MIES (Switzerland) - We don't have an official award for the Best Coach of the Group Phase. But if we did, who would have won it?
Well, considering how competitive the field is this season and how many outstanding coaches there are in the Basketball Champions League, the answer might be more simple than it seems. But to get to that answer, let's take in all the information first.
That means we need to consider season records, domestically and in the BCL. It also means we should take in statistical category leaders and performance versus expectations.
Ibon Navarro - Unicaja
The reason why we said the answer to this question may be simpler than it seems is because of the incredible body of work that Ibon Navarro is building on the Coast of the Sun in Spain.
The current BCL and FIBA Intercontinental Cup champions not only went unbeaten in Group B, but they also broke the record for most wins in a row in the BCL with 15 when they beat Filou Oostende 98-82 in early December.
They followed that up with a 91-67 demolition of King Szczecin on the final Gameday of the Group Phase to leave the record at 16. The way this team is playing at the moment, that record is only likely to be even more unsurmountable by the time they actually get beaten.
It doesn't end there either. After a confident 89-77 win over BCL rivals UCAM Murcia in the Liga Endesa on January 2, their season record is a frankly absurd 22-3 and if you check our advanced stats page, they are currently the clear leaders for Net Rating with an even more impressive +32 points per 100 possessions.
Unicaja are the very definition of a juggernaut and Ibon Navarro is the man at the steering wheel.
Txus Vidorreta - La Laguna Tenerife
It's so good to see Txus Vidorreta in this kind of mood. Yes, winning matters, but first and foremost basketball is about fun and not only is coach Vidorreta winning games with La Laguna Tenerife - they blasted through Group C unbeaten - but he's doing it with a smile on his face.
Mind you, when you see the way his Tenerife are playing this season, why wouldn't you have a smile on your face watching basketball like that every week?
We just spoke about Unicaja's record so far this season, but last season's runners-up aren't that far behind them. Txus not only saw his team unbeaten in Group C of the BCL, but also sitting on a 16-4 record overall after a win over Zaragoza in the Liga Endesa on January 2.
Like Unicaja, they are also dominant when it comes to Net Rating in the BCL, coming in second for the Group Phase at +28.5 points per 100 possessions. To put that into context, if it wasn't for Unicaja that would have had them in first for every previous BCL season, including the years that they were Champions themselves.
Giedrius Zibenas - Rytas Vilnius
You might be wondering why you are seeing a post about Gytis Radzevicius winning the Group Phase MVP award - an actual, official award - underneath the name of his coach here, but he's there because it takes a team to create an MVP and it takes a coach to build a team.
Radzevicius, or Radzo as he's known in his hometown club, is thriving under Giedrius Zibenas and that player-coach relationship is surely a major catalyst behind his performance levels this season.
It's not just the players going from strength to strength either. Last season the team ended the Group Phase with a 4-2 record whilst finishing second in Group B.
This season a 5-1 record saw them win the group and sail straight into the Round of 16. That last 98-88 win over WKS Slask Wroclaw also made it five wins on the bounce for Rytas and Zibenas.
That is absolutely the kind of form that would have you in the running for Best Coach of the Group Phase if we were actually giving out an award here.
Francesco Tabellini - ERA Nymburk
From the Qualifying Rounds to the first team automatically qualified for the Round of 16, ERA Nymburk are putting together quite the Cinderella story, and as you can see from the quotes above, Francesco Tabellini isn't done yet.
This is a team styled after Tuomas Iisalo's Bonn team that won the 2023 Final Four in Malaga and the way they romped to a 5-1 record in Group D suggests there is no reason to believe they couldn't emulate that success.
Tabellini's Nymburk got past the likes of Turkish giants Galatasaray and Promitheas Patras BC Vikos Cola from Greece thanks in large parts to their defense. They ended the Group Phase with a Defensive Rating of just 98.8 points allowed per 100 possessions, ranking them third overall, and also the first team not from the Liga Endesa.
Nymburk have been to the Round of 16 three times before, including a pair of trips to the Quarter-Finals in 2020 and 2021. That 2020 team made it to the Final 8 and everything about this season's iteration looks like we might be looking at the best-ever version of Nymburk.
Their 24-3 record for the season overall does nothing to detract from that notion either. Make no mistakes, Francesco Tabellini has this Nymburk team cooking and he is unquestionably one of the best coaches in the competition this season.
Saso Filipovski - FIT/One Wurzburg Baskets
Well, we did say it was necessary to take into account expectations versus performance when it comes to evaluating which coaches have been the best during the Group Phase and the job done by Saso Filipovski for Wurzburg is a testament to that.
Despite operating on what is likely one of the lowest budgets in the competition, Filpovski has master-minded a team that has managed to win Group A and also produce a member of the Team of the Group Phase in Zac Seljaas.
Overachievement is nothing new for Filipovski, though. This is the coach who took Banvit to the Final in the inaugural season of the BCL and produced the MVP of the Season Jordan Theodore in the process.
Like Banvit, Wurzburg weren't a team that many predicted would be a threat to the throne at the start of the season, but also like that Banvit team, this Filipovski-led Wurzburg team needs to be taken very seriously indeed.
You can now vote for the best coach of the group phase. The poll closes on Monday.