Tyus Edney has a rare double-double on his resume: He's won a Euroleague and an NCAA championship. (Otto Greule Jr. Getty Images/NBAE) The Round Table We assembled an international round table to compare and contrast the two Final Four events. Let's meet them. Tyus Edney, Benetton Treviso, Italy. A former Pacer, King and Celtic, Edney was a member of the 1995 NCAA Champion UCLA Bruins and was Euroleague Final Four MVP in 1999 with Zalgiris Kaunus of Lithuania. He has played in three Euroleague Final Fours and one NCAA Final Four. Trajan Langdon, Efes Pilsen, Turkey. With Duke in 1999, Langdon played in the NCAA Final Four. After spending three seasons in Cleveland, he made his first appearance in the Euroleague Final Four with Benetton Treviso last year. Arturas Karnisovas played in three Euroleague Final Fours and played in the Elite Eight with Seton Hall University. A native of Lithuania, Karnisovas is now a manager of international basketball operations with the NBA. Alexander Wolff, a senior writer with Sports Illustrated, authored the excellent basketball book: Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure. Chad Ford writes for ESPN.com Insider. He will attend his fourth Euroleague Final Four this year and will make his third trip to the NCAA Final Four this weekend. Yaron Talpaz is a commentator and reporter with Sport 5 Channel in Israel and a member of the NBA Blog Squad. You can bet he'll be at the Euroleague Final Four in Tel Aviv this year. Eduardo Schell, along with Rafael Alique of Marca.com in Spain, is a member of the NBA Blog Squad.

In the United States, the NCAA Tournament begins with 65 teams fighting to survive a single-elimination competition.

In Europe, the Euroleague begins with 24 teams striving to make it through two season-long round-robin group stages.

The goal on both continents is the same -- get to a Final Four where, if you win two knockout games, you are the champ. This weekend, Connecticut, Duke, Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State played for the NCAA Division I men's basketball championship in San Antonio.

Across the pond in Europe, the pros are working toward Tel Aviv. Through April 1, one team, CSKA Moscow (Andrei Kirilenko's former team), has clinched a spot in the Euroleague Final Four, with the other spots to be determined next week (see Euroleague.net for the possibilities). The Euroleague Final Four can be seen live on NBA TV on Apr. 29 and May 1.

We assembled an international roundtable to compare and contrast the two Final Four events. Here are the questions we asked them:

Which has the higher quality of play?

What would surprise U.S. fans about the Euroleague/What would surprise Europeans about the NCAAs?

What is superior about the Euro Final Four? The NCAA Final Four?

Which Final Four atmosphere did you like better or find more exciting?

Can you compare the in-arena atmospheres for high-level European basketball vs. high-level NCAA basketball?

Which Final Four places more pressure on the players?

Which is your favorite (or one shining moment) from either Final Four?

Tyus Edney:
"Both Final Fours I've been in have been really tough. Both teams have been really tough and it's been difficult. Now, because we're here at the professional level, it's definitely another level of basketball. But in terms of level of play and intensity, it's difficult to say."

Trajan Langdon:
"I think in the NCAA you have younger players who are less experienced. They're between 17 and 22 years old. In the European Final Four, you have very experienced players and usually the top teams and best players in all of Europe. So the quality of play here is very good. Playing in the NCAAs, you have four teams who are as focused as they've been because they've been working the whole season for that. And you have the same here. In college, you only have four years to get there, whereas in European ball, if you're with a team in the Euroleague, as long as you play professional ball you have a chance to get there every year.

"I would have to say the quality of basketball is a little better over here just because the players and the teams are better."

Arturas Karnisovas:
"Intensity-wise, it is probably the same. In terms of quality, it's different because [Europe is] a professional Final Four. With all the attention and the hype, a lot more people watch the NCAA Final Four, though in Europe, the Final Four is the biggest event. I played in three [Euroleague Final Fours]. It was a great experience for me."

Alexander Wolff:
"Elite-level European club play is at a higher level than top Division I NCAA play, if only because the athletes are older, more experienced and more rugged. There's also a great mixture of styles on some of the top Euroleague clubs—American ringers with NBA experience, indigenous bangers who rebound and block shots, point guards from the Balkans with a great feel for directing play, etc. NCAA stars look and play younger."

Chad Ford:
"Euroleague Final Four has a higher quality of player -- a lot of players have played there for 10-15 years -- and the fundamentals of the European players. The Euroleague Final Four is the highest quality of basketball outside of the NBA."

Yaron Talpaz: "There is no doubt in my mind that the Euroleague, as a league, is much better than NCAA Division I basketball. Just by the structure, with 24 teams as opposed to hundreds, this makes logic. It gets closer, though, when comparing Final Fours, but the edge still goes to the Euroleague because of experience.

"Last year's NCAA Final Four was great with big names like Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison and T.J. Ford. Those five will probably be bigger in the NBA than any player from the 2003 Euro Final Four was or will be, but I'm not sure this year's Final Four will have so many high-quality players.

"And still, even with those names, the difference is in depth (some players who started in last year's college Final Four can't even make the top teams in Europe) and the Euro guys still have star power.

"Last year's Final Four presented Dejan Bodiroga (a sure NBA All-Star if he'd wanted to), Tyus Edney (led UCLA to the '95 championship), Trajan Langdon (led Duke to the '99 finals), Juan Carlos Navarro (picked in the Draft by the Wizards), Darius Songaila and Victor Alexander. To sum it up - the jump from high school to the NBA, especially by big men, has weakened the top college teams. Europe is losing players to the NBA as well, but can compensate, thanks to a lot of money, with very good American players, usually with NBA experience."

Eduardo Schell: "In overall, there's more quality in the Euroleague. There are more true superstars in this tournament. They're 'pro' players while in the NCAA, they're amateur (some of them with pro-level talent). In the Euroleague, the star players are 'more made' and mature than in the NCAA thanks to their years of experience."

Tyus Edney: "I think the similarities to the NCAA Final Four in terms of intensity. You can't compare to the NBA, because they play a different type of Finals, but in terms of a Final Four, it would surprise Americans how intense [the Euroleague] is and the atmosphere is a lot like college in the States. I think Europeans would be surprised at how big of a deal the NCAAs are. The spirit of the college atmosphere, just the whole experience would surprise them because they don't have a university sports system."

Trajan Langdon: "I think that the people that follow the game in Europe are very passionate about the game. I think Americans would be surprised with that passion. Fans, just like in the States, will travel with their teams. We had big-time fans who would travel in buses and cars, four or five hours away, to our road games. Or they would go into hostile territory. Last year in the finals with Benetton Treviso we played here in Bologna, which is two hours away. They had a section where they all stood together. Our colors were green and white, so they all had their green and white on in a 7,000-seat arena where everybody else was Bologna fans. It was hostile, but they were there, chanting our chants and being very supportive.

"I think a lot of people, where they would go and support their team at an away game, they wouldn't necessarily let it be known that they were supporting Duke at a UNC game, unless they were in the family section, whereas otherwise, you may not make it out of there safely. But in Europe, they don't care. If you get into a fight, you get into a fight.

"And vice versa, I don't know how much a European would be surprised by a Final Four because they know about soccer. They get 60,000 people at a regular season soccer match, so to see that many people at the culmination of the basketball season wouldn't be a surprise to them. It may be a surprise to them, though because people over here don't love basketball the way they do soccer."

Arturas Karnisovas:
"Different fanatics. The fan base is different. Here in the United States it's long-time fans who graduated from the school. In Europe, they take it much more seriously -- the losses and the wins."

Alexander Wolff: "American fans would be struck by the atmosphere in the Euroleague Final Four arenas. The songs, the whistles, the scarves and other pageantry—it's fan-driven and uninhibited. Whereas the fatcats and boosters and ticket-lottery winners who populate so much of the stands at NCAA Final Fours tend to be pretty tame in their behavior. European fans would be struck by the antiseptic look and clean lines of the NCAA sites—the general wholesomeness of the appearance. And of course the domes have a lot to do with that. European Final Fours still take place in good old basketball arenas, many of them dark and dingy."

Chad Ford: "Americans don't get to see Euroleague games that often and the international players they get exposed to tend to be the younger players that come over and enter the NBA Draft. They aren't the type of players that you would see playing in a Euroleague Final Four. If Americans would be familiar with this at all, you would have to go see the World Championships or the Olympics to see teams that are playing this high level of basketball.

"[I think that European fans would be impressed] with the passion that the NCAA players play the game with. The thing I love about March Madness is that they play with intensity like it's their last game. And for many of them it is, because they're not going to have a career in professional basketball. That urgency with which they play is the most exciting aspect for me. Even the pros in Europe don't play with that abandon because they know they have another season coming up and they're older, they don't bring that same urgency."

Yaron Talpaz: "I think American fans would be surprised to see how involved American players are in the Euro Final Four. Tyus Edney is a great example, so were Nate Huffman, Anthony Parker and it all started with Bob McAdoo leading his Milan team to three Euro Championships in the '80s, even before they had the Final Four format. Another thing that will surprise American fans is the European athlete. He is becoming better in that aspect every year."

Eduardo Schell: "American fans would be surprised of the level of the players. European players play pro basketball since they're young and comparing two sets of players of Euroleague and NCAA of the same age, the European one (generally speaking, it's not a golden rule) has more skills and is more mature. This is a fact and Draft tendency through the last years where young European prospects are chosen in high positions clearly shows it."

All-Euro Euroleague Team In a blog entry earlier this season, Yaron Talpaz compiled a roster of 12 European players currently in the Euroleague which he believes could compete in the NBA: STARTERS Aryvdas Sabonis Zalgiris Kaunas - Longtime Blazer, international legend. Dejan Bodiroga F.C. Barcelona - Kings draftee, MVP of 2002 Worlds. Andres Nocioni Tau Ceramica - Argentinian dunked over TD/KG in '99. Milos Vujanic Skipper Bologna - Top PG prospect, Suns own rights. Nikola Vujcic Maccabi Tel Aviv - Croatian PF is Maccabi's top scorer. RESERVES Sarunas Jasikevicius Maccabi Tel Aviv - PG led Lithuania to European crown. Arvydas Macijauskas Tau Ceramica - Also a European champ with Lithuania. Carlos Delfino Skipper Bologna - Detroit's 2003 first-round pick. Mirsad Turkcan CSKA Moscow - Turkish forward has NBA experience. Nenad Krstic Partizan Belgrade - 6-11 Divac protege, 2002 Nets draftee. Juan Carlos Navarro F.C. Barcelona - Wizards' second-round pick in 2002. Anderson Varejao F.C. Barcelona - Brazilian jumping jack, Sideshow Bob hair.

Tyus Edney:
"For me, it was when I was at UCLA, because that was the first one for me -- as a college player. I think college is on another level in terms of the popularity, the feel of the game, and there are a lot more people. On the college level, it's more excting."

Trajan Langdon:
"The media coverage of the NCAA Final Four, print, TV, radio, whatever you want is at a much greater level than it is over here because basketball is loved, liked and followed much more in the United States than it is in Europe."

Alexander Wolff: "The NCAA Final Four makes a bigger splash — and will always do so — not just because it takes place in a basketball-nuts country, but also because the run-up and climax itself are all telescoped into three weeks, with the drama of single-elimination. In the Euroleague, to get from 16 to 4, they have group play over almost two months before feeding into the single-elimination Final Four. Not quite the same drama. Though the Euroleague Final Four probably does a better job of determining the most deserving champion."

Chad Ford: "The atmosphere. It's a great atmosphere at the NCAA, but the atmosphere at the Euroleague Final Four [is superior] partly because of how passionate European fans are about their basketball teams. It blows away anything I have ever seen. The noise is so loud, my ears ring for two days. Between the chants and the fans arriving two, three, four hours before the game to cheer on the team, the signing, the noise-making and everything that goes on, it's an atmosphere I've never experienced in basketball at all. The only thing I can compare it to is World Cup soccer.

"In the NCAA, the students certainly support their teams. If you look at the Cameron Crazies during a Duke-North Carolina game, you see the intensity and see how the fans feel about the rivalry. That's like how it's like at the Euroleague Final Four, I just believe the European fans are more vocal and louder than American fans."

Yaron Talpaz: "The Euro Final Four is superior because you see players at the peak of their careers. This is the big moment for them and sometimes the last big moment. The college Final Four is superior because of the true battle, no immediate money involved, between young and future stars. It's fun because you see Carmelo Anthony smiling after every basket even though his future is secured, and it's fun because you see players holding hands, some of them knowing that this is it for their college careers."

Tyus Edney:
"I find the college atmosphere a little more exciting. I don't know if I can say I'm biased because I'm American, but growing up, you watch the Final Four growing up and when you're there, for me personally, it was more exciting."

Trajan Langdon: "I think the excitement doesn't compare. I think the excitement of the NCAA … while I think the excitement over here is growing, I just don't think it yet compares to that of a tournament of 64 and the Final Four because I think that may be the best sporting event in the world. Ever.

"They have a pretty good system here, but the problem is they use tiebreakers, so if two teams have the same record they use a tiebreaker in terms of points -- a point spread -- to determine which team advances. I don't think that's nearly as exciting as the tournament format where it's a one-game thing where anybody can win.

"So, I think the NCAA tournament is much more exciting. They get into it, they cheer for the underdogs more and nothing is guaranteed. And playing in the Final Four was unreal. Playing in front of that many people, and knowing you're on stage and there are millions of people watching you. It's definitely an experience I'll never forget."

Arturas Karnisovas:
"In the NCAA, you're too young to grasp how big the event is ... you kind of block out the pressure. I think the NCAAs are a little more fun. The consequences are different. The Final Four in Europe, it's a huge disappointment if you lose.

"In the NCAAs, it's a huge disappointment too, but you go home, you realize you had a great year and everybody says, 'Don't worry, there'll be another year.' In Europe, they don't think that way."

Alexander Wolff:
"For atmosphere, in light of my previous answer, I'd go with the European Final Four. That said, both have had some splendid finishes. The level of excitement between the lines is exactly what you'd expect it to be given how much is at stake."

Yaron Talpaz: "The atmosphere edge goes to the college Final Four. Europe is not as big about Final Four basketball as it is about its soccer championships. The atmosphere is created mainly thanks to home crowds. Last year, Barcelona hosted the event and won it. If the Barcelona team would have failed to advance, you can be sure that we'd see empty seats and quiet crowds. In America, you have bigger crowds, much bigger crowds, and they will be there anyway, regardless of the teams. The students, also, help create a better and louder atmosphere."

Eduardo Schell: "Here I must say I'm a 'maniac' -- a devoted man. I've always loved NCAA basketball and its atmosphere: cheerleaders, marching bands, crowded arenas, fans chanting non-stop. The March Madness is one of my favorite tournaments and the atmosphere in the NCAA Final Four really rules. The Euro Final Four atmosphere is also a good one. Greeks, Spanish and Italians fans really feel the love for the game, but my vote here is for the NCAA."

Trajan Langdon: "It's similar for very important games. Obviously, playing at Duke, some games that weren't important were still packed. We'd get great crowd reaction, great crowd atmosphere. The big games -- like North Carolina -- it'd still be packed and a lot louder, people would be more emotional and more into it.

"It's the same thing in Europe. If you're playing a regular season game, there may not be that many people there. If it's a very important game, like the playoffs or the Final Four, last year in Barcelona, we had 17-18,000 people and it got really loud, especially because we were playing Barcelona. That made it even more emotional for the fans.

"Like anywhere, I think it's the importance of the game that will determine what the atmosphere is going to be."

Yaron Talpaz: "When you take the atmosphere question outside of the Final Four event, it becomes much closer. Europe crowds are coming to fight - it's a war, sometimes with hatred and politics involved. It sounds scary -- most of the times, it's not, but it does create a special atmosphere. Students in the college game will jump and dance, Euro fans will jump, sing and curse. It's not good behavior, but it's crazy and fun. Going to some gyms in Europe, for certain delicate games, were the loudest experiences of my life."

Eduardo Schell: "Again here, NCAA basketball atmosphere is more captivating than in Europe. There's something surrounding the NCAA Tournament that it really makes it special. In Europe it really depends on the country, city and arena."

Langdon, who started his career with Cleveland, played in a Euroleague Final Four last season with Benetton. Garrett Ellwood NBAE/Getty Images

Tyus Edney:
"Probably the professional. It depends on the expectations of a team, where you're playing. I think there's a little more on the professional level."

Trajan Langdon: "In college you're representing your university and the coach and there's not a whole lot of expected by you there. Maybe by the media, but not the university. They just want you to represent the university the best way possible and make them proud. Once you get to the Final Four, you have made your university proud.

"Here, you're obviously getting paid. It's professional. It's almost like players are brought in at a specific time and to a specific organization to get that team to the Final Four, and once they get there, to win the European championship. To a degree, I think there is more pressure on the players over here in Europe.

"And it's tough for the coaches, too. If a coach gets his team to the collegiate Final Four, no one is going to knock him if he doesn't win a championship. Where here in Europe, if you have the best team in Europe and you get to the Final Four and don't win it, people could see it as a knock on the coach or a knock on the players. The expectations are a little higher in professional sports than college sports.

"It's a hard question, though, because my senior year, I think people expected us to beat UConn, but I really didn't feel any pressure."

Arturas Karnisovas:
"I think pressure-wise in the NCAA: you win, it's unbelievable; you lose, you had a great year. In the Final Four in Europe, there's probably a lot more pressure from fans, from the people that pay you money from the club. That's the one thing that I think is a lot more pressure playing in the Final Four in Europe."

Alexander Wolff:
"The Euroleague Final Four is more pressure-packed because the players are pros, held to account for their performance in the ultimate way. I also think the rivalries — and remember, there are national rivalries that get layered over club rivalries — are more intense in Europe. Though I reserve the right to revisit this answer when Duke and North Carolina finally meet in an NCAA tournament."

Chad Ford: "More pressure on the college kids because they have a limited number of shots. As a matter of fact, most of them only have one shot at ever playing in the Final Four. If you play for Duke, you may have a couple, but usually, you only have one shot to win it all. And if you miss your opportunity, it's gone forever. I don't think it's the same as the professionals. They can change teams, move around, use free agencies. Owners can make changes to their teams and secure another Final Four trip. We see year in and year out that the same franchises are making it deep in the tournament. I'll say the pressure is on the college kids."

Yaron Talpaz: "Although the Euro Final Four has more money and patriotism involved, I would say that in most cases the NCAA event puts more pressure on the players. More people are watching the game in the arena and on television in America. Another thing is the age factor: These are younger kids with all of their student friends in the back of their minds. The connection between pro players and fans is not as tight as in college."

Eduardo Schell: "The two both place lots of pressure, but in my opinion, in Europe the players are able to deal with it better due to their pro status -- even though it's really amazing to see college players play like pro ones (with Carmelo Anthony, Juan Dixon, Shane Battier and Carlos Boozer as some recent examples)."

Tyus Edney: "I think just winning both of them. The NCAA was really special because it was my first championship and it was a very historical championship. I just remember us running onto the court after the win and being so excited and happy. It was the same with the European championship, except that it was a professional championship. That was exciting, too."

Trajan Langdon: "At Duke, for me, it was the experience of running out on the court before the national championship game, being that my freshman year at Duke went 13-18 and didn't make it to the Tournament. Then in my senior year, my last game is a chance to win the national championship. I think that's the biggest thing. Just to run out and hear the people that were supporting us, the yells ... and the boos ... altogether, it was an amazing feeling to know that my career started off down and even if we were to lose this game, I could look back and say it was a complete turnaround."

Arturas Karnisovas: "My favorite moment -- for a second -- in the European Final Four in Paris when we lost to Panathinaikos was when we got a chance to win. At the same time, it was my worst time in the Final Four because the shot got blocked and we were basically denied the championship. It wasn't my shot, I was in the back by my basket almost celebrating because I thought this was going to be a layup, but the guy got blocked at the last second. I even have a picture of me leaning down after that moment.

"In the NCAA Tournament, my favorite moment was my freshman year when we played in the final eight against an elite team, which was UNLV, which went on to lose to Duke. Just playing in the NCAAs, being a freshman and realizing how much better those guys were. We were beat. I mean we didn't lose by a lot, but the superiority of that team, it gave me a little push after that to work harder. I felt weaker than them and I knew I had to work on a lot of things."

Wolff said: "For a year—from September 1998 through August 1999—I chased the game wherever I could."

Alexander Wolff: "In 1992, in Istanbul, former Portland Trail Blazer Sasha Djordjevic threw in an outrageous three-point heave in the final seconds to give Partizan Belgrade a 71-70 victory over Joventut Badalona. That moment stands as Europe's answer to my favorite NCAA Final Four moment, Keith Smart's shot for Indiana in 1987 — only Djordjevic's was a 25-footer.

"But my absolute favorite Euro Final Four tale has to do not with the players, but with the fans. In Italy, for the longest time, there has been a delicious rivalry between Virtus and Fortitudo, the two very wealthy club teams in Bologna, and the two occasionally both reached the Final Four in the same season.

"But in 2000, when Virtus reached the Final Four in Barcelona and Fortitudo didn't, Virtus fans couldn't resist twisting the knife. They had special "wish you were here" postcards printed up, with the Palau St. Jordi, the Barcelona arena, on one side, and the address of Carlton Myers, the Fortitudo star, on the other. Thousands of Virtus fans in Barcelona dropped them in the mail. But the kicker was this: Each card had a phony stamp, which meant it was on Myers to pay all the postage due. Duke students may be clever, but they've got a long way to go to match that."

Chad Ford: "Favorite moment from either Final Four is Michael Jordan hitting the shot to give North Carolina the championship. I remember it very vividly, watching him hit that shot and thinking to myself that he would be a hell of an NBA player these days.

"That's the one thing about being an NBA fan about watching the NCAA Final Four, there are one or two of those guys who are just such special players -- Carmelo Anthony last year -- that you can sit back and dream a little bit as to what he'll look like in an NBA uniform, will he have the same success in the NBA that he had at the college level.

"There's some truth to that in the Euroleague Final Four now too. The first one I went to, Emanuel Ginobili and Marko Jaric, both of whom turned into NBA players, were in the backcourt for Kinder Bologna. And watching Ginobili weave through the defenses and knowing that he had been drafted by the Spurs and was thinking about coming over, I sat back and did the same thing: 'Is he going to be quick enough -- his style of play is so different to what's in the NBA -- how will it translate to the pros?'

"To see Ginobili take over and win the MVP, you kind of sit back and project 'Man, what's that it's going to look like in the pros.' It was an exciting moment to do that in Italy a couple of years ago."

Yaron Talpaz: "One big Euro Final Four moment comes to mind. A favored Maccabi Tel Aviv team lost in '89 to a young and relatively-then-unknown Croatian team called Yugoplastica Split. That moment was defined by a thunderous two-handed dunk by Dino Radja. That team also had Toni Kukoc and it played one of the best games of team basketball I ever saw. Today we realize that it wasn't such an upset since most players from that team became huge stars in Europe or the NBA.

"So many college moments are remembered but for some reason the one that pops out for me is the Chris Webber famous Timeout. That one moment says everything you need to know about the pressures of the Final Four and how everything on that stage is magnified."

Eduardo Schell: "Of the NCAA tournament, what I really like is the 'March Madness,' a one-game playoff bracket system that never lets you relax and leaves plenty of room for surprise. Cinderella teams have always their chances to win while in the Euroleague format (two round-robins) only the best and deepest team generally wins. It's more like Darwin's theories. In the Euroleague, the Final Four has plenty of quality, even though it's not always shown. In the past years, defense has more importance than offense, something I really dislike."