FIBA merged Saporta and Korac Cups - May 15, 2002
Durign the last meeting in Oostende in Belgium, FIBA definitely confirmed merging both cups: Saporta Cup and Korac Cup into one competition. The name of the new cup was not announced yet.
There will be three conferences: Northern, Southern and Western. The total number of team participating in the new competition will be 72. There will be obviously some teams limits for each country in order to prevent the new competition to be dominated exclusively by teams from top leagues. So each country can have maximum number of 4 teams in the new format cup.
Each conefrence will have 4 groups, and each group will contain 6 teams. There will be 10 games of regular season, and then Conference Final Four for top ranked teams from each group.
The second stage will be called Pan-European. The first team ranked in the twelve groups and the winners of play-offs between the eight teams ranked at the second place in the regional groups with the best record will participate to this phase. A total of sixteen teams in four groups and six games to play.

 Finals
2nd Game – April 19, 2002-04-19
Nancy did not allow to go the victory out. Even when they lost their second game to Lokomotiv by 21 points, they defeated Russian team by 25 in the game 1.
Lokomotiv Mineralnye Vody 95-74 SLUC Nancy (Aggregate: 167-172)
L: Robinson 25, Zukauskas 20+10reb.+7BS, Koudelin 15, Vedishev 11, Jagodnik 8+11reb.
N: Masingue 24, Boskovic 11, Land 10
1st game - 72:98.
Beyond doubts final series of last Korac Cup is very good result for Locomotive even they lost it. For the first time in history of Russian bball our club reached final of eurocup.
Unfortunately Nancy smashed Locomotive in first game in France and this loss made things difficult for Russian team – they had to win back 26 points. Finally they lacked only 6 points and the Cup went to France.
The game started as spring rain – with reluctance, first balls fell down in basket rarely - Loco scored first points in a minute after start, Nancy made only 1 exact free shot during first 3 minutes - it happened so due to great defense and commotion of nerves by both sides. Minute after minute the density of fire grew up and concluded by hailstorm of 3-pointers but all not exact (0/11 in 1st period). James Robinson desired to right himself after fiasco in first match and looked very good – his exact shots and assured control of game brought Loco 5 points of advantage.
And Robinson again drew forth his team in the middle of second quarter – 34:24. Zukauskas lost himself in offense, Jagodnik and Koudelin kept shady. Both teams bartered blow by blow but the game was equal. After first half Loco had +6 only so they need to overtake 20 points at least in 2nd half.
Loco stumbled at the threshold of 3rd period and allowed Nancy to tie score and even lead (41:42) but it was for the first and last time for Frenchmen. At this moment Zukauskas woke from a stupor, Koudelin and Vedishev really opened up and hosts played great time-span – 13:0! And before last quarter Loco had 15 points advantage. Too much…
Last quarter was very tensed and intensive, both teams staked very high. In 4 minutes before final buzzer Igor Koudelin engendered hope in hearts of thousands and thousands Russian rooters (86:64). But, but… it looked as if an overweight of care played on nerves of Loco players and they missed too much free shot in the ending. And turnover of Jagodnik in a minute before end (89:68) was fatal error.
Happy players and coaches of Nancy won the last Korac Cup in long and honored history of this competition. Russian rooters applaud Loco skills anyway and thank them for great bball holiday.

 Finals, Game 1 - April 11, 2002
Sluc Nancy – Lokomotiv Min.Vody 98-72
(Smith 23, Gomis 18, Land 18, Boskovic 14, Dubos 11, Masingue 10, Julian 4, Zianveni – Kudelin 17, Zukauskas 15, farmer 13, Robinson 12, Tsypatchev 9, Jagodnik 4, Vedistchev 2, Bencic)
nancy did not have big problems in defeating Lok.Min Vody in the first game of Korac Cup finals.

  Semifinals, Game 2 - March 29, 2002
Lokomotiv managed to catch up with their 5-point loss, and beat Maroussi in Min.Vody by 8 points. Nancy had easier task, so even their 11-points defeat did not change the fact that they will face Lokomotiv in the final game.
Pivovarna Lasko – Sluc Nancy 94-83
(Jurak 11, Walker 26, Leric 17, Novak 8, Duscak 12, Brolih 10, Vujicic 3, Pavic 7 - Boskovic 4, Land 11, Smith 21, Julian 2, Mbodji 2, Dubos 16, Mazinque 3, Phaeton 2, Zianveni 22)
Lokomotiv - Maroussi 75-67
(Kudelin 17, Zukauskas 16, Jagodnik 11, Vedishev 11, Farmer 9, Robinson 9, Bencic 2 – Oliver 20, Burke 13, Conlon 13, Koronios 5, Pavlidis 5, Marmarinos 4, Koch 3)

  Semifinals, Game 1 – March 22, 2002
Nancy gave no chance to Pivovarna and Maroussi got 5-points victory at home against Lokomotiv Min.Vody. So Nancy can almost celebrate their semifinals qualification, while everything could happen in Min.Vody.
Maroussi – Lokomotiv Min.Vody 91-86
MAROUSSI: Falekas 6, Burke 20, Maslarinos 12, Pavlidis 2, Koch 9, Oliver 21, Spanoulis, Conlon 19, Marmarinos 2.
LOKOMOTIV: Robinson 21, Koudeline 23, E.Zukauskas 9, Vedichtchev 2, Farmer 14, Jagodnik 13, Bencic 2, Konovalov 2.
Nancy Basket – Pivovarna Lasko 89-58
Nancy: Boskovic 13, Land 10, Smith 15, Julian 11, Dubos 15, Gomis 6, Masingue 11, Zianveni 8.
Lasko: Jurak 10, Walker 8, Leric 9, Novak 7, Duscak 4 , Pavic 11, Vujicic, Green 9.

  Korac cup: Semi Final- some comments before the first Jump ball – March 20, 2002
By Assaf Hadar
We have reach the money time- The semi Final games are about to start this week. 4 of the best teams are willing to do their best in order to win the Cup. Take a good look at the fact that this year there is no team from Spain or Italy which have reached the Semi. This is not the Euroleague and even not Saporta Cup- No doubt that 4 of the teams which have promoted to the semi Final don’t belong to European ’s top Level…Nevertheless, one can easily find some players who can contribute and show up in the top Level. The semi Final event is a great chance for some good players to show up theirs skills.(and get them a nice contract for next season..)
J. Oliver, who has being playing with Small European teams so far, is looking for his break- wining the Korac Cup with his Greek Team- MARUOSSI can be his big chance, which he has been looking for some time- a good Performance can arrange him a nice contract in one of Europe’s top team for the next season- So far Oliver has been more than great with 23 points a game- the top scorer in Korac. Three of the teams have shown an Extra Ordinary Offence skills scoring more than 90 points a game, Maruosi the is too much depended on J. Oliver (23 points a game so far) and hence scores only 79 points.
Let’s take a look of the two matches which are going to be played this week:
Lokomotiv- Maruossi is the first match- Lokomotiv has 6 players with double figures on Offence and very good board game (36 Rebounds a game!!)
J. SCORER Oliver can easily win a game by him self for Maruossi, he can hit it from the outside or take his man all the way to the basket- Lokomotiv is going to put most of its Defense Pressure on this guy. But Oliver is not along, It will be an Interesting fight under the basket where P. Burke and M. Conlon will try to get theirs hands on the Boards. Maroussi has Kornios – Greece NT Guard – one of the best Guard in Greek who hasn’t been in his best Shape so far this season and wants to show up in his real chance. M.Coch has already won the European Title and brings his experience to the court, and don’t forget his ability to shoot the Triples
According to the Stats’s Stats Pages we can say with no doubt that Lokomotiv is better: 93 points are much more than 79 points…the Greek team scores no more than 80 points a game…But Stats its only one thing…
T.Farmer and James Robinson are the team’s Foreigners. Is anyone Remembers J. Robinson? Yes, the guy who gave some good seasons with the Portlan (NBA) and played with Olimpyakos is about to play one on one against Oliver- This is going to be interesting …
I. Koudlin , the guy who has played for along time with CSKA a Robinson’s partner in the back court line, the Fantastic Jagodnic and E. Zakauskas Gives a great Starting Five for the team from Lokomotiv.
Nancy- lasko: Both of teams score more than 90 points a game…both of them have a balance Offense game with Six players scoring at Double Figures (More than 10 points a game). Lasko has Duscak who is a deadly weapon form behind the Arc (55.8%!!) and is the leading scorer of the team with nearly 19 points, T. wallker helps him with 14.8 points a game. Other important and dominant players are: E. Novak, S. Pavic, G. Jurak, S. Leric and I.Vujicic.
Nancy will try to use some ball pressure on Lasko’s Guards (17 TO for a game)
and it seems that this will be the job of Nancy American Gaurds : S.Smith and R. Land . The team’s front line combines from Julian and Dubas (Both of the NT Players) who will try to dominant the boards. Other important players in the team’s Rotation are: J. Gomas and G. Boskovic