FINAL EIGHT 2009: Iurbentia Bilbao
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 Few newcomers to European club basketball have ever managed to do as well as iurbentia Bilbao Basket has in this, its Eurocup debut season. Far from being intimidated in a new, difficult competition, Bilbao has gone from being practically unknown outside of Spain to a legitimate Final Eight contender - and therefore a potential Euroleague qualifier - in less than five months. Truth to be told, this team was no average newcomer, having relied on a core of returnees - Javi Salgado, Predrag Savovic, Luke Recker, Quincy Lewis, Paco Vazquez and star big man Marko Banic - who had all played at least one season - and in the case of Salgado, seven - under long-time head coach Txus Vidorreta, the architect of Bilbao's rise from the Spanish third division. With the addition of depth and versatility in the persons of Renaldas Seibutis, Salva Guardia and Janis Blums, the team hit the ground running with a double-digit home win over fellow Final Eight qualifier Hemofarm Stada and never looked back. Bilbao finished the regular season as one of only two undefeated teams, along with Pamesa Valencia, another Final Eight qualifier. The Last 16 proved trickier, but with the help of mid-season pickup Damir Markota, Bilbao preserved its perfect home record on the way to qualifying early for the Final Eight. In the end, the rookie club had matched the best overall record in the first two rounds of the competition. Although its Eurocup run has been remarkable, indeed, Bilbao has merely lived up to a reputation as one of the fastest-rising teams in Europe. Founded in 2000, Bilbao Basket started in the Spanish third division and needed until just 2004 to win its way upward to the first. Every season after its promotion has been better than the previous one for Bilbao. Having gained consistency along with experience, the team is now counted among the Spanish elite - in popularity as well as sporting terms. Overjoyed that top-level basketball has returned to one of Spain's largest cities, Bilbao's fans set a new Spanish League attendance record with a crowd of 15,414 in January of 2007. Those fans have been rewarded with even greater leaps forward, especially last season, when trips to the Spanish Cup semifinals and Spanish League quarterfinals paved the way for Bilbao's qualification to the Eurocup, an historic achievement made even more significant by the team's performance on the way to the Final Eight. Now, Bilbao reaches Turin with not only the same ambition as all the other Final Eight teams, but huge motivation to win its first trophy of any kind, not to mention passage to the Euroleague for 2009-10, a possibility that few would have imagined for the club just a couple years ago. Now, however, after its already outstanding European club competitions debut, Bilbao is more than ready to think even bigger, to put its city on the map of European club competition winners and to dream of reaching the Euroleague.
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Eurocupbasketball.com
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