Halperin and Vujcic to face Maccabi

Yotam Halperin and Nikola Vujcic will be back in Tel Aviv just six months after leaving the Nokia Arena after their new team Olympiacos was drawn in the same group as Maccabi Tel Aviv in the draw for the Euroleague regular season in Berlin on Tuesday.

Maccabi will host Olympiacos on January 8, 2009, and will visit Athens on November 13.

Also with Maccabi in Group B are: Unicaja Malaga, Cibona Zagreb, Le Mans and Avellino. Tel Aviv will begin its Euroleague campaign in Croatia against Cibona on October 23.

"It was obvious to me that this would happen," said Vujcic, who became a fan favorite in his six seasons at Maccabi. "I didn't need the draw to know I would play Maccabi. I'm not crazy about the idea of coming back to the Nokia Arena to face Maccabi, but it will undoubtedly be a very special occasion."

Maccabi chairman Shimon Mizrahi, who represented the club in Berlin, labeled the team's draw as "very tough", just as he does every year regardless of the identity of the opponents.

"I think that our group is very tough, but on the other hand it is very attractive because with Olympiacos we have Nikola Vujcic and Yotam Halperin that played with us and will now come back with their new team. It will be a very interesting winter," Mizrahi said.

"Teams like Olympiacos or Unicaja will be tough, of course, but I think we will be able to make it to the Top 16. We have to take it step by step. We have to get to the Top 16 first and then we will see."

The best four teams from each of the round robin groups will advance to the Top 16 in which there will be four groups of four teams. The top two teams from each group will progress to the best-of-five quarterfinal playoffs, with the four series winners progressing to the Final Four in Berlin in May.

"It's not an easy draw," said new Maccabi coach Effi Birenboim, who will be coaching in the Euroleague for the first time in his career.

"We're still building our team for next season. I promise we'll be ready for the challenge and we'll build the strongest team possible to compete in this strong Euroleague group. It's going to be special to play against Yotam and Nikola, but we have to think about ourselves and how to win each game."

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