s.Oliver Würzburg

	S.Oliver Würzburg
Founded	2007
Hall	s.Oliver Arena ; (3140 seats)
Homepage	www.soliver-wuerzburg.de
executive Director	Steffen Liebler
Trainer	Denis Usurer
league	BBL gentlemen;
	NBBL U 19;
	JBBL U 16
Colours	Black red
home	Away

s.Oliver Würzburg (formerly s.Oliver Baskets ) is a basketball team from the city of Würzburg . The team played from the 2011/12 season to the 2013/14 season in the top German basketball division . The 2014/15 season ended the Würzburg as 1st in the season table of the 2nd Basketball Bundesliga ProA and then made it through the playoffs to the final, so that Würzburg has been back in the Bundesliga since 2015/16.

history

Predecessor club

In 1998, the city's leading basketball club, the DJK Würzburg , rose to the top German league for the first time with its first men's team. In the ranks of the team at that time stood the greatest German talent, Dirk Nowitzki , who after the end of the lockout moved to the highest endowed US professional league NBA at the beginning of 1999 and began a career that was unprecedented for a European basketball player.

Despite the loss of Nowitzki, the club was able to play a good role in the first division in the following years, as Demond Greene , Robert Garrett and Marvin Willoughby were more German national players. In the 2000/01 season , under coach Gordon Herbert, the last play-off participation for the German championship succeeded.

Then in 2001 the "X-Rays Sport-Marketing GmbH" was founded to support the team and the professional team was spun off from the DJK Würzburg club in order to promote further professionalization and to protect the DJK from risks from the basketball players' business activities. The sporting as well as the economic development turned out to be more and more difficult; In 2005 the club finally got out of the Bundesliga and had to file for bankruptcy.

Under the name of "Mainfranken Baskets", Holger Geschwindner tried a new start in the 2nd League South with a few fellow players, with a targeted focus on German players. This failed, however, and relegation followed, after only being able to win one game in the entire season.

Würzburg Baskets / s.Oliver Baskets / s.Oliver Würzburg

Season dates 2007/08 until today

season	Surname	league	space
2007/08	SCH Würzburg Baskets	Regionalliga Southeast	3
2008/09	Wurzburg Baskets	Regionalliga Southeast	1
2009/10	Wurzburg Baskets	ProB	3
2010/11	Wurzburg Baskets	ProA	2
2011/12	s.Oliver Baskets Würzburg	BBL	6th
2012/13	s.Oliver Baskets Würzburg	BBL	9
2013/14	s.Oliver Baskets	BBL	17th
2014/15	s.Oliver Baskets	ProA	1
2015/16	s.Oliver Baskets	BBL	8th
2016/17	s.Oliver Würzburg	BBL	14th
2017/18	s.Oliver Würzburg	BBL	9
2018/19	s.Oliver Würzburg	BBL	9
2019/20	s.Oliver Würzburg	BBL	11

Ascent

descent

In 2007 the businessman Jochen Bähr and the commercial director of the Würzburg Mainfranken Theater, Klaus Heuberger, launched the Würzburg Baskets and founded the “Sport- und Event Würzburg Baskets GmbH”. Her goal was the medium-term return of Würzburg to the 2nd ProA league .

The Würzburg Baskets acquired the regional league license and started in the 2007/08 season in cooperation with SC Heuchelhof as "SCH Würzburg Baskets" in the Regionalliga Südost. The first trainer was the Croatian Ivo Nakić , who used to go basketball for DJK s.Oliver Würzburg. During the first season, Nakic was released. The basketball department head of the SC Heuchelhof, Harald Borst, took over the team and led them to third place.

In the 2008/09 season, the Würzburg Baskets won the championship in the Regionalliga Südost with 24 wins in 24 games under coach Berthold Bisselik and thus promotion to the ProB , the lower season of the 2nd Bundesliga, which has been divided into two parts since 2007. In the following season of 2009/10, the Würzburg Baskets took third place and narrowly missed out on promotion. On May 27, 2010, however, it became known that the Hertener Löwen, who were athletically qualified for promotion to the ProA, could not prove their economic performance and that the Würzburgers were still able to move up to the ProA.

On June 2, 2010, the Sport- und Event Würzburg Baskets GmbH received the right to participate in the ProA in the 2010/11 season and, as in the earlier first division times of the X-Rays, was able to win the company s.Oliver , which became the name sponsor of the professional team .

Behind the financially strong FC Bayern Munich , trained by the German national coach at the time, Dirk Bauermann , they finished second under coach Marcel Schröder. The club was promoted to the basketball league, following in the footsteps of the DJK s.Oliver Würzburg and the X-Rays.

For the first division season 2011/12 , the two-time basketball Bundesliga coach of the year John Patrick became the new coach, who signed a number of players for the new class with whom he had previously celebrated successes at BG 74 Göttingen , such as winning the EuroChallenge 2010 The team finished the regular season in 6th place in the table - so it entered the playoffs in its first year in the Bundesliga.

The s.Oliver Baskets met Alba Berlin in the quarter-finals . The Würzburg team won the best-of-five series in four games with 3-1 victories and advanced to the semi-finals of the German championship. There, the s.Oliver Baskets lost to Ratiopharm Ulm in the series with 0: 3 and were eliminated in the semifinals. A few days later, the s.Oliver Baskets separated from head coach John Patrick for unknown reasons. On June 15, 2012 s.Oliver Baskets introduced the previous assistant trainer and former head coach Marcel Schröder as the new head coach with a contract until 2014.

In the 2012/13 season, the s.Oliver Baskets competed in the ULEB Eurocup for the first time . The premiere in the Eurocup took place on November 6, 2012 in front of a home audience. Here the Baskets were able to win 81:77 against the Ukrainian runner-up and favorite BT Azovmash Mariupol. In terms of sport, the 2012/13 season ended in ninth place in the table. On the last day of the match, the Baskets missed the play-offs due to a defeat against champions Brose Baskets .

After a poor start to the 2013/14 season, head coach Marcel Schröder was relieved of his duties on November 11, 2013. The previous assistant coach Michael Meeks took over as interim trainer . At the time of the coaching change, the team ranked 17th in the table with one win and seven defeats. At the end of November 2013, the Baskets will be presenting the former head coach of Artland Dragons , Stefan Koch, as their successor . In addition to the sporting worries, the baskets also had to announce that the club had economic worries. This led to an economic performance review by the league in November. Although the Baskets were certified that the club was stable enough to end the season, the club was still deducted two points from the table. The reason given by the league was “breaches of the notification obligation”. In terms of sport, Koch could not bring about a turnaround either and so the sporting relegation from the BBL was certain after the last game day . After the descent, the Baskets announced the separation from Koch .

The new coach for the 2014/15 season was the American Doug Spradley , who had previously coached the Paderborn Baskets and the Eisbären Bremerhaven in Germany. He received a contract until 2016.

In the 2014/15 season, the set goal “Mission Recovery - #WueComeback” was implemented. With 28 wins from 30 ProA main round games, the team of trainer Doug Spradley won first place and thus secured home rights for all playoffs. In the first round, the Würzburg troop met the newly founded towers from the Hanseatic city of Hamburg. Würzburg won the series 3-0. In the semifinals it was expectedly difficult for the league champions from Würzburg, because in the “Blue Hell” in Gotha the Baskets had to give up in the main round. Würzburg only narrowly won the first game of the “Best of 5 series”, while Gotha Rockets equalized in the second game. In the third game, Würzburg was able to secure the match ball in its own hall. On April 26th the first decisive match took place. In the starting position Würzburg had to win in order to complete the re-ascent mission. In the event of a defeat, a fifth game would have followed. There was a dramatic match at eye level in which the lead changed several times. Only in the final quarter could the Rockets break away with nine points. With three three-pointers in a row - from Dourisseau, Sebastian Betz and Carlos Medlock - the s.Oliver Baskets turned the game spectacularly and were able to celebrate their promotion to the top German division.

In the following season (2015/16), Headcoach Spradley continued to have two Würzburg home growns available: Constantin Ebert and Max Ugrai . Furthermore, Ruben Spoden and Sebastian Betz's contracts were automatically extended. The s.Oliver Baskets' first newcomer after their promotion to the Bundesliga was Joshiko Saibou , who moved from the Crailsheim Merlins to Lower Franconia to the Main. In the 2015/16 season, Dru Joyce was chosen to start the BBL All-Star Game on January 9, 2016 in the Bamberg Brose Arena . Joyce became the first Würzburg player to be in the starting five of the All-Star game . Würzburg reached the Bundesliga championship round this season as a promoted team and was eliminated in the quarter-finals against eventual German champions Bamberg.

On July 15, 2016, the name was changed to "s.Oliver Würzburg" and a new club logo was presented. As part of the campaign, the sponsorship contract with s.Oliver was also extended to 2019.

On December 30, 2016, head coach Spradley was sacked. The club's management stated the negative sporting development as the reason. Previously, there had only been three wins in ten Bundesliga games, the team was in 14th place when Spradley was removed from office. A day later, the former national coach Dirk Bauermann was appointed as the new coach.

Bauermann remained in office until the end of the 2017/18 season, when Denis Wucherer took over the coaching position. In the 2018/19 season, the team reached the final of the European club competition FIBA Europe Cup . There they lost in the return leg against the Italian representative Dinamo Sassari . In the first leg they lost 84:89 away, in the second leg Würzburg lost 79:81 in front of the home crowd.

successes

Winning the Bayern Cup (2008/09)
Championship in the Regionalliga Southeast (2008/09)
Promotion to the 2nd basketball league - ProB (2009)
Promotion to the 2nd basketball league - ProA (2010)
Promotion to the 1st Basketball Bundesliga - Basketball Bundesliga (2011 & 2015)
Playoff participation in the semi-finals / fourth place in 2012 in the Basketball Bundesliga 2011/12 and qualification for the ULEB Eurocup
Playoff quarter-finals 2016 in the basketball Bundesliga 2015/16
Final participation in the FIBA Europe Cup 2018/19

Audience numbers

The s.Oliver Baskets attracted the greatest number of spectators in the 2. Basketball Bundesliga (ProA and ProB) in the 2009/10 season. An average of 2,475 spectators came per game. A total of 34,650 spectators came to the s.Oliver Arena in Würzburg. For the 2011/12 season, the capacity was increased from 3,029 to 3,140 places. All 20 home games of the s.Oliver Baskets in the main round (17) and the playoffs of the basketball Bundesliga were completely sold out (62,800 spectators).

BBL squad

Squad of s.Oliver Würzburg in the 2018/19 season

Attention: The squad information is out of date!
(current season: 2020/2021)

player
No.	Nat.	Surname	birth	size	info	Last club
		Guards ( PG , SG )
1	United States	Jordan Hulls	09/26/1987	1.80 m		Polar bears Bremerhaven
2	Germany	Badu Buck	04/05/1999	1.95 m		ALBA Berlin
6th	Germany	Philipp Hadenfeldt	09/05/1999	1.90 m		BG Göttingen
12	United States	Skyler Bowlin	07/13/1989	1.92 m		Science City Jena
20th	Germany	Julian Albus	05/20/1992	1.91 m		Tigers Tubingen
22nd	United States	Cameron Wells	09/23/1988	1.86 m		Pallacanestro Varese (ITA)
35	Germany	Brad Loesing	09.10.1989	1.82 m		EWE Baskets Oldenburg
		Forwards ( SF , PF )
8th	Germany	Johannes Richter	December 6, 1993	2.05 m		Rockets
9	Australia	Xavier Cooks	08/19/1995	2.03 m		Winthrop University Eagles
18th	Lithuania	Vytenis Lipkevičius	05/19/1989	1.98 m		BC Prienai ( LIT )
21st	Germany	Florian Koch	03/26/1992	1.98 m		MHP giant Ludwigsburg
22nd	Bosnia and Herzegovina/Germany	Dejan Kovačević	12/27/1996	2.07 m		FC Bayern Munich
30th	United States	Perry Ellis	09/14/1993	2.03 m		Pallacanestro Cantù (ITA)
34	Germany	Felix Hoffmann	07/11/1989	1.95 m		TG s.Oliver Würzburg ( ProB )
		Center ( C )
0	United Kingdom	Gabriel Olaseni	12/29/1991	2.09 m		Baloncesto Fuenlabrada ( ESP )
8th	Germany	Leon scratches	02/04/1997	2.12 m		Brose Bamberg
11	Croatia/Germany	Krešimir Lončar	02/12/1983	2.09 m		Alba Berlin
15th	Germany	Fynn Fischer	07/20/1999	2.07 m		MTSV Schwabing

Trainer
Nat.	Surname	position
Germany	Denis Usurer	Head coach
Germany	Stephen Arigbabu	Assistant coach
United States	Steven Key	Assistant coach

Legend
Abbr.	meaning
swell
Team homepage
League homepage
Status: November 2018

Change to the 2018/19 season

Accesses	Departures
Change to the 2018/19 season
Julian Albus ( Tigers Tübingen ) Skyler Bowlin ( Science City Jena ) Xavier Cooks (Winthrop University Eagles) Perry Ellis (Pallacanestro Cantù) Fynn Fischer (MTSV Schwabing) Philipp Hadenfeldt ( BG Göttingen ) Jordan Hulls ( Polar Bears Bremerhaven ) Florian Koch ( MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg ) Brad Loesing ( EWE Baskets Oldenburg ) Gabriel Olaseni ( Baloncesto Fuenlabrada / ESP) Johannes Richter ( Rockets ) Cameron Wells (Pallacanestro Varese) Denis Wucherer (Head Coach / RheinStars Cologne )	Dirk Bauermann (head coach / target unknown) Robin Benzing ( Beşiktaş JK Istanbul ) Abdul Gaddy (destination unknown) Cliff Hammonds (destination unknown) Owen Klassen (destination unknown) Eduard J. Singler (destination unknown) Maurice Stuckey ( Brose Bamberg ) Kameron Taylor (destination unknown)

Former

Former known players

X-rays

Robert Garrett (* 1977)
Demond Greene (* 1979)
Krešimir Lončar (* 1983)
Dirk Nowitzki (* 1978)
Olumide Oyedeji (* 1981)
Marvin Willoughby (* 1978)

s.Oliver Baskets / s.Oliver Würzburg

Dwayne Anderson (* 1986)
Robin Benzing (* 1989)
Jason Gregory Boone (* 1985)
Jermaine Bucknor (* 1983)
Chester Frazier (* 1986)
Dru Joyce (* 1985)
Alex King (* 1985)
Maximilian Kleber (* 1992)
Chris Kramer (* 1988)
Ben Jacobson (born 1983)
Krešimir Lončar (* 1983)
John Little (* 1984)
Chris McNaughton (* 1982)
Joshua Obiesie (* 2000)
Cameron Wells (* 1988)

Former trainers

Years	Trainer
1998-2000	Germany Klaus Perneker / Peter Stahl
2000/2001	Canada Gordon Herbert
2001	Germany Peter Stahl
2001/2002	Lithuania Mindaugas Lukošius
2002/2003	Germany Keith Gray
2003-2005	United States Aaron McCarthy
2005/2006	Germany Holger Geschwindner
...
2007-2008	Croatia Ivo Nakić
2008	Germany Harald Borst
2008-2010	Germany Berthold Bisselik
2010-2011	Germany Marcel Schröder
2011–2012	United States John Patrick
2012-2013	Germany Marcel Schröder
2013	Canada Michael Meeks
2013-2014	Germany Stefan Koch
2014-2016	United States Douglas Spradley
2016-2018	Germany Dirk Bauermann
2018–	Germany Denis Usurer

offspring

In the age groups U14, U16 and U19, the male junior teams of the s.Oliver Baskets Academy have been playing in the top division of the youth basketball league (U16) and - with a one-year break - the youth basketball league (U19) since 2009 . All young players also play in the teams of the cooperation association TG Würzburg . In the 2011/12 season, TGW won the championship in the 2nd regional league with young basketball players and competed in the Regional League Southeast (RLSO) in the 2012/13 season. In the 2013/14 season the "farm team" became champions of the RLSO and rose to the 2nd ProB league . There they reached 6th place as a newcomer under the new name TG Würzburg Baskets Akademie in the 2014/15 season.

The s.Oliver Baskets and the s.Oliver Baskets Akademie have (as of summer 2012) produced three national youth players: Maximilian Kleber (U20), Maximilian Ugrai (U18) and Constantin Ebert (U16).

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ volksfreund.de: Stefan Koch new trainer in Würzburg - volksfreund.de. In: www.volksfreund.de. Retrieved December 30, 2016 .

^ Süddeutsche de GmbH, Munich Germany: Trainer Stefan Koch leaves Würzburg after relegation. In: Süddeutsche.de. May 14, 2014, accessed August 27, 2020 .

↑ s.Oliver Baskets: Dru Joyce starts with Beko BBL ALLSTAR GAME ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Online at www.soliver-baskets.de. Retrieved December 19, 2015.@1@ 2

↑ s.Oliver Baskets: The s.Oliver Baskets become "s.Oliver Würzburg" ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Online at www.soliver-wuerzburg.de. Retrieved July 15, 2016. @1@ 2

↑ s.Oliver Würzburg and head coach Doug Spradley go their separate ways: soliver-wuerzburg.de. (No longer available online.) In: www.soliver-wuerzburg.de. Archived from the original on December 30, 2016 ; accessed on December 30, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

↑ Dirk Bauermann becomes the new head coach of s.Oliver Würzburg: soliver-wuerzburg.de. (No longer available online.) In: www.soliver-wuerzburg.de. Archived from the original on December 31, 2016 ; accessed on December 31, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

↑ Wucherer becomes Bauermann's successor in Würzburg ( Memento from April 15, 2019 in the Internet Archive )

↑ FIBA: LIVE ? - s.Oliver Würzburg v Dinamo Sassari - FINAL 2 - FIBA Europe Cup 2019. April 21, 2019, accessed on May 1, 2019 .

[1] volksfreund.de: Stefan Koch new trainer in Würzburg - volksfreund.de. In: www.volksfreund.de. Retrieved December 30, 2016 .

[2] Süddeutsche de GmbH, Munich Germany: Trainer Stefan Koch leaves Würzburg after relegation. In: Süddeutsche.de. May 14, 2014, accessed August 27, 2020 .