By Kostas Paraskevopoulos/ info@eurohoops.net
Following outings in the Qualification Rounds of 2021 and 2024, Frank Bartley IV is back in the Basketball Champions League with a direct ticket to the 2025-26 Regular Season via an agreement with AEK Betsson.
Joining the Queen, he is expected to pen a two-year contract.
After splitting his career between Louisiana and Brigham Young, he focused a large chunk of his professional career in Europe.
PAOK mateco was his 2024-25 home, featuring 14.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per contest over 18 appearances on the way to the Finals of the FIBA Europe Cup. At the domestic level, he tallied 14.9 points per game over 27 appearances in the Stoiximan GBL.
Before the team based in Thessaloniki, he played for current AEK head coach Dragan Sakota at Happy Casa Brindisi during the 2023-24 campaign. Trieste is another former team in Italy. Stints with Ironi Ness Ziona in Israel, Bakken Bears in Denmark, medi Bayreuth in Germany, Carramimbre CBC Valladolid in Spain, Qingdao Eagles in China, and Saint John Riptide in Canada complete the career picture.
With a deal for the first summer signing and pending an official announcement to confirm the reunion with Bartley, Sakota will travel to Lausanne to follow the draw for the 2025-26 edition of the Champions League on Wednesday.
AEK, alongside La Laguna Tenerife and Filou Oostende, is heading to a tenth straight BCL season, with continental journeys in every installment since the inaugural 2016-17 season, including the championship run in the 2017-18 season.