Adidas NextGen EuroLeague Ulm rosters breakdown - Group B
The Adidas NextGen EuroLeague's third stop will be great as ex-champs Barcelona and Zalgiris highlight the field playing in Ulm for the first time. Here is a breakdown of the rosters in Group B.
After a mini-break, the Adidas NextGen EuroLeague once again takes center stage on the continent with the third leg of its tour with eight teams battling in southwest Germany at the NextGen Ulm tournament - the first time Europe’s elite youth club competition will be played in Ulm. The fantastic Orange Campus will be the location of the games from February 7 to 9 with the teams battling for a ticket to the NextGen EuroLeague Finals, which will be played the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four from May 23-25 in Abu Dhabi. The field includes former champions FC Barcelona and Zalgiris Kaunas but LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne will be looking to win the tournament as will hosts ratiopharm ulm and the selection Next Gen Team Ulm.
This piece is a breakdown of the four teams in Group B. The other three teams competing in the event are ALBA Berlin, Dubai Basketball and Olympiacos Piraeus. Group B has ALBA, Barcelona, Next Gen Ulm and Olympiacos.
Despite two NextGen tournaments having been played, only Mega MIS Belgrade has locked up a ticket for the Finals for taking first place at NextGen Istanbul. Next Gen Team Munich won the event in Munich in mid-January but will not be playing at the Finals.
ALBA Berlin
ALBA are in the competition for the 15th time including four straight and 11 of the last 12 years. The Germans went 1-3 for fifth place at NextGen Podgorica last season and then 0-3 at the Finals as host side. This Berlin team is a mix of players from the U19 NBBL and ProB Lok Bernau sides. ALBA is currently 11-0 in the NBBL. A number of players (Monninkoff, Hermann, Mutter, Szczesko, Suren, Lehniger) were on the U16 team to win the JBBL title in 2023 while a number of others (Kemmer, Felling, Borczanowski, Suren, von Wiegen, Szczesko) were on the JBBL team that lost to EWE Baskets Oldenburg in the Final after coming back from 17 points down in the fourth quarter before beating Ulm 86-83 in overtime in the Semi-Finals.
Anton Kemmer will be one of ALBA’s top players as the 2008-born forward is playing his second NextGen season, picking up 10.3 points and 4.3 rebounds in the Finals last year. He came to ALBA from Berlin Baskets in 2022 and collected 26 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals in the JBBL Semi-Finals comeback last season. Kemmer is averaging 11.3 points and 5.5 rebounds in the NBBL after totalling 9.1 points, 5.7 rebounds at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2024.
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Nevio Bennefeld is another member of Berlin’s solid group of 2008 talents as the big man is playing in his third NextGen season, pouring in 10.3 points with 4.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks at the Finals at home. The big man, who came to ALBA in 2023 after two seasons with USC Heidelberg, is averaging 3.5 points, 3.1 rebounds in 10 minutes in 15 games with Bernau in the ProB and 8.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in the NBBL. Bennefeld had 4.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in helping Germany finish fifth at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2023 and then 2.8 points and 2.8 rebounds at the FIBA U17 World Cup 2024.
Noah Isichei is spending his first season with ALBA after coming to the club from fellow Berlin side TuS Lichterfelde. A big reason for that was Isichei exploding against ALBA in the U16 JBBL level with 34 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 4 blocks and 1 turnover in 33 minutes of a 102-95 loss on January 21, 2024. With ALBA now, he is averaging 6.7 points and 3.3 rebounds in the NBBL. Isichei has played a total of 15 3x3 tournaments, even winning the Szczecin Open 2024 in Szczecin Poland in May 2024. He also has played three games for Germany’s U15 national team against France.
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Lukas Klein is another talent to move to ALBA this summer as he came from Bayer Leverkusen, where he was the JBBL U16 Defensive Player of the Year. The big man is averaging 7.4 points and 6.1 rebounds in the NBBL and had two apprearances in the ProB with Bernau. He contributed 4.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.2 blocks at the 2024 Albert Schweitzer Tournament and then had 7.0 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2024.
Matheo Hermann appeared in seven NextGen games last season and had 4.0 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists. He is averaging 6.2 points in the NBBL and 5.7 points in 17 minutes in the ProB, including 15 points with 4 threes and 3 rebounds versus Berlin Braves. Hermann came to ALBA from Berlin side Friedenauer TSC in 2022. He has yet to play a national team tournament.
Wiktor Szczesko was part of the German U16 camp in November 2023 and last summer, through he did not make the team. Later in the summer he was with the Poland national team for the U16 level and even played in preparation games ahead of the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2024 - again not getting into an official game. With ALBA, Szczesko has scored 6.5 points in two games in the NBBL.
Richard Schmitt contributed 2.7 points and 2.3 rebounds in the NextGen Finals last year. This year, he has picked up 2.5 points, 1.4 rebounds in 10 minutes in 14 games in the ProB as well as 7.7 points in the NBBL. Schmitt joined ALBA from Jena in 2023.
Netherlands wing Yari Monninkhoff came to ALBA in 2022 from Higherlevel Berlin and he contributed 2 points, 7 rebounds in 43 minus over 6 NextGen games last season. This season he is averaging 6.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.5 steals in the NBBL.
Lukas Mutter contributed 2.6 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists last season in seven NextGent games. The guard was with Higherlevel Berlin until 2022 and this season is averaging 4.9 points 2.9 assists 2.1 steals in the NBBL.
Finnegan Lehniger played in the 2022-23 NextGen Munich event and averaged 0.5 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 12 minutes. Lehniger joined ALBA from HigherLevel Berlin in 2022 and he was a member of the JBBL title-winning team with 3 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in the Final. He is averaging 4.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals in the NBBL.
Bruno Brem, who came to ALBA in 2023 from SG Bernau-Berlin, is scoring 4.7 points and 1.7 assists in the NBBL this season.
ALBA have a number of 2008 players including Fin Borczanowski, who is averaging 6.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists in the NBBL. Bruno Felling is scoring 3.8 points in the NBBL; Siim Suren has one NBBL appearance and took part in a German U16 national team camp in November 2023; Jan Diener arrived from TuS Lichterfelde in the summer and had 6 points and 2 assists in his one NBBL game; and Ari von Wiegen has 2.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists in the NBBL.
Barcelona
Barcelona won the NextGen title in 2016 and finished runners-up in 2008, 2013 and 2021. They will be playing in the competition for the 20th time and 18th straight. The Spanish powerhouse won their last two qualifying tournaments in Zadar in 2022-23 and Belgrade in 2024. Then they went 2-1 in the 2023 Finals and 1-2 in the 2024 Finals. A number of Barcelona players will be back from last season and many of them are Spainsh U18 champions after beating Real Madrid 79-53 in the title game.
Mathieu Grujicic will be playing in his third NextGen season after the 2022-23 campaign with his first big club ALBA Berlin. The German-French-Serbian, who moved to Barcelona in 2023, averaged 15.2 points and 3.0 rebounds at the Belgrade qualifier last season. And the first game in Ulm will be against ALBA, with whom he won the U16 JBBL title in 2023 - pouring in 52 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 7 steals in the double-OT victory in the Final to take home Final Four MVP. Between the JBBL Final Four and his arrival at Barcelona, Grujicic averaged 14.9 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.4 steals in helping Germany finish fifth at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2023 to help the country qualify for the FIBA U17 World Cup for the first time - though he was unavailable to play in Istanbul last summer. This season Grujicic is one of the main leaders of the second team with 14.0 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists - including twice in the last last five games hitting 4 three-pointers.
Arturas Butajevas has already made his debut with Barcelona’s pro team, playing 1 minute against Manresa in early December. The Lithuanian big man, who joined Barcelona in 2023 from BS Klaipeda, is one of the top players for the second team in the fourth division with 11.2 points and 7.1 rebounds. Last season in seven NextGen games, Butajevas averaged 10.0 points and 6.9 rebounds, and he also scored 12 points against Real Madrid in the U18 Spanish Final. Butajevas twice led Lithuania at the youth national team level, picking up 15.6 points, 9.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2023 and then 14.4 points, 11.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks at the FIBA U17 World Cup 2024.
Probably the most anticipated player in the whole NextGen EuroLeague season is Barcelona’s 2011-born Mohamed Dabone, who burst onto the stage at the NextGen Finals last year in Berlin with 11.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks at 13 years of age. That came about three months after he was named as the ACB Minicopa (U14) MVP with 22 points, 26 rebounds, 5 steals and 6 blocks and a PIR of 48 against Real Madrid in the Final in February 2024. He averaged 18.3 points (35/41 on 2-pointers/85.3%), 13.5 rebounds, 4.3 blocks and a PIR of 34.8 in just 16:37 minutes per game. Dabone has since tortured Real Madrid twice more. He scored 31 points with 19 rebounds, 4 blocks and a PIR of 45 against Madrid at the U16 International Basketball Tournament Villa de La Orotava last October. Dabone then had 20 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks in a 93-81 win over Real in the Final of the U16 Sant Vicenç de Montalt (Barcelona) on January 26. Dabone is not playing with Barcelona’s fourth division team, averaging instead 15.0 points in 13 games for the Barcelona Junior A team in the U18 Catalonia league as well as 21 points in three games with Barcelona U15 cadet team and 18 points in 3 games for Barcelona’s Junior B (U17).
Barcelona will also be relying on Sayon Keita - the 2008-born Mali big man, who averaged 14.1 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.9 blocks in 7 NextGen games last season. Keita is dominating in the fourth division with 13.3 points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.9 blocks. Keita, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds in the Spanish U18 championship game against Real Madrid, has yet to play for Mali but he would give the Africans another major boost at the FIBA U19 World Cup 2025 after the team won the FIBA U18 AfroBasket 2024 with Youssouf Traore, Amadou Traore, Ibrahim Doumbia, Sekou Bagayoko and Mamadou Traore.
Butajevas isn’t the only high-level talent from Lithuania as his fellow Klaipeda native Emilis Prekevicius is one of the country’s best gems from the 2008 generation. He played at the NextGen Dubai as an invite player for Zalgiris Kaunas and had 1.2 points and 1.5 rebounds. Last summer he moved to Barcelona on a long-term contract and is picking up 3.9 points and 1.4 assists in the fourth division. Prekevicius was a leader for Lithuania at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2024 with 8.7 points, 2.0 rebounds and a tournament high 5.4 assists. Prekevicius’ father is Marius Prekevicius, who played for Lithuania at the 2008 Olympics and also won the FIBA U21 World Cup 2005 title and finished second at the FIBA U19 World Cup 2003 - losing in the final to Australia and Andrew Bogut. Prekevicius’ teammates at the U19 World Cup included Linas Kleiza, Paulius Jankunas and Jonas Maciulis.
Raul Villar will be playing in his third NextGen season and he had 3.0 points, 3.7 rebounds 4.0 assists in the Finals last year. Villar, who is the younger brother of the 2004-born Barcelona player Rafa Villar, starred for Spain at the FIBA U17 World Cup 2024 with 5.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.6 assists. This season the playmaker is averaging 8.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists for Barcelona’s second team.
Abdrahamane Kone is back for his second season as a 2009-born center from Mali, who had 11.0 points and 6.0 rebounds in two games at the Finals. He is averaging 7.3 points and 7.5 rebounds in the the fourth division. Kone has not played for Mali at all though it seems a possibility he could compete this summer at the FIBA U16 AfroBasket 2025 as Mali hope to get back to the FIBA U17 World Cup in 2026 after missing out in 2024 as they finished third at the U16 AfroBasket 2023.
Alan Garcia tallied 6.3 points and 3.0 rebounds in the Belgrade qualifying tournament and is scoring 3.8 points this season in the fourth league. Lluc Pluvinet played more in the qualifiers than the Finals with 3.8 points and 1.8 assists in Belgrade. He is tallying 6.3 points for the Tercera FEB team.
Daniel Gonzalez contributed 1.6 points and 1.6 assists in 7 NextGen games last season and is picking up 7.0 points and 2.8 assists. Miguel Gonzalez is also back again after averaging 1.7 points in 6 NextGen games last season. He is scoring 6.5 points for Barcelona’s second team this year.
Joan Omoaruna had 2.5 points in Belgrade last season and is chipping in 2.4 points for the second time this season. Oriol Filba is a 2009-born talent while Senegalese Ma Samba Gueye has 3.0 points in two games in the fourth division
Next Gen Team Ulm
Next Gen Team Ulm head coach Dogus Balbay will be motivated to match his feat from Munich where the selection team won the tournament - just the second time the team selected by Adidas has claimed a qualifier following Paris 2024. There will be three players on this Ulm team with past NextGen experience - Ivaylo Skrinski, Junior Kemm and Giannis Odzebe.
Ivaylo Skrinski will have the valuable experience of playing at the NextGen Belgrade tournament last season and picking up 8.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.2 rebounds for the selection team. Skrinski has already left his mark on Bulgarian hoops with 15.6 points in helping the country take second place at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2023, Division B to earn promotion to Division A for the first time since 2011. Then last summer, he had 2.1 points as Bulgaria took third place at the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2024, Division B to get back to Division A for the first time since 2013. Skrinski, who moved to GBA in October 2023, has played in one game in the Czech top flight NBL this season while picking up 17.6 points, 4.9 assists and 2.4 steals in the U19 league.
Junior Kemm also has past experience as a member of the Next Gen team in Paris, contributing 5.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists as the first selection team to win a tournament. The thrilling Brazilian wing has been playing regularly in the Czech first division with 4.9 points and 2.0 assists while picking up 21.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.3 steals in the U19 league. He went from Stellazzurra to Barcelona and in 2023 joined Get Better Academy. Kemm had a national team disappointment last summer as Brazil finished fifth at the FIBA U18 AmeriCup 2024 with 11.2 points and 4.7 rebounds as the South Americans just missed reaching the FIBA U19 World Cup 2025.
Giannis Odzebe has a fitting first name as the 2008-born Republic of Congo native is a human highlight just waiting to happen like Giannis Antetokounmpo. Odzebe has already been on the NextGen stage as he collected 6.2 points and 4.8 rebounds as a 14 year old at 2022-23 Patras. The wing is playing for Italian side Orange1 Bassano.
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Samu Adler is only 17 years old but he is already scoring 13.1 points with 41 percent three-point shooting for Salon Vilpas in the Finnish first division. Adler, a former player with the famed HBA-Marsky academy in Helsinki, also made his debut with the Finnish senior national team at the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers last November. Last summer, he had 12.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists at the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2024 at home in Finland.
Davi Remagen is one of Germany’s top young point guard talents and he has already played a major role in the country’s national team youth ranks, helping Germany take fifth place at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2023 to qualify for the FIBA U17 World Cup for the first time. But he was injured and missed the entire 2023-24 season and with it the global cadet tournament. Injuries have been Remagen’s biggest problem, basically missing the entire 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons for the RheinStars Köln. When he was finally able to play, the point guard shined and won the U16 JBBL 2022-23 league MVP after averaging 31.7 points, 12.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 2.7 steals in the season and guiding his club to the JBBL Final Four for the first time. In the Semi-Finals against ALBA Berlin, Remagen put on a spectacular show with 41 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 steals. But it was not enough in an 84-79 loss as JBBL Final Four MVP Mathieu Grujicic collected 35 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists in the victory. The two had teamed up at the U16 EuroBasket the summer before. Remagen also contributed 5.1 points and 1.5 rebounds in the third division ProB at 15 years old. Finally back and healthy, Remagen is collecting 7.4 points, 2.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.2 steals in the ProB this season including 26 points, 7 assists and 4 steals against Oberhaching. Meanwhile, he is dominating with 28.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.6 steals in five NBBL U19 games.
Mate Kavlashvili is a 2008-born member of the Zaza Pachulia Academy from Georgia’s former NBA veteran. Kavlashvili has appeared in 7 games in the Georgian Superleague with Tbilisi State University and picked up 3.3 points. He is totalling 18.0 points, 3.0 assists and 4.2 steals in the U18 league. The guard tallied 11.4 points and 2.1 assists in the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2024 and helped Georgia beat Poland to stay in the Division A for back-to-back summers for the first time since 2007 and 2008.
Ignas Urbonas comes to the tournament knowing how to win a pan-European youth club competition. The guard was named MVP as he guided Rytas Vilnius to the Youth Basketball Champions League crown last season, averaging 19.0 points 6.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 steals. Just 11 days after winning the YBCL title, Urbonas made his Lihtuanian LKL first division debut on April 18 against BC Siauliai. That made him the second youngest player ever to debut for Rytas at 16y 4m 27d, behind only Evaldas Kairys (16y 1m 6d) and ahead of Rytas star talents Deividas Sirvydis (16y 11m 53d) and Marek Blazevic (17y 1m 22d). The game against BC Siauliai was special because they are coached by his father Zydrunas Urbonas, who himself played basketball from 1993 to 2012 in Lithuania, Russia, Latvia, Greece, Cyprus and Ukraine and was named the LKL season MVP in 2001 playing for BC Siauliai. Zydrunas even had his Number 8 jersey retired for Juventus Utena. Ignas Urbonas last May agreed to stay with Rytas and signed a long term deal with the club. Urbonas is starring for Rytas’ second team in the second divivion NKL with 14.7 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists. He also has played for Lithuania, first at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2023 (4.4 points, 1.7 assists) and then 10.0 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists at the FIBA U17 World Cup 2024.
Dusan Stankovic comes to the selection team as a player with Ionios in Greece, where the 2008-born Montenegro has played since 2022. Last June, Stankovic took home the MVP trophy as he guided Olympiacos to the Greek U16 league crown. After that, Stankovic averaged 14.1 points and 9.3 rebounds at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2024, Division B.
The Next Gen team will include two Senegal big men from Italian club Reggio Emilia - Mame Deme El Hadji and 2008-born Babacar Samb. In the most recent Italian NextGen event, El Hadji dominated with 17.3 points, 13.7 rebounds and 2.0 blocks over three games.
The team will have another Senegal center - the biggest of the trio - with Maodo Malik Mane, who is listed at 2.18m and playing with Fidenza in the Italian B third division and averaging 3.8 points and 4.9 rebounds.
The other Lithuanian on the Next Gen team is 2008-born Tauris Aliukonis, who plays with Tornado Basketball School Kaunas. He has averaged 11.3 points and 9.0 rebounds in three games in the RKL third division. Aliukonis has played in two U18 league games this season - one in early October and one in early January - picking up 8.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists. He shined at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2024 with 11.4 points and 5.7 rebounds.
Olympiacos Piraeus
Olympiacos are making their ninth appearance and fourth straight as well as seventh in the last eight years. They finished fifth in Paris last season with a 2-2 record and were seventh at Patras 2023 with a 1-3 mark. Olympiacos won the 2024 Greek U18 title with two players from the squad in Ulm - Georgios Bourneles and Christos Angelopoulos.
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The only player with previous NextGen experience is Georgios Bourneles. The guard had 4.8 points and 1.8 rebounds in Paris last season. He has already made his senior team debut for Olympiacos in November with Evan Fournier, Tyler Dorsey, Naz Mitrou-Long, Stefanos Spartalis and Shaquille McKissic all unavailable against PAOK Thessaloniki. Bourneles has averaged 19.0 points with 35 percent on three-pointers, 4.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists in the Greek U18 league. Bourneles has come up through the Olympiacos youth ranks, starting with the Red-and-Whites at age 5.
Theodoros Pavlopoulos has also made his senior team debut with Olympiacos on January 12 against Karditsas. Pavlopoulos, who came to the Piraeus club from Milonas, is averaging 14.8 points on 38 percent threes 6.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in the Greek U18 league.
Evangelos Bouzoulas is averaging 11.1 points and 5.5 rebounds in the U18 league while Stefanos Gkikas is scoring 8.7 points and 9.0 rebounds, Georgios-Panagiotis Bekas is picking up 5.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists and Marios Fylaktakis is contributing 9.2 points and 3.8 rebounds. All of those players were born in 2008.
Konstantinos Antoniou has averaged 7.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists in the U18 league; Georgios Papastathopoulos is collecting 7.4 points and 4.4 rebounds; Christos Angelopoulos, who came from Atlas Patras in October 2023, is pitching in 6.6 points on 43 percent threes and 2.3 rebounds in the U18 league.
The preliminary roster also includes the 2008-born duo of Achilles Vardis (5.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists in the U18 league) and Sotirios-Alexandros Paralikas (2.5 points, 1.8 rebounds), and the only listed center Yupeng Wang, who has picked up 2.6 points and 3.7 rebounds at the U18 domestic level.
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