1971–72 FIBA European Champions Cup

The 1971–72 FIBA European Champions Cup was the 15th installment of the European top-tier level professional basketball club competition FIBA European Champions Cup (now called EuroLeague). The Final was held at the Yad Eliyahu Arena, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 23, 1972. It was won by Ignis Varese, who defeated Jugoplastika, by a result of 70–69.

1971–72 FIBA European Champions Cup
League	FIBA European Champions Cup
Sport	Basketball
Final
Champions	Ignis Varese
Runners-up	Jugoplastika

Competition system

• 23 teams (European national domestic league champions, plus the then current title holders), playing in a tournament system, played knock-out rounds on a home and away basis. The aggregate score of both games decided the winner.
• The 8 teams qualified for the Quarterfinals were divided into two groups of four. Every team played against the other three in its group in consecutive home-and-away matches, so that every two of these games counted as a single win or defeat (point difference being a decisive factor there). In case of a tie between two or more teams after this group stage, the following criteria were used: 1) one-to-one games between the teams; 2) basket average; 3) individual wins and defeats.
• The group winners and the runners-up of the Quarterfinal Group Stage qualified for the Semifinals. The final was played at a predetermined venue.

First round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Amicale Steinsel	130–192	Panathinaikos	63–98	67–94
Tapion Honka	164–138	Alvik	73–60	91–78
Jeunesse Sportivo Alep	0–4*	17 Nëntori	0–2	0–2
Al-Gezira	141–196	Jugoplastika	66–84	75–112
İTÜ	176–179	Radio Koch Wien	91–84	85–95
Lourenço Marques	147–172	ASVEL	72–77	75–95
Virum	90–234	Real Madrid	43–120	47–114
FUS	124–179	Bus Fruit Lier	64–82	63–123

*Jeunesse Sportivo Alep withdrew before the first leg and 17 Nëntori received a forfeit (2–0) in both games.

Second round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Panathinaikos	161–154	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	81–73	80–81
Tapion Honka	153–188	Slavia VŠ Praha	80–87	73–101
17 Nëntori	135–175	Jugoplastika	77–90	58–85
Radio Koch Wien	173–172	ASVEL	101–85	72–87
TuS 04 Leverkusen	140–197	Real Madrid	77–84	63–113
Fribourg Olympic	127–209	Bus Fruit Lier	73–99	54–110
Levi's Flamingo's	–*	Academic	92–94	92–105

*Academic qualified for the next stage of the competition as the winner of this match-up, but the Bulgarian club later withdrew alleging that most of their international players has been summoned to play a series of Communist Bloc tournaments (the real reason was to prepare the Pre-Olympic Tournament though). Later, FIBA fined Akademik for this intentional withdrawal and invited Levi's Flamingo's to take their place in the Quarter finals group stage.

Automatically qualified to the group stage

• Ignis Varese (title holder)

Quarterfinals group stage

The quarterfinals were played with a round-robin system, in which every Two Game series (TGS) constituted as one game for the record.

Key to colors

Top two places in each group advance to Semifinals

Group A Team Pld Pts W L PF PA PD 1. Ignis Varese 3 6 3 0 553 488 +65 2. Real Madrid 3 5 2 1 516 500 +16 3. Radio Koch Wien 3 4 1 2 499 559 -60 4. Levi's Flamingo's 3 3 0 3 541 562 -21

Group B Team Pld Pts W L PF PA PD 1. Jugoplastika 3 6 3 0 510 474 +36 2. Panathinaikos 3 4 1 2 484 489 -5 3. Slavia VŠ Praha 3 4 1 2 484 506 -22 4. Bus Fruit Lier 3 4 1 2 494 503 -9

Semifinals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ignis Varese	139–133	Panathinaikos	69–55	70–78
Real Madrid	158–161	Jugoplastika	89–81	69–80

Final

March 23, Sports Palace at Yad Eliyahu, Tel Aviv

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Ignis Varese	70–69	Jugoplastika

Ignis: Edoardo Rusconi, Ottorino Flaborea (13 pts), Graziano Malachin, Walter Vigna, Marino Zanatta (4), Paolo Vittori, Aldo Ossola (4), Dino Meneghin (21), Tony Gennari (8), Ivan Bisson, Manuel Raga (20).
Jugoplastika: Peterka, Grašo, Manović (5 pts), Grgin, D.Tvrdić, Macura, R.Tvrdić (8), L.Tvrdić (2), Šolman (20), Krstulović, Prug (8), Skansi (26).

1971–72 FIBA European Champions Cup Champions
Ignis Varese 2nd Title

Awards

FIBA European Champions Cup Finals Top Scorer

• Petar Skansi ( Jugoplastika)

External links

• 1971–72 FIBA European Champions Cup
• 1971–72 FIBA European Champions Cup
• Champions Cup 1971–72 Line-ups and Stats