MIES (Switzerland) - With the internet age and 24-hour news cycles, there will never be enough attention to go around and there will always be some players whose performances should earn them rave reviews that are not forthcoming.
Well, not on our watch because that is what this column is for!
Every year we take the time to shine the light on basketball players who are going under the radar and as we should because these types of players have been some of the biggest stories in the nine-year history of this competition.
Everyone knows about Kevin Punter getting buckets for Barcelona, but who was telling you to watch out for a wirey baller from the Bronx when he was doing it for Rosa Radom in Poland? We were, that's who!
And we are again telling you to watch out for the names on this list below.
J.T. Shumate - ERA Nymburk
They don't come much more underrated than J.T. Shumate from Newark, Ohio. His team ERA Nymburk are top of Group L in the Round of 16, with last year's third-placed team UCAM Murcia holding second for them.
But you know about them because they are one of the stories in Season 9. His teammate Jaromir Bohacik is having the best season of his career, but you know about him because he's #3 in our MVP Race.
But what if we told you Bohacik had a 6'7" (201cm) teammate who can guard all five positions, has freakish athletic abilities, and also has the skills to impact the game on the offensive end in pretty much every area of the floor?
He does have a teammate like that, his name is J.T. Shumate and his numbers this season are seriously impressive. In just 16.8 minutes, Shumate is putting up 9.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 11.8 efficiency whilst shooting 63.2 percent from inside the arc and 45.2 percent from deep on four attempts per game.
He is also shooting over 90 percent from the line. We're not kidding when we say Shumate might be the most efficient player in the BCL this season.
Being underrated is nothing new for J.T. Shumate either. He ended his high school career in Newark High School a second team all-state athlete, but somehow without a single D1 offer.
He went to Walsh and proved everyone wrong. Two stellar seasons later the D1 offer came from Toledo and now here he is, in Europe, playing elite basketball in the Basketball Champions League.
Maybe you hadn't been warned to pay attention to J.T. Shumate before. But you have now.
Wesley Van Beck - Aliaga Petkimspor
If J.T. Shumate isn't the most efficient player in the BCL this season, then Wesley Van Beck is. He's got 12.5 points, 2.3 assists, and 2.8 rebounds whilst shooting 52 percent from two-points and 52 percent from deep on 5.3 attempts per game.
He's also shooting 95 percent from the charity stripe. We have seen 50/40/90 seasons in the BCL before, but Van Beck's 51 percent shooting overall has him on track for a 50/50/90 season.
Van Beck is another player who was used to being underrated before this season as well. He is now playing in Türkiye and the BCL, but his pathway to Europe's top tables was far from straightforward.
He completed four years at Houston College and then spent his first season as a pro with the South Bay Lakers in the G League, where he was almost entirely overlooked.
Following that, Van Beck spent time in Colombia with Tigrillos de Antioquia, followed by some time in Spain's Leb Gold with Fibwi Palma, before finally starting to ascent up through Europe's major leagues with BC Kalev then NINERS Chemnitz, and finally Aliaga Petkimspor.
Fun fact: Wesley Van Beck has never shot below 40 percent from behind the arc in any of his six seasons as a professional player.
These numbers we are seeing this year are no freak occurrence. No matter where this season takes him, if you didn't know what to expect from Wesley Van Beck, you do now.
Azuolas Tubelis - Rytas Vilnius
Whilst his teammate Gytis Radzevicius is rightly winning the plaudits for his performances this season, winning the Group Phase MVP award in the process, Azuolas Tubelis has quietly been anchoring the whole show.
Whether they need him to run the floor, roll to the rim at speed, or create something for himself or his team out of the post, Tubelis has been a pillar of trust at the heart of this Rytas team.
He has put up 10 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1 steal per game, whilst playing 25 minutes of every Rytas contest in the BCL this season.
Those 1.5 assists also point to a very underrated ability to pass the ball. A hometown hero himself as a product of the Rytas youth ranks, Tubelis took the option of completing his development in the NCAA with D1 Major Arizona.
The decision looked to be a good one, with his Junior year seeing Tubelis average 20 points and 9 rebounds. He declared for the NBA Draft the following year in 2023 and ultimately went undrafted.
Now back in his hometown and playing with a chip on his shoulder, Tubelis looks like a man determined to prove people wrong.
He put up 17 points and 7 rebounds in his first season back in Europe whilst on loan with Neptunas and has taken the step up to Rytas with ease. Upwards is the trajectory from here as evidenced by the 14 point and 5 rebound outing he had for Lithuania in the November window.
RaiQuan Gray - AEK Betsson BC
Despite coming from a major D1 program like Florida State and getting picked in the second round of the 2021 NBA Draft, RaiQuan Gray arrived for his rookie season in Europe for AEK with very little fuss and noise.
It took him a while to show the BCL who he really is after averaging just six points over his first six games, but he has absolutely exploded in the Round of 16.
Against Promitheas, Gray put up 18 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals in one of the most eye-catching individual displays of the season.
He then followed that up with 17 points, 6 rebounds and 6 steals against Derthona. Many may not have seen this coming, but RaiQuan Gray looks like he has arrived.
What we are seeing now is a player who at 6'8" (203cm) and 260 lbs (118kg) can handle the ball and make plays in transition, roll to the rim or pass the ball from the short roll, and also have a huge impact on the defensive end.
With AEK sitting on top of Group I and growing as a force with every Gameday, RaiQuan Gray may not have arrived in Europe as a name on everyone's lips, but now that everyone is seeing what he's capable of, he is certainly showing us that he is one to watch as the games in the BCL start to have more riding on them.
AEK could be set for another very deep Play-Offs run and if they are, Gray will have a huge say in the matter.
Fran Guerra - La Laguna Tenerife
It's very easy to be underrated when you play center in the same team as Giorgi Shermadini. The big Georgian is undoubtedly the best center in the nine-year history of the BCL.
This season, however, there is a strong case to be made that Shermadini isn't even the best center on his own team. Such is the form of big bad Fran Guerra.
A Canary Islander by birth, Guerra has had two absolutely monster outings this season. The first arrived on Gameday 1 with 20 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists against Karsiyaka, and the second was in a pivotal Round of 16 game against BAXI Manresa before the international break, when Guerra put up 16 points, 8 rebounds and dished out 4 assists.
Guerra also averaged 12 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3 assists in two games for Spain during the November qualifying window.
Everyone knows Guerra as the beast setting screens and rolling to the rim, but his assist numbers are up to a career-high 1.9 this season and he's clearly refining his game into the all-round center.
In fact, despite playing the rotation role with Shermadini, Fran Guerra may have evolved into one the most complete centers in the BCL, and nobody seems to have noticed.
Well, they have now so next time you watch Tenerife play make sure to appreciate what you are watching when Guerra is on the floor.