The FIBA EuroChallenge may be considered a bit of a lower-tier club tournament here on The Continent, but the 2009-10 edition of the contest is certainly among the tops in terms of competitive balance.
With the final games of the Last 16 phase all tipping off tomorrow night, eight teams remain in the hunt for four quarterfinals spots and just four teams (Banvit, Belgacom Liege, EiffelTowers Den Bosch, and Proteas) have been eliminated. BC Göttingen, Chorale Roanne Basket, Krasnye Krylia, and Scavolini Pesaro are through already; who will join them tomorrow night?
Following is BallinEurope’s super-compressed briefing on the mathematical possibilities for each still-striving contender plus a few storylines at play in the games.
• Apoel. If Apeol wins against KK Buducnost, they’re in; at 5-1 in Nicosia this EuroChallenge season with the sole loss to (relatively) mighty Pesaro, things look decent for the Cypriot squad. But hey, Cyprus’ defending champions have blown away disappointing memories of the 2008-2009 EuroChallenge in which Apoel went two-and-out while scoring less than 57 points in the matches.
• Antwerp Giants are involved in a three-way dogfight with Chorale Roanne and Enisey Krasnoyarsk; win and they’re in, of course, but with a loss in Roanne the Giants could still back in with a Krasnoyarsk loss to Banvit. Guard Bryan Hopkins last week became the latest Antwerp injury, leaving the Belgian squad without guard Bryan Hopkins, forward Randy Oveneke, center Christophe Beghin, and former Atlanta Hawks swingman Thomas Gardner for much of the season’s remainder.
In German club basketball, too many foreign players are allowed; in fact, carrying eight or nine American players on a single roster certainly hurts quite a few Bundesliga teams and may be undermining most. Such an opinion is often heard these days about the free-for-all state of BBL contract rules, but rarely does a player affirm such a few … would you believe this is the view of a veteran U.S. player?
One country that did not hold a national cup tournament last weekend was Germany; 
You want to give her a Valentine’s Day gift she’ll always remember? Here’s an idea: Spring for 
And now for the public-service portion of Ball in Europe … at no cost to you runs a somewhat comprehensive of the basketball action going down for the first two weeks of February; schedule information is provided for top leagues in Spain, France, Germany, and Italy, together with international leagues and FIBA competitions. This calendar will be updated occasionally and, of course, will be completely refreshed in a couple of weeks. Happy February, all!
The 
Now that some more European basketball competitions, including the Euroleague, EuroChallenge and FIBA Eurocup Women are moving into a second phase, Ball in Europe presents an updated January calendar for your perusal.
Emerging from the holiday season, we happily find a month packed with wall-to-wall basketball on The Continent. Below is a partial calendar filled with listings for matchups in a handful of Europe’s larger domestic leagues and international club competitions for men and women.