Victoria Libertas Pesaro
| Consultinvest Pesaro | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Nickname |
VL Vuelle | ||
| Leagues | Serie A | ||
| Founded | 1946 | ||
| History |
Victoria Libertas Pesaro (1946–present) | ||
| Arena | Adriatic Arena | ||
| Capacity | 10,323 | ||
| Location | Pesaro, Marche, Italy | ||
| Team colors | Red and White | ||
| President | Ario Costa | ||
| Head coach | Riccardo Paolini | ||
| Website | Official Site | ||
| Uniforms | |||
| |||
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. 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 won its first important trophy in 1983 (European Cup Winners' Cup). Since then, Italian League was won twice (in 1988 and 1990), and the Italian Cup was also won twice (in 1985 and 1992).
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 Tel Aviv. 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
- Winners (2): 1987-88, 1989–90
- Winners (2): 1984-85, 1991–92
European competitions
International record
| Season | Achievement | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Euroleague | |||
| 1988-89 | Quarter-finals | 6th place in a group with Maccabi Elite, FC Barcelona, Jugoplastika Split, Aris, Limoges, CSKA Moscow and Nashua Den Bosch | |
| 1990-91 | Final Four | 4th place in Paris, lost to Pop 84 Split 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
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Former logo
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 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Players | Coaches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Roster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notable players
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Notable coaches
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Petar Skansi 2 seasons: '81-'82, '82-'83 -
Valerio Bianchini 5 seasons: '87-'88, '88-'89, '93-'94, '94-'95, '95-'96 - Sergio Scariolo 2 seasons: '89-'90, '90-'91
- Marco Crespi 2 seasons: '02-'03, '04-'05
Sponsorship names
In the past, due to sponsorship deals, it has also been known as:[2]
- Benelli Pesaro (1952–58)
- Lanco Pesaro (1958–61)
- Algor Pesaro (1961–63)
- Butangas Pesaro (1966–69)
- Frizz Pelmo Pesaro (1969–70)
- Tropicali Pesaro (1970–71)
- Maxmobili Pesaro (1971–75)
- Scavolini Pesaro (1975–2014)
- Consultinvest Pesaro (2014–present)
References
External links
- Official Site (Italian)
- Eurobasket.com Team Page
- Previous Season Stats (LegaBasket 2007-08) (Italian)
- Latest Stats (LegaBasket 2008-09) (Italian)
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