Derby to start. The draw has paired the two Catalan teams, Barça and BAXI Manresa, in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey basketball tournament. Between February 15 and 18, the Martín Carpena Palace in Malaga will host the 88th edition of the competition, in which the eight best teams from the first round of the Endesa League will face each other.
The draw was held at the Picasso Museum in Malaga, where guests such as former player Walter Herrmann revealed the future clashes between the top seeds (Real Madrid, Barça, Unicaja Málaga and Dreamland Gran Canaria) and the rest of the teams (Valencia Basket , UCAM Murcia, Lenovo Tenerife and BAXI Manresa).
Real Madrid, leader in the ACB regular season standings, was guaranteed a day of rest between the quarterfinals and a hypothetical semifinal due to this first position. Thus, the first match will be played by the merengue club and UCAM Murcia, who will play on Thursday the 15th at 6:00 p.m.
Three hours later, at 9 p.m., Dreamland Gran Canaria and Valencia Basket will face each other. The match will take place a month after a close match between both clubs in which the island team won 86-79.
The second day of the competition will begin with the Catalan derby. At 6pm BAXI Manresa will face Roger Grimau’s Barça. The blaugranas, who have won the title 27 times, will fight for the Copa del Rey after losing last year in the quarterfinals.
Finally, the last match of the quarterfinals will be held at 9 p.m. between Unicaja and Lenovo Tenerife. The Malaga team will try to revalidate its champion profile against the Txus Vidorreta players who missed the title in last year’s final.
The winning teams will play the semifinals on Saturday, February 17. The first of them at 6:00 p.m. and the second, at 9:00 p.m. Knowing the quarterfinal draw, Barça and Real Madrid will not be able to meet until the final. Thus, the classic could only happen if the Blaugranas and Chus Mateo’s team overcome the two previous matches.
At the event held at the Picasso Museum, the draw for the Endesa Mini Cup, the children’s category tournament that has just turned 20, was also held. Group A is made up of Real Madrid, Joventut Badalona, ??Básquet Manresa and Unicaja Andalucía. On the other hand, Barcelona, ??Valencia Basket, Casademont Zaragoza and Bàsquet Girona make up group B.
The capital of the Costa del Sol has become the host of the competition, a year after CB Málaga surprised by winning the last edition of the title. Until then, for fourteen years the trophy had been shared only between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
