La Laguna Tenerife-Barcelona, Unicaja Málaga-Joventut, Real Madrid-Baxi Manresa and Valencia Basket-Dreamland Gran Canaria are the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey de Baloncesto, which will be held from February 13 to 16 in Las Palmas, after the draw celebrated this Tuesday. There was no classic in the quarterfinals nor will there be one in the semifinals if Barça and Madrid advance to the round, so the two greats could only meet in the final. The winner of Tenerife-Barcelona will face the winner of Unicaja-Joventut in the semifinals (both events on Thursday the 13th), and whoever passes the duel between Madrid and Manresa will face the winner of the clash between Valencia and the hosts (these two quarters, Friday the 14th). Barcelona, which started in the second pot after qualifying on the last day of the first round as eighth in the Endesa League, avoided Madrid and also Unicaja and Valencia in the quarterfinals. Ibon Navarro’s team is the leader of the ACB with 14 victories in 17 games, one more than Real Madrid and Valencia, who share second position.
Gran Canaria is the alternative Cup. Unicaja and Valencia, two teams on the rise and in great shape, challenge the duopoly of Barcelona and Real Madrid in the competition. Since Joventut in 2008 and Baskonia in 2009 lifted the trophy, only the Andalusian team, two seasons ago, has broken the great dominance of the two giants of Spanish basketball. Azulgrana and Blancos have faced each other since then in 10 of the last 15 finals, and in that stretch the Catalan team has celebrated seven crowns for another seven for the Madridistas and the Unicaja bingo in 2023 in Badalona.
Precisely that success of Ibon Navarro’s team in the Cup opened a fertile period of two years in which it has won three other titles: the FIBA Champions League and this season the Intercontinental and the Spanish Super Cup won in September in Murcia precisely to Madrid (80-90), when the Andalusians arrived much more aggressively and broke the white team’s streak of six wins in the tournament.
Together with Unicaja, Pedro Martínez’s Valencia Basket now emerges. The Catalan coach has returned to the spotlight the team that he made league champion in 2017 and that this year has once again captured first place in the Endesa League for the first time in seven years. The challenge now is to achieve the second Cup in its history after the remembered victory in 1998 in Valladolid against Joventut. In this renewal of powers, the big absentee in Gran Canaria will once again be Baskonia, out of the Cup for the second consecutive edition. Madrid will seek its 30th Cup; Barça, its 28th title.
