University giant Leipzig

University giant Leipzig
Founded	May 6, 1949 (as HSG of the University of Leipzig)
Hall	Sports hall Brüderstraße (1016 seats)
Homepage	www.uni-riesen.de
Head of department	Dominik Braun
Trainer	Jens Dietze
league	2nd regional league
Colours	White / green
home Away

The Uni-Giants Leipzig are a basketball team in Leipzig that belongs to the Universitätssport-Club Leipzig e. V. belongs. From 2008 to 2017 the giants were organized in an operating company. Based on a symbol of the city contained in the USC logo, the USC basketball players call themselves "Uni-Giant Leipzig". In the 2012/13 season, the team took part in the second highest German league, the 2nd Bundesliga ProA  .

history

Beginnings

The USC Leipzig e. V. was founded on May 6, 1949 as a university sports association of the Leipzig University. Basketball has been part of the profile of the club that has been operating under the name "HSG KMU Leipzig" for many years from the start. The admission of numerous athletes from the disbanded performance center of ASV Leipzig (GDR series champions, European Cup participants) brought the basketball department of the university sports club to an enormous sporting boom after 1970. This was documented in numerous GDR championship titles and cup victories. Several national players from this era are still well known today: Hermann Hinzer , Wolfgang Jahn and their coach Herbert Lori . Due to the decision of the GDR leadership to no longer promote basketball, like many other sports, the performance-oriented development of young talent became increasingly difficult, especially in the 1980s. A gap emerged that was to decisively hinder the new beginning after 1989.

1990s

Between 1992 and 1996, a young team from the USC Leipzig e. V. mentioned club in the Oberliga Sachsen / Thuringia, but after the departure of important service providers, the withdrawal from the higher-class game operations and a generation change became essential. Through the personal commitment of students and a. of the sports science faculty has been in the basketball department of USC Leipzig in 1997. Malte Scheper, a player-coach from Bremerhaven , was again performance-oriented. Players like Welf Hamer and youth national player Volker Lindemeier set the tone. At the same time, new youth teams were founded, which very soon played successfully at the state level. After a long dry spell, a sporting upswing set in in 1997.

2000s

From 2000 the USC Leipzig e. V. received the award "Basketball Talent Base of the Year - Male Area" several times. In the 2007/08 season, the team managed under the leadership of the American Duez Henderson as a player-coach promotion from the second to the first regional league. In summer 2008 the LBM Leipziger Basketball Marketing GmbH was founded, which took over the game operations from the main club. The Greek Dimitris Polychroniadis was hired for the post of head coach. He led the team in his first season as a promoted team to third place in the first regional league.

2010s

Under the direction of Polychroniadis, he was promoted from the Regionalliga to the 2nd Bundesliga ProB as runner-up in the 1st Regionalliga Süd-Ost . The outstanding man on the field was the American Monyea Pratt in the promotion season. Pratt was also instrumental in ensuring that the university giants reached the playoff round in their first ProB season (2010/11). In the 2011/2012 season, the university giants competed in ProB Süd and reached the playoff quarter-finals. After the end of the season, the club and coach Polychroniadis went their separate ways.

In March 2012, the Leipziger made headlines by announcing ambitious goals: “Millions plans with university giants”, was the headline of Bild on March 5, 2012 and wrote in the accompanying article: “Play in the Euroleague and for the German championship - in four Leipzig's basketball should float in new dimensions for years to come. ”The Lithuanian Jonas Vainauskas, who previously worked for the top club Lietuvos Rytas in his home country, was responsible for the implementation . After the search for another team for the ProA due to withdrawals and wildcards for the 2012/2013 season , the university giants applied for this place and were finally given the right to start by the league. Thus, the team started the 2012/2013 season in the ProA, the second highest league. In the ProA, the team did not find their form until late in the season, but after the departure of the Slovak head coach Ivan Vojtko at the end of January 2013 under the direction of the previous assistant coach Martin Scholz with five wins in a row they had an inspiring series. Ultimately, however, the team could not escape the last place in the table with eight wins and 22 defeats. Thus, at the end of the season, the sporting descent into the ProB was certain.

For the 2013/2014 season, Martin Scholz was won over as head coach. The team reached third place in the table at the end of the main round and started with home rights in the play-offs. There they were eliminated in the quarter-finals against SC Rist Wedel  .

The 2014/15 season produced a similar result. Under the direction of the US coach Ty Shaw (who took over the office of Scholz, who was on the run for professional reasons in January 2015), the university giants met the North Germans again in the playoff quarter-finals, and SC Rist won again.

In June 2015, the club separated from coach Shaw, his previous assistant Tuna Isler became his successor. The university giants refrained from the previously set goal of advancing to the 2nd Bundesliga ProA by 2016. In the following season 2015/16 the qualification for the championship round in the 2nd Bundesliga ProB succeeded again, this time the Leipzig overtook the season in the first round against the Iserlohn Kangaroos .

Thomas Krzywinski, who previously worked for the Dresden Titans , among others , became Isler's successor in May 2016. For health reasons, Krzywinski resigned from his position in October 2016, the Finn Anton Mirolybov (former coach at Mitteldeutscher BC , UBC Hannover and the Hertener Löwen ) was signed as a new man on the sidelines. The university giants missed the playoff participation in the 2016/17 season and had to go into the ProB relegation round. The battle for relegation intensified when the team was deducted two points on March 31, 2017 because payments to the league were not made on time. At the end of the season there was relegation to the regional league, but the right to participate in the 1st regional league was not exercised, so that the team was assigned to the 2nd regional league under the name USC Leipzig. Game operations went from the operating company back to the main club.

successes

• 1971, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977 GDR champion
• 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009 Saxony Cup
• 2010 promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga ProB
• 2012 Wildcard promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga ProA

Home ground

Arena Leipzig, venue from the 2011/2012 season to 2015

The university giants play their home games in the Brüderstraße sports hall (1016 spectators). The renovation work on the building was completed in spring 2016. During the transition phase, games were played in the ball sports hall of the Leipzig Arena (capacity: 500 spectators). The Leipziger had played their home games in the Brüderstraße before 2007.

Until 2015, the Arena Leipzig was the home hall of the university giants Leipzig in the ProB, and the operating company was one of the team's sponsors.

→ Main article : Arena Leipzig

The Arena Leipzig is a multifunctional hall for sports competitions, concerts, major events and congresses. The university giants used a capacity of 1200 to 1800 seats from the 2011/2012 season. The arena is located in the Sportforum Leipzig to the west of Leipzig city center and was opened on May 11, 2002 after a two-year construction period in the presence of the then Federal Minister of the Interior, Otto Schily . The main hall has a flexible and easily variable equipment. This also includes the seated mobile grandstands. The hall not far from the central stadium offers concerts for up to 12,000 spectators (without seats). Sports events can be played in front of up to 8,000 spectators (seating). This makes the Arena Leipzig the largest event hall in the city.

Current squad

Squad Uni-Giant Leipzig in the 2018/2019 season
Attention: The squad information is out of date! (current season: 2020/2021)
player No. Nat. Surname birth size info Last club 2 Ben Shibru 1997 1.92 m SG / SF USC Leipzig / Niners Academy NBBL 4th Tony Matthes 1996 1.77 m PG Niners Academy NBBL 5 Daniel Pollrich 1993 1.73 m PG UPS Halle Rhinos 6th Tim Schmiedel 2001 1.87 m SG / PG USC Leipzig 7th Jan Grimmer 1990 1.87 m SF / PF USC Leipzig 8th Felix Klenke 1991 1.94 m SF USC Leipzig 9 Kilian Bartsch 1987 1.90 m SG USC Leipzig 10 Leon Konopka 1994 1.96 m PF BBT Göttingen 11 Sven Papenfuß 2000 2.02 m SF USC Leipzig 12 Franz Leonhardt 1997 1.92 m PF / SF Niners Academy NBBL 13 Moritz Vyhnal 1996 1.90 m PF / C BBVL Leipzig 14th Stefan Dziuballe 1990 1.77 m PG Automation Leipzig 15th Lorenz Hildebrandt 1992 2.02 m PF ASC Göttingen 19th Robert Kaiser 1995 2.08 m C. UPS Halle Rhinos 20th Konstantin Sigal 1996 1.90 m SF / PF Niners Academy NBBL 21st Miguel Angél Lopez-Barcelay 1986 2.02 m C. USC Leipzig	Trainer Nat. Surname position Jens Dietze Head coach Konstantin Sigal Assistant coach Mark Hoffmann Chief Financial Officer Werner Scholz Managing Director Sport Legend Abbr. meaning swell Team homepage League homepage As of September 1, 2014

Change in 2015/2016

Additions: Julian Scott, Sascha Leutloff ( Science City Jena ), Brandon Shingles, Ruben Wöllert (BBC Bayreuth), Robert Kaiser (BSW Sixers)

Departures: Marian Schick (Licher BasketBären), Jorge Schmidt, Khalil Kelley, Chris Flores, Jörn Wessels, Falko Theilig, Marek Krajewski (BG Karlsruhe)

Trainer (since 2007)

Term of office	Surname
2007-2008	Duez Henderson (player-manager)
2008–2012	Dimitris Polychroniadis
2012–01 / 2013	Ivan Vojtko
01/2013–01/2015	Martin Scholz
01 / 2015–2015	Ty Shaw
2015-2016	Tuna Isler
2016-10 / 2016	Thomas Krzywinski
10 / 2016–2017	Anton Mirolybov
2017-2018	Konstantin Sigal
since 2018	Jens Dietze

Significant former players

• Duez Henderson (2006–2008; player-coach of the 2007/08 promotion season)
• Kai-Uwe Kranz (2010-2013)
• Lamar Morinia (2008/09, 2010–2012; best Leipzig scorer in the 2008/09, 2010/11, 2011/12 seasons)
• Monyea Pratt (2009–2012; best Leipzig basket shooter in the 2009/10 promotion season)
• Ralph Schirmer (2010–2012)
• Jorge Schmidt (2013-2015)
• Martin Scholz (until 2012)
• André Spalke (until 2006; 2010-2016)

Web links

• University giant Leipzig
• The Young League - 2nd basketball league
• Eurobasket.com
• Beautiful Dunk Forum - Uni-Giant Leipzig

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Katharina Baum: University giants are looking for coaches and players. Retrieved January 27, 2017 . 
2. ↑ New trainer at the university giants. Retrieved January 27, 2017 . 
3. ↑ LVZ-Online: Basketball: University giants receive license for 2nd Bundesliga - coach Polychroniadis leaves - LVZ - Leipziger Volkszeitung. Retrieved January 27, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Euroleague and Championship: Millions plans with university giants . In: BILD.de . ( bild.de [accessed on January 27, 2017]).
5. ↑ Ingolf H. Neumann: Uni-Giesen Leipzig want to play internationally in 2016 . In: leipzig-seiten.de . ( leipzig-seiten.de [accessed on January 27, 2017]).
6. ↑ LVZ-Online: Trainer Vojtko and player Gadley leave Leipzig's university giant - LVZ - Leipziger Volkszeitung. Retrieved January 27, 2017 . 
7. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt - Hamburg: SC Rist Wedel basketball player after 94:75 against Leipzig in the semifinals. Retrieved January 27, 2017 . 
8. ^ LVZ-Online: Uni-Giant Leipzig: New trainer already in office - American Ty Shaw inherits Martin Scholz - LVZ - Leipziger Volkszeitung. Retrieved January 27, 2017 . 
9. ↑ Stephan Jaensch, Jan Vesper, Marian Gaebler, Kirstopher Jelinek, Philip Richter (layout, HTML, CSS) - intosite GmbH: Dramatic game against SC Rist Wedel ends university giants season . ( urbanite.net [accessed January 27, 2017]).
10. ↑ Uni-Giant Leipzig - strategy and personnel change at the university giants . ( uni-riesen.de [accessed on January 27, 2017]).
11. ↑ Westdeutsche Verlags- und Werbegesellschaft mbH & Co. KG: Iserlohn Kangaroos celebrate their entry into the quarter-finals! In: lokalkompass.de . ( lokalkompass.de [accessed on January 27, 2017]).
12. ↑ Uni-Giant Leipzig - Thomas Krzywinski is the new trainer of the Uni-Giant . ( uni-riesen.de [accessed on January 27, 2017]).
13. ^ Uni-Giant Leipzig - New trainer at the Uni-Giant Leipzig: Anton Mirolybov becomes the new coach - Thomas Krzywinski resigns for health reasons . ( uni-riesen.de [accessed on January 27, 2017]).
14. ↑ 2. Basketball Bundesliga | Point deduction for the university giants Leipzig. Retrieved March 31, 2017 . 
15. ^ Robert Daumann: Basketball Regionalliga Südost eV - Changes to the entitlements - No. 1 | Basketball Regionalliga Südost eV. Retrieved on May 2, 2017 . 
16. ↑ http://www.uni-riesen.de/index.php/basketball/basketball-berichte/656-die-abteilung-basketball-startet-in-die-neue-saison
17. ↑ http://www.uni-riesen.de/index.php/component/k2/neue-spielstätte-der-uni-riesen-feierlich-eingeweiht
18. ↑ http://www.lvz.de/Sport/Regionalsport/Leipziger-Uni-Riesen-Neuer-Coach-neue-Spielstaette-neue-Geschaeftsfuehrung