AEK Athens returned to the Eurocup for the first time since 2007 and did it with an up-and-down season in which Loukas Mavrokefalidis shined like few other players in the competition. Mavrokefalidis opened the 2015-16 Eurocup with a 42-point effort in a home loss against Krasny Oktyabr Volgograd. His performance index ranking of 55 tied the all-time competition record, which was originally set by Priest Lauderdale of Lukoil Academic back in the 2003-04 season. AEK did well early by winning four of its first six games behind a monster effort by Mavrokefalidis, who led the Eurocup regular season in index rating (30.7 per game) and scoring (24.2 ppg.) and ranked second in rebounds (9.7 rpg.). However AEK went on to lose its next three games and a 75-71 home win against Neptunas Klaipeda was not enough for the Yellows to qualify. Indeed, AEK was the only team with a 5-5 record not to qualify to the Last 32.

Euroleague

Eurocup

AEK Athens returns to the Eurocup for the second consecutive season. AEK comes off a good season, in which the club was a bit unlucky in the Eurocup; it missed the Last 32 due to a tie-break disadvantage and despite a 5-5 record and an unstoppable Loukas Mavrokefalidis. AEK did better in the Greek League, making it to the semifinals for the first time since 2005. Olympiacos stood in its way to the final. Founded in 1924, AEK is one of the oldest basketball clubs in Greece. It won its first Greek League title in 1958 and reached its glory days soon after that with six more Greek crowns from 1963 to 1970. AEK was the first Greek club to take part in European competition in 1959 and the first to go all the way to the Euroleague semifinals. Those games in 1966 were played in a Final Four format and AEK lost to Slavia Prague. Back in the day, AEK played at Panathinaiko Stadium and brought in more than 40,000 fans for important games. Led by Georgios Amerikanos, the first Greek basketball superstar, AEK lifted the Cup Winners' Cup trophy in 1968 in front of 80,000 fans. AEK downed Slavia 89-82 to claim its first European title. AEK did not add more trophies until 1981, when it won the Greek Cup. Victor Alexander, Bane Prelevic and Willie Anderson led the club all the way to the Euroleague final in 1998, but Kinder Bologna stood in its way to glory. AEK avenged that defeat in the 2000 Saporta Cup final as it defeated Kinder 83-76 for the title. A new generation of young talents – Demos Dikoudis, Nikos Hatzis, Michalis Kakiouzis – paced AEK to back-to-back Greek Cup titles in 2000 and 2001, the 2001 Euroleague semifinals and the Greek League trophy in 2002. With Nikos Zisis as its floor general, AEK reached the Greek League final in 2003 and 2005 - the year in which AEK was one win away from returning to the Final Four. AEK later overcame heavy financial problems just to return to the Greek elite all the way from the third division in record time. It confirmed all its potential in a return-to-form 2014-15 season, in which it ranked fifth overall to reach the Greek League playoffs after a seven-year absence. AEK was competitive in both the Eurocup and the Greek League and the goal is to keep growing and get closer and closer to its glory days.

Trophy Case