BCL 2026-27 Group C: AEK Athens, Falco Szombathely, Antwerp Giants and Salon Vilpas — full breakdown and predictions

Group C's official shape, and why the Play-In race matters already

Group C of the 2026-27 Basketball Champions League Regular Season pairs AEK Athens (Greece), Falco KC Szombathely (Hungary), Windrose Giants Antwerp (Belgium) and Salon Vilpas (Finland). The grouping isn't a media invention: each club's official Basketball Champions League team profile page explicitly lists "Regular Season · Group C" under its current competition stage, confirming the four-team pod as it stands heading into the campaign.

The BCL Regular Season begins on October 6, 2026, giving all four clubs just days to lock in rotations after a stretch of games running from AEK's September 4 preseason outing to Falco's and Antwerp's September 26 games and Vilpas's September 29 Korisliiga matchup, on top of, for Vilpas, a grueling qualifying road. What separates this group from a settled field is how little regular-season basketball any of these four teams have actually played together under the BCL banner. AEK is adjusting to RaiQuan Gray's departure while integrating Landers Nolley II, Falco is leaning on continuity, Antwerp is replacing a key scorer, and Vilpas is simply happy to be here after winning three straight qualifying games to punch its ticket.

That matters for how this preview is built. Group C's finishing order will ultimately be shaped by games not yet played, and the Play-In stage already baked into the format — where Group C's second-place finisher meets Group D's third-place club, and vice versa — raises the stakes of every result from October onward. Before diving into predictions, though, each team deserves a full look at who it's bringing to the table.

AEK Athens bets on Landers Nolley II to replace RaiQuan Gray's punch

AEK Betsson BC's roster runs 17 players deep, combining Greek players with international signings. The headline addition is Landers Nolley II (2.01m, born 2000), who averaged 19.5 points, 4.5 assists and 4.0 rebounds last season at Nancy before signing in Athens, according to AEK's own announcement of the move. He arrives to help fill the void left by RaiQuan Gray's offseason departure, a swap AEK will need to make work quickly against BCL-caliber defenses.

He won't be doing it alone. Frank Bartley (1.91m, born 1994) returns after averaging 18.4 points in last season's Basketball Champions League, giving AEK two established guards capable of carrying an offense. The frontcourt features size and experience in Derrick Williams, Greg Brown III, Nelly Jr. Joseph and KeyShawn Feazell, while Dimitris Flionis and Dimitris Katsivelis (Greece) and Lukas Lekavičius (Lithuania) round out a roster built for both domestic and European competition.

The early returns are mixed. In a September 4, 2026 preseason game, AEK lost 76-66 to Trabzonspor, with Nolley scoring 23 points on four made 3-pointers to go with 7 assists and 4 rebounds, according to Novasports. Bartley was quieter in that outing, finishing with 6 points. The storyline to track all season is simple: can Nolley and Bartley coexist as co-lead scorers, or does one of them need to take a backseat for AEK's offense to find its rhythm in Europe?

Falco Szombathely leans on captain Zoltán Perl's continuity

Falco KC Szombathely's Basketball Champions League roster lists 13 players under head coach Milos Konakov, including Kristof Bognar, Juwan Gray, Salamon Herger, Ákos Keller, Joshua Patton, Darrion Trammell, Benedek Váradi, Péter Veraszto and Patrick Whelan. Compared to AEK's import-heavy approach, Falco's group looks built around domestic continuity and a settled coaching staff.

That continuity starts with captain Zoltan Perl, who averaged 19.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists across 25 Hungarian league games in 2025-26, shooting 89.6% from the free-throw line, according to MKOSZ, the Hungarian basketball federation. Those numbers make him the clearest returning engine on the roster.

Perl carried that form into the new season. In a Hungarian league game on September 26, 2026, Falco beat Phoenix Fót 94-75, with Perl scoring 25 points and adding 7 assists while Benedek Váradi chipped in 14 points, according to MKOSZ. Falco's ball movement and defensive activity showed up in the team totals too — 20 assists and 14 steals in that single game — suggesting a club that wants to win with pace and pressure rather than isolation scoring.

The storyline here is whether a Hungarian-league dominant performance translates against BCL-level defenses. Perl's efficiency and playmaking give Falco a foundation, but the group will need its supporting cast — Trammell, Whelan, Rosic — to produce consistently once the level of competition rises in October.

Antwerp Giants hand Enoch Cheeks the keys after Rasheed Bello's exit

Windrose Giants Antwerp enter the Basketball Champions League under head coach Roel Moors with a 16-player roster that includes Nijel Pack, Joel Murray, Jehloni James, Cesare Edwards, Kevin Tumba and Jacari White, alongside Enoch Cheeks and Noel Coleman in the backcourt. Six players return from the club's Belgian championship-winning squad, giving Antwerp more roster continuity than most clubs in this group.

The biggest name among those returnees is Enoch Cheeks, named the 2025-26 BNXT Defensive Player of the Year and Belgian Cup final MVP after averaging 12.7 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.3 steals in BNXT play that season. With Rasheed Bello gone this offseason, Cheeks is expected to take on a larger offensive role on top of the defensive reputation that earned him those two 2025-26 honors.

The early signs back that up. In a BNXT Supercup game on September 26, 2026, Antwerp beat Landstede Hammers 83-76 in overtime, with Cheeks posting 15 points and 14 rebounds. Nijel Pack led the team with 21 points and 3 assists, while Joel Murray added 9 points and 5 assists, according to the Windrose Giants Antwerp club site. Antwerp also won the rebounding battle 53-44, a sign that the frontcourt depth built around Tumba, Edwards and Ntambwe Kanbundji could be a real advantage in Group C.

The question for Antwerp isn't talent — it's whether Cheeks can scale up his scoring without losing the defensive versatility that made him one of the BNXT's top defenders, especially once Bello's shot creation is no longer there to lean on.

Salon Vilpas arrives for a historic debut behind Leland Walker

Salon Vilpas is the newcomer in every sense. This is the Finnish club's first-ever appearance in the BCL regular season, and its 12-player roster under head coach Jussi Savolainen — led by Leland Walker D.J. Jeffries, Karl Chavis and Mikael Aalto — got there the hard way, winning three straight qualifying round games.

Walker was the engine of that run. He scored 104 points across Vilpas's three qualifying wins, an average of 34.7 points per game, according to championsleague.basketball's official Qualification Rounds coverage. His peak came in the qualifying final, a 98-96 win over Oradea, where he dropped 42 points — a qualifying-round scoring record. He didn't do it alone: D.J. Jeffries added 15 points and six rebounds in that same final, while Karl Chavis contributed 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Back in domestic play, the production has continued even in defeat. In a Korisliiga game on September 29, 2026, Vilpas lost 107-104 to Honka despite 25 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists from Walker and 28 points and 12 rebounds from Mikael Aalto, according to Salon Vilpas Koripallo. Vilpas actually won the rebounding battle 38-27, but Honka made 18 of 36 3-point attempts and won at the buzzer — a reminder that Vilpas's defense, not its offense, may be the bigger question mark once BCL play begins.

The storyline writes itself: a historic first regular-season appearance, powered by a guard who has already set a qualifying-round scoring record. Whether Walker's production holds up against BCL-level opponents, rather than Korisliiga and qualifying-round competition, is the thing to watch.

Why Group C doesn't have a ranking yet — and what to expect anyway

It's tempting to rank these four clubs 1 through 4 before a single Regular Season game tips off, but the evidence doesn't support it. AEK's numbers come from a preseason loss, Falco's from a Hungarian league blowout, Antwerp's from a BNXT Supercup overtime win, and Vilpas's from BCL qualifying games mixed with a Korisliiga loss. None of those samples are directly comparable, and none of them are the BCL Regular Season itself.

What can be said with more confidence is where the roster continuity and proven production sit. Falco returns captain Zoltán Perl, who posted those 2025-26 Hungarian league averages, and Antwerp brings back six players from a championship team plus a BNXT Defensive Player of the Year in Enoch Cheeks — both clubs enter October with less turnover than AEK, which is still integrating Nolley and adjusting to Gray's exit, or Vilpas, which is adjusting to BCL-level competition for the first time in club history.

That continuity doesn't guarantee results, but it's a reasonable basis for expectation rather than a hard ranking. Falco and Antwerp look like the clubs best positioned to avoid slow starts, AEK has the individual scoring talent in Nolley and Bartley to swing games once its rotation settles, and Vilpas carries the most variance of the four given Walker's qualifying-round heroics against a Korisliiga sample that already exposed defensive issues. Group C's real order will be written on the court, not in a preseason dossier.

The Play-In bridge to Group D

Group C's finish doesn't just determine seeding — it determines opponents. Under the BCL's Play-In structure, the second-place finisher in Group C faces the third-place finisher in Group D, while the second-place club in Group D meets Group C's third-place team. That cross-group pairing means every result in this four-team pod from October onward carries weight beyond the group standings themselves. With the Regular Season tipping off on October 6, 2026, AEK, Falco, Antwerp and Vilpas all know that finishing second or third in Group C won't just settle bragging rights inside the group — it will decide which Group D club stands across from them once the Play-In round arrives.