	Pamesa Valencia	76	93	169
							Pamesa Valencia	105	80	185
							Zadar	84	93	177
	Zadar	94	64	158
	Gravelines	71	78	149
													Pamesa Valencia	68	68	136
													Adecco Estudiantes	55	75	130
	Eurocellulari Roseto	80	68	148
	Adecco Estudiantes	72	84	156
							Adecco Estudiantes	77	101	178
							Metis Varese	59	88	147
	Snaidero Udine	83	59	142
	Metis Varese	77	73	150

Source:

Eighthfinals

Main article: 2002–03 ULEB Cup Top 16

The first legs were played on 4 February, and the second legs were played on 11 February 2003.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Spirou	121–129	DKV Joventut	64–56	57–73
Generali Group Trieste	159–172	FMP	73–91	86–81
Ural Great	153–165	Caprabo Lleida	84–79	69–86
Pivovarna Laško	147–155	Krka	78–79	69–76
RheinEnergie Köln	156–169	Pamesa Valencia	72–76	84–93
Zadar	158–149	Gravelines	94–71	64–78
Eurocellulari Roseto	148–156	Adecco Estudiantes	80–72	68–84
Snaidero Udine	142–150	Metis Varese	83–77	59–73

Quarterfinals

The first legs were played on 25 February, and the second legs were played on 4 March 2003.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
DKV Joventut	148–143	FMP	80–66	68–77
Caprabo Lleida	168–180	Krka	91–86	77–94
Pamesa Valencia	185–177	Zadar	105–84	80–93
Adecco Estudiantes	178–147	Metis Varese	77–59	101–88

Semifinals

The first legs were played on 18 March, and the second legs were played on 25 March 2003.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
DKV Joventut	148–151	Krka	82–69	66–82
Pamesa Valencia	136–130	Adecco Estudiantes	68–55	68–75

Finals

Main article: 2003 ULEB Cup Finals

The first leg was played on 15 April, and the second leg was played on 24 April 2003.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Krka	154–168	Pamesa Valencia	78–90	76–78

Awards

Finals MVP

Player	Team
Dejan Tomašević	Pamesa Valencia

References

1. . Euroleague. 8 July 2002. Archived from the original on 2 August 2002. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
2. . ULEB Cup. 15 July 2002. Archived from the original on 12 May 2003. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
3. . ULEB Cup. 16 July 2002. Archived from the original on 30 July 2003. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
4. (PDF). Euroleague. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2003. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
5. . ULEB Cup. 14 January 2002. Archived from the original on 14 May 2003. Retrieved 7 November 2016.

External links

• Official website