30/06/07 Guildford Heat Basketball Club has pulled a rabbit out of the ULEB Cup with a mouthwatering basketball feast of a draw for their first European campaign. The Surrey side was drawn against clubs from nations straight across Europe on Saturday afternoon in Jesolo, a suburb of Venice. The Heat were drawn against DKV Jovenut of the Spanish ACB league, often described as the second best league in the world; Alba Berlin of the German Bundesliga; Turk Telekom from Ankara, Turkey; KK Siauliai of Lithuania and, intriguingly, KK Bosna of Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The draw was attended by the Heat's Phil Hardy, the club's Marketing Director, who had this to say from Venice: "As a fan and marketer I couldn't have asked for a better draw. I am quite a fan of the Spanish ACB and watched Jovenut on television all winter and spring. To know our club will be facing them in action is something I could hardly have imagined possible, but now I can't wait. Basketball purists from around Britain will want to come and see this squad. “I'm equally happy to have drawn Lithuanian and Turkish sides as I know how passionate those nations regard their basketball and I'm expecting a rather large demand for tickets from their large expatriate communities in the southeast. Ditto from the Serbo- Croatian Bosnian community. “From a traveling perspective this is also a very good draw: I know our supporters wanted to be able to travel to see a game or two and really now they can be sure of it rather easily as all of these places are served by low-cost airlines, apart from possibly Sarajevo." From an on court perspective Coach Paul James added, "I'm still trying to wake up from last season and now this? Learning we are going to be playing a top Spanish side will be a challenge both the players and I will absolutely relish. These are great cities and I like to think we will really fancy our chances against some of these teams. Every week seems to bring more excitement and good news to this basketball club; every resident of Guildford and Surrey should be pinching themselves right now." The Heat organisation now look forward to the task of speaking with both local and national business leaders in order to secure key sponsorship that will allow them to fly the flag for Guildford, Surrey and Britain. "This is a very high profile competition across Europe. Television coverage of basketball on Eurosport [the 24 hours sports network] is watched avidly by millions. We know there are both local and national companies that will want to benefit by being proactive in support of their community and country. To be honest, I am sure we will offer significant value for money compared to the sponsorship required to fund European competition in any other sport of this importance."
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