To say Yarone Arbel likes basketball would be an understatement of epic proportions.  He eats, sleeps and breathes it and gives his EuroCup impressions every week in Good News, Bad News.

The second leg of the Qualifying Round already brought us some big news. Three teams earned a trip to the next round, but five more still cling on to every hope out there to join them.

Group A is locked with Tartu-Rock and CSK-VVS Samara in the next round. The last two weeks in this group will feature the fight between those two for the top spot, and PAOK's attempt to gain their first victory.

In Group B Ural Great Perm is still perfect and in the next round but Dexia Mons-Hainaut hold a two win gap over Cherkaski Mavpy, though they still need to travel to Ukraine next week where they can secure their spot in the next round with a win or a loss up to four points. Banvit BC is out and have two weeks to find their first win.

In Group C still everything is open and four teams still fight for two tickets. Every scenario is likely to happen, even a four way tie between all the teams in the group.

In Group D two teams - Barons LMT and Khimik Yuzhny hold a two win gap with a 3-1 record over Lokomotiv Rostov and Cholet Basket, but with two more games in the safe still everything can change.

The Good News

Big time Tartu

This is a good chance to give kudos to Tartu Rock. The Estonian club is one of the two who holds a perfect 4-0 record but on top of that didn't even come close to dropping a game. In the preliminary round against Czech club Prostejov they won the first leg by 25 points to make the second leg a game a matter of protocol. In the Qualifying round they beat PAOK by 11 and 10 points, choked favorites Samara 77-57 on Estonian soil.  Their smallest win was at the tough home court of their northern neighbors - Finnish club Lappeenranta who lost by "only" eight points, but basically this game was decided way-way before the final whistle. Tartu, not a club with a big history in European competitions, do it without a glamour roster. They have the Georgian prospect George Tsintsadze, a 22-year-old point guard who already played for CSKA Moscow. Joining him is Lithuanian veteran forward - Kestutis Sestokas, who won the Euroleague title with Zalgiris and US center Brian Cusworth - a 213cm big man in his first season in Europe after spending three years playing, and studying hard, at Harvard where he dominated the IVY league. Around them is a group of locals led by veterans Gert Kullamae and Tanel Tein, who came back home after a nice career on the road and the 205cm forward Janar Talts, who spent the last three seasons mostly on the bench of Koln in the Bundesliga, but now averages 12.5 ppg and 6.0 rpg.

Duane Woodward's play has been critical for Proteas.

Proteas EKA AEL showed once again it's not the smartest idea to plan on beating them in their home court with a 91-71 triumph over Olympia.  AEL went to the line no less than 37 times while the Greek side visited the charity stripe only 20 times. If you're looking for who made the difference say hello to Duane Woodward. The veteran US guard set two EuroCup season highs when he had 17 free throws attempts and made 15 of them. That also helped him set an individual season high of 26 points in addition to eight assists against only one turnover. Can't ask for more.

Dexia used their sense

Dexia and Banvit met in Belgium and showed two different ways to approach the game. None of those team excels in three-point shooting but that night it went too far for both. Both teams made less than 30% of their outside shots, and around 65% inside the arc, but what made the difference was that Dexia took only 12 shots from long range while Banvit attempted 25 times, with the newly signed Joe Crispin finishing his debut with one out of eight from long range and Yunus Cankaya, usually a great shooter with close to 50% three point accuracy, going zero of five. Dexia's idea of pushing the ball inside more also paid off when they went to the line 20 times more.

The Bad News  

Too-close Hallik

We are used to seeing the big guys hustle in the paint and collect points around the rim. Here and there some of those bigs prefer to play around the rim. Sometimes it fits the coach's tactics and philosophy, other times they are just too soft and you can find more reasons to that. Lappeenranta's Reinar Hallik belongs to that group of big guys. Standing at 208cm he is more of a three-point shooter than anything else. In six EuroCup games he took only four shots inside the arc while from long range he has attempted 23. Considering 12 of them went in, more than 50%, there's no reason for him to stop. Why are we telling you this? Because his team, Lappeenranta, annoyed Samara on Russian soil in the first leg but in the closing minutes stayed behind and lost. This week they hosted the Russian side and seeked revenge. It was close, and eventually Samara won 78-76 to grab the next round ticket and keep Lappeenranta behind, but here is where it all fits. The visitors took the lead with 10 seconds on the clock and gave the Finnish side a chance to save their skin. Hallik was the one who had to take the game on his shoulders. He kept his great long range accuracy that night with two out of four from that distance, but that deciding shot, right with the buzzer, was his first two-point range attempt that night, and his fourth the entire season. The ball went out. So did Lappeenranta, but they do deserve praise for showing Finnish basketball can match a Russian team.

Spartak needs the challenge

Seems like Spartak St. Petersburg must have it the hard way. After four games they stand on a 1-3 record and two home losses. The last of them came this week to KK Zagreb, 92-83. Spartak allowed no less than 35 points in the last quarter and saw the Croats make six three-pointer out of ten attempts in that period. Zagreb deserve good words, and their 20 assists on 30 field goals show what great team play they had, but at home Spartak's defense shouldn't allow so many points, especially in the deciding quarter of a key game. Now challenge-lovers Spartak faces their biggest test in the EuroCup campaign. In order to survive they'll have to beat AEL twice in St. Petersburg and then at Limassol. At home they already lost twice so beating AEL will be a first experience for them. On the road, in Cyprus, no team has beaten AEL in more than two years.

Rostov went to sleep too soon

In their first encounter this season Rostov held a two point lead close to the finish line but saw Latvian side Barons make an 8-2 run in the last minute to beat them at home. The team of Coach Milan Minic had a chance to fix that impression this week in Latvia but saw the same, or even a worse, scenario happen. With 3:46 to play Rostov held a 75-73 lead, but after 36 minutes of a very close game, they ran out of air or focus.  Behind a 4,000 fans push Barons made a 14-0 run to knock out Rostov and win 87-75. The locals locked the paint, and saw Rostov miss three times in a row from three-point range and turn the ball over once. Barons once again showed their execution level in the last minutes is probably the best in the competition with just one missed shot, no turnover and a single missed free throw that basically told the whole story. Armands Skele tied the game at 75-75 and got a bonus shot from the line. He missed that shot but Barons were first on the rebound and Demetrius Alexander hit a three-pointer which started the momentum going.