Despite an opening loss at home loss against JSF Nanterre, Bilbao bounced back by winning eight of its next nine regular season games to finish first in Group A. Clevin Hannah, Dairis Bertans and Alex Mumbru shined throughout the first stage, in which Bilbao won all of its road games. Once in Last 32 Group G, Bilbao recorded road wins against ratiopharm Ulm and FC Bayern Munich, which put the Men in Black on the brink of the eighthfinals. Bilbao arrived with a 7-0 road record to a do-or-die game against Banvit Bandirma, in which the hosts prevailed, 73-65. Ironically, its only road loss of the entire season eliminated Bilbao.

History

Dominion Bilbao Basket returns to the Eurocup for the sixth time in nine seasons and has a strong track record to live up to. Bilbao enters the season with an impressive 55-24 record in the competition; it has reached the semifinals three times and went all the way to the title game in 2013 before losing to Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar. Founded in 2000, Bilbao has marched along a road of success that started in the Spanish third division. The club moved up almost a division per year under head coach Txus Vidorreta and future All-Euroleague superstar Tiago Splitter. In 2004, Bilbao aced the second-division playoffs to qualify for the top Spanish League and started to make noise soon after. By 2008, Bilbao had already made it to the Spanish League playoffs, the Spanish King's Cup semifinals and the Spanish Supercup title game. Bilbao had a strong 2008-09 Eurocup season, its first in the competition; it advanced to the semifinals before Khimki stopped its run. Bilbao returned to the semifinals the following season – in which Marko Banic was chosen as the 2009-10 Eurocup MVP, but lost at the hands of ALBA Berlin. Bilbao reached the Spanish League finals in 2011, qualified for the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague and the Men in Black fought all the way to the playoffs before losing to mighty CSKA Moscow in a clash for a spot at the Final Four. Bilbao returned to the Eurocup to reach the 2013 championship game as Fotis Katsikaris earned Eurocup Coach of the Year honors. Bilbao stepped out in the Last 32 in the 2013-14 Eurocup season and just a year later, the club was fourth in the Spanish League regular season with a 20-14 record, but lost to Valencia Basket in a quarterfinals series that went down to the final seconds. Last season, Bilbao managed to reel off seven consecutive road wins in qualifying to the Last 32 and forcing a do-or-die game against Bandirma. Its only road loss in the entire Eurocup season prevented Bilbao from making it to the eighthfinals. Bilbao also missed the Spanish League playoffs due to a midcourt, buzzer-beating bank shot by Joan Sastre that gave CAI Zaragoza an important win at Bilbao Arena. This season the club looks to shake off its bad luck and keep fighting for Eurocup glory.