Pallacanestro Varese

	Pallacanestro Varese
Founded	1945
Hall	PalaWhirlpool ; (5300 seats)
Homepage	http://www.pallacanestrovarese.it
president	Marco Vittorelli
Trainer	Attilio Caja
league	Lega Basket Serie A ; 2018/19 : 9th place
Colours	Red White
home	Away
	successes
	10 × Italian basketball champions : 1961, 1964, 1969, ; 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1999 ; 4 × Italian basketball cup : 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973 ; 1 × Italian supercup: 1999 ; 5 × national championship cup : 1970, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976 ; 2 × Saporta Cup : 1967, 1980 ; 3 × Intercontinental Cup : 1966, 1970, 1973

Pallacanestro Varese is one of the most famous Italian basketball clubs from Varese in Italy . He plays in Serie A in the 2011/2012 season . The games are played in the PalaWhirlpool, which has 5,300 seats.

history

Promotion to the national top (until 1961)

Pallacanestro Varese was founded in 1945. In the first year of its existence, Varese rose from Serie B as the first in the top division. In 1949 and 1950 they were runner-up twice in a row. In the following seasons you were never worse than placed eight at the end of the respective season. In 1956 the household appliance manufacturer Ignis joined the company as a name sponsor . In the following seasons you reached twice a fifth place and then twice a third place in a time when Simmenthal Milan reach four championships in a row.

Battle with Simmenthal Milan, first European Cup victory and first double (1961 to 1969)

1961 then succeeded with the championship, the first national title win. In the following season, Milan regained the title and relegated defending champion Varese to second place. While Tonino Zorzi then ended his playing career at Varese and started his coaching career, Milan was unbeatable in the 1962/63 season. In the 1963/64 season runner-up Varese took back the title and relegated Milan to second place, which turned the tables again in the following season. In the championship of 1965/66 the two permanent rivals were tied at the end of the season and it came to a playoff that Varese won with the Italian-American Tony Gennari with 15 points. The association recognized Varese from the title, however, because the eligibility for Gennari had been irregular. In the same year they won the Intercontinental Cup for the first time .

In the following season 1966/67, the then 16-year-old center Dino Meneghin , who was to develop into the dominant player in his position in Europe, moved into the first team's squad and they became runner-up again behind Milan. In its first edition, the European Cup Winners' Cup was won in two final games against the Israeli series champion Maccabi Tel Aviv . In the following season ranked again in the end one place behind Milan, but was only fifth in 1968 when Pallacanestro Cantù won his first championship. In the following season 1968/69 they got the national double when they beat the runner-up and defending champion Partenope Napoli, trained by Zorzi, with a point in the cup final and relegated to second place in the championship permanent rivals Milan.

Dominance under coach Nikolić (1969 to 1973)

In 1969 the Yugoslav Aleksandar Nikolić was the new coach of the Northern Italians and led the team to dominate Italy. After triumphing well over last year's finalist Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the European Champions Cup , they beat defending champion CSKA Moscow in the final in Nikolić's hometown of Sarajevo , against whom they had lost in the second round. In addition to the national double, they won the Intercontinental Cup again and ended up victorious in every national and international competition. After the third national double in a row in 1971, however, they lost the new edition of the final in the European Cup against Moscow with a difference of 14 points. Simmenthal Milan also struck back in 1972, relegating Varese to second place in both the championship and the cup. After being tied in the final table, Milan won both the playoff and the cup final by four points. Without defending champion CSKA Moscow, however, Varese was just able to prevail in the national championship cup against Jugoplastika Split and at the same time secure another participation in this competition. In 1972, the American Bob Morse joined Varese and in the intermediate round of the European Cup they secured second place behind CSKA Moscow and met their national rivals from Milan in the semifinals, which they defeated by a clear 40 points difference from two games. In the final you could then return the favor for the defeat in the second round as well as in the final two years earlier against Moscow and defend your title as European Cup winner. In the 1973 championship they were tied with Milan and, in a revenge for their defeat a year earlier, they won the decider by four points. The national cup win and the success in the Intercontinental Cup made the second quadruple triumph after 1970 perfect and marked the end of the Nikolić era, who went back to KK Red Star Belgrade .

Champion or European Cup winner under coach Gamba (1973 to 1977)

In 1973, of all people, Sandro Gamba became the coach of Varese, before that for almost a quarter of a century he was a player and coach of long-term rivals Olimpia Milano. Varese defended his national championship title and moved into the final again in the European Cup, which took place without the participation of CSKA Moscow, but where they were defeated by Real Madrid by two points. This notch could be wiped out in 1975 when, in a new edition of the previous year's final, the defending champion this time clearly defeated with a difference of 13 points. This was also necessary because this was the only way to secure further participation in the European Cup, as you had finished the final round of the Italian championship behind Cantù as runner-up. This also meant the end of Ignis as a sponsor, who had given the club its name for 19 years. In the 1976 European Cup final they met Real Madrid for the third time in a row and drew level with the Spanish club with the final victory and the fifth national championship title and overtook CSKA Moscow, which had previously been successful in this competition four times. In the final round of the national championship they came in second again and this time had to give way to old master Virtus Bologna , who won his first championship title in 20 years. The 1977 championship was played for the first time in the play-off mode of the best four teams and Varese remained in these without defeat and was able to defeat defending champion Bologna in the final series. There was also a change in the mode in the national championship cup; instead of an intermediate round and a semi-final, there was now a final round, which Varese finished first after ten games and left Madrid and Moscow behind. Because of the better direct comparison , Maccabi Tel Aviv moved into the final in second place and was able to defeat Varese with one point in Belgrade . Maccabi's first European Cup triumph meant a late revenge for the lost Cup Winners' Final ten years earlier, when Varese had won his first European Cup. This also marked the end of the era of Sandro Gamba as a coach.

Abandoned by happiness (1977 to 1981)

In 1977, Nico Messina was again coach, who had led Varese to his first double in 1969. With this one could defend the national championship in a new edition of the final series against Bologna. In the European Cup they moved into the final against Real Madrid as second in the final series, which they won in the Olympic basketball hall . For the following two seasons Edoardo Rusconi was coach, himself a long-time player from 1967 to 1975 and 1977 to 1978 for Varese. Immediately after the final round, Varese and KK Bosna Sarajevo moved into the European Cup final, where the Yugoslav club was victorious with 96:93. In the tenth European championship final in a row, this meant the fifth defeat in the final and the third in a row. In the championship you lost as the main round first the semi-final series against Olimpia Milano. It was also clear that the final in the 1980 European Cup was out of reach for Varese, as it was no longer eligible to participate in this competition. Instead, they reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup, where the series of national competitor Pallacanestro Cantù, who had previously been victorious three times in this competition, was interrupted. In Milan they won against Cantù with two points after extra time. In the championship, however, they were eliminated in the semi-finals against defending champion Virtus Bologna. After a change of coach they reached first place again after the regular season in the 1980/81 season, but in the semifinals they again ended up against defending champion Bologna. At the end of the season, Bob Morse, who went to France, and Dino Meneghin, who moved to Milan, left the club. This ended Varese's most successful period.

Until the crash in the A2 series (1981 to 1992)

In the following years after 1981 they stayed among the top eight teams in Italy, but never got beyond the quarter-finals in the championship play-offs. The best season was 1984/85, when they were fourth in the main round, although they were eliminated in the quarter-finals, but moved into the finals in the re-established cup competition, which were lost to Scavolini Pesaro . In addition, they reached the final in Brussels in the European Korać Cup in 1985 , which was lost against national rivals Olimpia Milano to Dino Meneghin and Mike D'Antoni with a difference of 13 points.

After a further sixth place in the season after that, the American Joe Isaac was coached in 1986 and they ended the regular season as first in the table, only to win in the play-off semifinals against defending champions Milan, who had strengthened themselves with Bob McAdoo stay. The same was repeated in the following season 1987/88, as the first in the table they lost the play-off semi-final series against the eventual champions Pesaro, who thus got their first championship success. In the final of the cup competition in 1988 they lost to Juventus Caserta . In 1988/89 they reached only a ninth place in the table after regular time and were eliminated in the play-off quarter-finals, whereupon coach Isaac was allowed to go again.

In the short term, this brought success when in the following season after the second place in the table they moved into the final series of the championship, where, however, Pesaro could not prevent their second championship success. At the end of the season, power forward Corny Thompson left the team for Spain after six years, while Dino Meneghin's son Andrea Meneghin moved into the first team. With the rebuilding they had no success in the 1990/91 season and missed the play-offs in the national championship for the first time since its introduction. The 1991/92 season ended catastrophically for the successful club. In the relegation round with the best clubs from the A2 series, they missed relegation due to the poorer direct comparison and had to relegate for the first time.

Promotion and tenth championship (1992 to 1999)

Coach Joe Isaac returned and in the relegation round in 1993 they just missed the return to the top division. For the following season, with coach Edoardo Rusconi, another coach-returnees was committed and by first place in the table in 1994 they secured themselves direct promotion, while the long-standing northern Italian rival Cantù in turn relegated to the A2 series. After the promotion you could always qualify for the play-offs of the best eight teams and reached a semi-final series for the first time again under the new coach Carlo Recalcati in 1998 against the eventual champions Virtus Bologna. In the following season they moved into the " Final Four " of the cup competition, which Virtus Bologna was able to win in its own hall with two points difference in the final against Varese. In the championship, however, you could return the favor and could defeat the defending champion this time in the semi-final series to win the final series straight against Benetton Treviso . After the championship, Giacomo Galanda returned to Fortitudo Bologna and "took" coach Recalcati with him.

Mediocrity, relegation and return (since 1999)

After the championship, a number of coach changes followed, often during the season, and the team could never place better than 8th place in the final table. In 2005 they achieved relegation with just one win. Afterwards, Whirlpool, the new owner of the former name sponsor Ignis, joined the company as the new name sponsor. After having celebrated the best final position since the championship in 2007 after the return of Galanda with the seventh place, the season 2007/08 under the new name sponsor Cimberio followed the renewed crash into the second division, when the season was second to last after only eight wins Finished in 34 games. Scafati Basket was only behind Varese because of one point deduction .

However, Cimberio remained the name sponsor and Galanda also remained loyal to the club and in the Legadue , which had replaced the A2 series, after first place in the final table, the immediate rise was achieved. After a twelfth place in 2010, they just reached the play-offs for the Italian championship in 2011 and 2012.

successes

National championship cup : 1970, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976

National championship cup finals: 1971, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979

Saporta Cup : 1967, 1980

Korać Cup final : 1985

Intercontinental Cup : 1966, 1970, 1973

Italian basketball champion : 10 times - 1961, 1964, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1999

Italian Basketball Cup: 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973

Italian Supercup: 1999

Significant former players

Web links

Official website (Italian)
Varesefans (Italian)