By Stefan Acevski/ info@eurohoops.net
The BKT EuroCup Regular Season wrapped in early February and – after 18 intense rounds, the field was trimmed to 12 contenders.
The top two teams from each group punched direct tickets to the Quarterfinals, while the remaining eight now face high‑stakes Eighthfinals showdowns — one game, win or go home, with a place in the top eight on the line. Among those fighting for survival is Buducnost VOLI Podgorica, a club hungry to extend its journey.
Coach Andrej Zakelj’s charges placed third in Group B with a 12-6 record and earned the right to host U‑BT Cluj‑Napoca – a familiar foe from the ABA League- in Podgorica. The Montenegrin champions now stand just one victory away from their first EuroCup Quarterfinal berth since the 2020–21 season.
Since that last playoff appearance, Buducnost has stumbled at this phase – excluding 2023-24 when it failed to even advance from the group stage. That history adds extra weight to Wednesday’s showdown. The blue‑and‑white will look to break the cycle, banish the lingering eighthfinals curse, and seize a long‑awaited return to the EuroCup’s elite eight, where mighty Bahcesehir College Istanbul awaits.
Buducnost’s past struggles
Turk Telekom Ankara, ratiopharm ulm and MoraBanc Andorra have all taken their turn slaying Buducnost in the knockout rounds — a history the Montenegrin powerhouse is desperate to rewrite.
Last season, Buducnost’s journey ended at this very stage against Turk Telekom. After a dramatic scramble to close the group stage, the Podgorica club slipped into sixth place with a 9–9 record – identical to Ulm – advancing only thanks to a tiebreaker. But once in Turkiye, they never found their footing. Turk Telekom blasted out to a 26–12 lead after the first quarter and never looked back, cruising to a 93–73 victory.
The year before, it was déjà vu: Turk Telekom again proved to be Buducnost’s nemesis. Both teams finished at 8–10, but the Turkish side advanced on head‑to‑head tiebreakers, leaving Buducnost on the outside looking in.
Go back one more season, and the story is painfully familiar. Buducnost cleared the group stage but hit another eighthfinals wall – this time in Ulm. Despite a blistering 16–30 opening quarter that silenced the German crowd, Ulm rallied to claim a 92–83 win and the quarterfinals ticket.
And in 2021–22, the curse struck yet again. After finishing fifth in the regular season, the team – then coached by Aleksandar Dzikic – fell on the road to Andorra, 74–64, bowing out in the Round of 16 once more.
The last time Buducnost reached the EuroCup’s top eight was 2020–21, in the season with no eighthfinals – the very round that has since become its undoing. Even then, the basketball gods were unkind. Drawn against AS Monaco, Buducnost won the opening game but was forced to play its “home” fixture in Ljubljana due to COVID‑19 restrictions. It lost that one, and the decisive Game 3 turned into a thriller; Monaco edged it 90–87 and advanced.
For Buducnost, the eighthfinals haven’t just been a hurdle. They’ve been a haunting, hard‑to‑shake hex – one that the Montenegrin champions hope to finally break.
Can the curse finally be broken?
Buducnost may have impressed throughout the group stage, but the eighthfinals present a genuinely dangerous test. The champions of Montenegro and Romania have crossed paths twice before – both times in the 2023–24 EuroCup – and Cluj won on each occasion, a reminder that this matchup has never been an easy one for the Podgorica side.
Adding another twist, the two clubs are about to become very familiar with each other. After Wednesday’s EuroCup Eighthfinals duel at Moraca, Cluj will return to the same court in just three days, with an ABA League Top 8 game on Saturday and a second meeting scheduled for April 19.
Buducnost enters this showdown in excellent rhythm, backed by a string of convincing wins and fresh off lifting the Montenegro Cup. It will rely on the experience and poise of veterans like Jerry Boutsiele, Alex Bouteille, and Yogi Ferrell to finally turn the tide in their favor.
But Cluj won’t arrive quietly. Coach Mihai Silvasan has built a team that thrives on pace and pressure, with Fatts Russell and Iverson Molinar dictating tempo and attacking relentlessly. Add in Mitchell Creek, one of the EuroCup’s most productive performers this season, and it’s clear Cluj‑Napoca is heading to Podgorica with every intention of spoiling the party at Moraca.
The question is simple – is this finally the year Buducnost breaks the Eighthfinals curse? Or will Cluj be the latest obstacle that keeps the Montenegrin champions from the EuroCup’s elite eight?