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As the Eurocup Qualifying Round starts on Tuesday and Wednesday in eight cities across the continent, one young player in particular will be expected to assume a major role in lifting his team to new heights in Europe's second competition. That player is 21-year-old Victor Claver, not only a hometown hero to Valencia Basket fans, but as of last month, a European champion with the Spanish national team. Valencia's new captain, Claver hopes to bounce back from a slow season marked by a severe injury to lead his team back to the competition that it won in 2003, when the Eurocup was known as the ULEB Cup. Born and raised in Valencia, Claver has made the most of his opportunities while walking a tough road from intriguing prospect to European basketball rising star.
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 Playing in his first European club competition ever, Timofey Mozgov has been one of the biggest discoveries of this season.
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 Crvena Zvezda fans crowned themselves a new hero back on December 9, in the midst of the Eurocup regular season, Vladimir Stimac.
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 Among the three undefeated regular season teams, one player averaged more minutes, almost 34 per game, than any other.
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 With only one game to go in the Last 16, Ukrainian champion Azovmash Mariupol can still qualify to the Final Eight.
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 Milan Macvan has established himself as a rising star, so much so that he is drawing comparisons to big names.
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 Going into the last regular season game, Maroussi's last Last 16 rests partly in the huge hands of Loukas Mavrokefalides.
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