Victoria Libertas Pesaro

"Scavolini Pesaro" redirects here. For the "Scavolini Pesaro" volleyball club, see Robursport Volley Pesaro.
Consultinvest Pesaro
Nickname VL
Vuelle
Leagues LBA
Founded 1946
History Victoria Libertas Pesaro
(1946–present)
Arena Adriatic Arena
Arena Capacity 10,323
Location Pesaro, Marche, Italy
Team colors Red and White          
President Ario Costa
Head coach Piero Bucchi
Website Official Site
Uniforms
Home
Away

Victoria Libertas (also known as "VL" or in Italian Vuelle), full name Unione Sportiva Victoria Libertas Pallacanestro, is a professional basketball team that is based in Pesaro, Italy. The club competes in the top level Italian professional basketball league, the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). It was commonly known across Europe as Scavolini Pesaro, from the name of its historical main sponsor Scavolini (from 1975 to 2014), an Italian kitchen and bathroom products designer and manufacturer, whose co-founder Valter Scavolini was formerly club president. Now, it is known as Consultinvest Pesaro, from the name of the new sponsor. For past club sponsorship names, see the list below.

History

Victoria Libertas was officially founded in 1946 and had its best seasons during the 1980s. After being among the top teams in Italy for decades, Victoria Libertas under the name Scavolini Pesaro, won its first important trophy the 1982–83 FIBA European Cup Winner's Cup, rival the historic French club of ASVEL. Also Scavolini, participated in consecutive lost finals in 1985–86 against the title holder FC Barcelona and in 1986–87 against Cibona. Since then, Italian League was won twice (in 1988 and 1990), and the Italian Cup was also won twice (in 1985 and 1992). Scavolini participated in 1990–91 FIBA European Champions Cup, and managed to play in the semi-final of the Final Four in Paris where the club eliminated by the legendary Pop 84 (the former Jugoplastika) and ranked 4th after one more defeat in the third place game by Maccabi Elite. The two lost finals in the FIBA Korać Cup in 1990 (against Ram Joventut) and in 1992 (against il Messaggero Roma) show the dynamic of the club and at the beginning of the new decade.
In recent years, Victoria Libertas was among the best European teams, having played the Euroleague in 2001-02 and 2004-05 seasons. In 2004-05 it unexpectedly got to the Euroleague Top-8, being defeated in the quarter finals by eventual champion Maccabi Elite. Furthermore, Victoria Libertas shooting guard, Charles Smith, was honored with the first-ever Euroleague's Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy,[1] named after the late Euroleague scoring champ who died in 2004 and who was replaced in Victoria Libertas by Smith himself.

Recent history

In July 2005, as a consequence of the poor administration of the previous two seasons, Victoria Libertas failed to remain within the parameters required to join the Italian Basketball League and wound up. Pesaro's second team, Falco Spar, agreed with former Victoria Libertas president Valter Scavolini to join forces to invest in a team to bring back Victoria Libertas to Italian First Division (Lega Basket Serie A).

The new team, named Scavolini Gruppo Spar (or simply Scavolini-Spar), played the 2005-06 season in the Italian Third Division (B1). Owners' target resulted in Scavolini-Spar having large amounts of money at its disposal compared with the other teams of the league. Players from the upper divisions were enrolled, star Carlton Myers among them, which lead the team to win the league and gain promotion to the Second Division (LegaDue).

In 2006-07 Scavolini-Spar won the LegaDue playoff series, lining up players such as Carlton Myers, Rodney White (9th overall pick of the 2001 NBA Draft), Mindaugas Žukauskas (captain of the Lithuanian national basketball team) and Michael Hicks (Panamian national team star). The team was therefore promoted, for the second straight year, to play the Lega Basket Serie A 2007-08 league.

Following the 2009–10 season, Spar's secondary sponsorship contract expired. The club picked up a new secondary sponsor in Italian clothing company Siviglia, theriby changing its full sponsored name to Scavolini Siviglia Style Pesaro (more simply Scavolini Siviglia Pesaro). The club changed its secondary sponsorship again with the expiration of Siviglia's contract at the end of the 2011–12 season, becoming Scavolini Banca Marche Pesaro.

From the 2014-15 season the historical sponsor Scavolini was replaced (for the first time since 1975) by the new main sponsor Consultinvest, whereby the name of the team became Consultinvest Pesaro.

Titles

Total titles: 5

Domestic competitions

Italian League

Italian Cup

European competitions

FIBA Saporta Cup

FIBA Korać Cup

International record

Season Achievement Notes
Euroleague
1988-89 Quarter-finals 6th place in a group with Maccabi Elite, FC Barcelona, Jugoplastika, Aris, Limoges, CSKA Moscow and Nashua EBBC
1990-91 Final Four 4th place in Paris, lost to Pop 84 87–93 in the semi-final, lost to Maccabi Elite 81–83 in the 3rd place game
1992-93 Quarter-finals eliminated 2-1 by Benetton Treviso, 94-92 (W) in Pesaro, 94-101 (L) and 58-77 (L) in Treviso
1994-95 Quarter-finals eliminated 2-1 by Limoges, 68-55 (W) in Pesaro, 66-79 (L) and 72-82 (L) in Limoges
2000-01 Quarter-finals eliminated 2-0 by Maccabi Elite, 69-80 (L) in Tel Aviv and 77-84 (L) in Pesaro
2004-05 Quarter-finals eliminated 2-0 by Maccabi Elite, 60-88 (L) in Tel Aviv and 100-103 (L) in Pesaro
FIBA Saporta Cup
1982–83 Champions defeated ASVEL 111–99 in the final of European Cup Winner's Cup in Palma de Mallorca
1983–84 Semi-finals eliminated by Simac Milano, 76–78 (L) in Pesaro and 80-90 (L) in Milan
1985–86 Final lost to FC Barcelona 86–101 in the final (Caserta)
1986–87 Final lost to Cibona 74–89 in the final (Novi Sad)
1987–88 Semi-finals eliminated by Limoges, 86–102 (L) in Limoges and 93-91 (W) in Pesaro
FIBA Korać Cup
1989–90 Final lost to Ram Joventut, 98–99 (L) in Pesaro and 86-96 (L) in Badalona in the double finals of Korać Cup
1991–92 Final lost to il Messaggero Roma, 94–94 (D) in Rome and 86-99 (L) in Pesaro in the double finals of Korać Cup
1993–94 Quarter-finals eliminated by PAOK Bravo, 82-66 (W) in Pesaro and 58-96 (L) in Thessaloniki
1995–96 Quarter-finals eliminated by Teamsystem Bologna, 81-84 (L) in Pesaro and 89-100 (L) in Bologna
FIBA EuroChallenge
2009-10 Final Four 4th place in Göttingen, lost to Krasnye Krylya Samara 70–73 in the semi-final, lost to Chorale Roanne 80–86 in the 3rd place game
McDonald's Championship
1988 4th 4th place in Madrid, lost to Real Madrid 96–108 in the semi-final, lost to Yugoslavia 91–100 in the 3rd place game
1990 4th 4th place in Barcelona, lost to New York Knicks 115–119 in the semi-final, lost to FC Barcelona 105–106 in the 3rd place game

Logos

Arena and supporters

In 1996 Victoria Libertas moved from the historic "hangar" arena into the new BPA Palas arena (today: ADRIATIC Arena) which now hosts its home games. Drawing large audiences from nearby towns and the whole Marche region, in mid 2000s Victoria Libertas was among the top ten basketball teams in Europe for average attendance.

2014-15 Roster

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.

Victoria Libertas Pesaro roster
Players Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Ht.
PG 3 Italy Nicolò, Basile 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) 80 kg (176 lb) 21 – (1995-01-04)4 January 1995
G 5 Italy Musso, Bernardo 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 90 kg (198 lb) 30 – (1986-04-17)17 April 1986
SF 8 Italy Raspino, Tommaso 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) 80 kg (176 lb) 27 – (1989-04-11)11 April 1989
SF 13 Lithuania Jasaitis, Simas 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 91 kg (201 lb) 34 – (1982-03-26)26 March 1982
SF 23 Italy Crow, Nicholas 1.99 m (6 ft 6 in) 80 kg (176 lb) 27 – (1989-08-23)23 August 1989
SF 33 Italy Tortù, Lorenzo 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 90 kg (198 lb) 23 – (1993-08-05)5 August 1993
Head coach
  • Italy Riccardo Paolini
Assistant coach(es)
  • Italy Umberto Badiolo
  • Albania Spiro Leka
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • Injured

Roster
Updated: March 16, 2015

Notable players

Notable coaches

Sponsorship names

In the past, due to sponsorship deals, it has also been known as:[2]

References

  1. ↑ Euroleague.net
  2. ↑ Lega A Basket page on history of Victoria Libertas. (Italian)
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