Ricky Rubio was presented with the award for the 2007 FIBA Europe Young Player of the Year Tuesday night before the tip-off of the friendly game in Madrid, between World champions Spain and the defending Olympic champions of Argentina.

Rubio is currently playing for the Spanish national team which is preparing for the Beijing Olympic Games.

The draw for the premier women's basketball club competition in Europe was held on Thursday near Munich, Germany as the teams participating in the 2008-2009 season of EuroLeague Women gathered to find out who they will face in the Qualifying Round.

The 24 participating clubs were assigned seeds of 1-6 based on their performance in last year's competition and were then drawn into four groups of six teams each.

The 2008-09 women's club competition season kicked off on Thursday with the draws for EuroCup Women and EuroLeague Women being held near Munich, Germany.

Representatives of all 24 clubs participating in EuroLeague Women as well as many EuroCup Women officials were on hand for the proceedings, as the draw was made for Europe's premier women's basketball competitions.

The draw for the 2008-2009 season of EuroCup Women was held in Munich, Germany on Thursday with the teams playing in the Qualifying Round being drawn and the groups for the Preliminary Round also decided.

The EuroCup Women Qualifying Round will begin on 2^nd October. 20 teams will play home and away games to decide which will advance to the Preliminary Round with the second game taking place on 9^th October.

There were three draws in Berlin on Tuesday but the real historical significance of the event came in the fact that it was a common draw.  Both FIBA Europe and ULEB officials were on hand at the Postbahnhof and their presence signified a new era of cooperation between the two organizations.

The integration of the three competitions is the direct result of a renewed effort by FIBA Europe and ULEB to cooperate in growing the game of basketball across Europe.

Berlin, Germany played host to the draw for the newly named EuroChallenge on Tuesday as the names of the teams participating in Qualifying Round 1 were drawn and the potential match-ups for Qualifying Round 2 were also set.

The teams will play home and away games to determine who will advance to Qualifying Round 2 with the team drawn first hosting the opening game. Eight teams will eventually advance out of the two qualifying rounds to take part in the EuroChallenge Regular Season.

FIBA Europe has announced the procedure for the EuroChallenge draw, which will take place in Berlin, Germany, on Tuesday.

A total of 32 clubs will enter Qualifying Round I. Sixteen clubs are seeded, according to their results in previous FIBA Europe competitions, in their national championships and their country coefficient and they will not be drawn against each other.

FIBA Europe has announced the clubs to participate in the EuroLeague and EuroCup Women competitions for the 2008-09 season.

The EuroLeague features six new teams among its 24 participants and a record 58 clubs have registered for the EuroCup.

With the draw for the three main European basketball competitions scheduled for next week in Berlin the teams who will be participating have been named.

FIBA Europe's new competition EuroChallenge (formerly EuroCup) will feature eight teams who will qualify directly to the first qualifying round.  That list includes 2008 EuroCup finalists Dexia Mons-Hainaut of Belgium and Italian side Virtus Bologna.