Victoria Libertas Pesaro
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| Scavolini Gruppo Spar Pesaro | |
 |
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| Founded | 1946 |
| Arena | ADRIATIC_Arena (10,323) |
| Team History | Victoria Libertas Pesaro (1946-present) |
| Team Colors | Red and White |
| Lega Basket Serie A | 2 (1988, 1990) |
| European Championship Cup | 0 |
| Cup Winners' Cup (Saporta Cup) | 1 (1983) |
| Italian Cup | 2 (1985, 1992) |
| Owner | Stefano Vellucci |
| Head Coach | Stefano Sacripanti |
Victoria Libertas (or "VL") is a basketball team based in Pesaro, Italy.
It is commonly known across Europe as Scavolini Pesaro, from the name of the main sponsor, and former president, Valter Scavolini.
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[edit] Brief 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), as 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.
In the past, due to sponsorship deals, it has also been known as Benelli Pesaro (1952-1958), Lanco Pesaro (1958-1961), Algor Pesaro (1961-1963), Butangas Pesaro (1966-1969), Frizz Pelmo Pesaro (1969-1970), Tropicali Pesaro (1970-1971) and Maxmobili Pesaro (1971-1975).[1]
[edit] Latest facts
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 Lithuania_national_basketball_team) and Michael Hicks (Panama national team star). The team was therefore promoted, for the second straight year, to play the Lega Basket Serie A 2007/08 league.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 2007-2008 Roster
| 3 |  |
Lucian Pesoli | Small Forward |
| 4 | |
Pervis Pasco | Center |
| 5 |  |
Mindaugas Žukauskas | Small forward |
| 6 | |
Ronald Slay | Small forward |
| 7 | |
Rasheed Brokenborough | Shooting guard |
| 8 |  |
Stefano Laudoni | Point guard |
| 9 |  |
Robert Fultz | Point guard |
| 10 |  |
Carlton Myers | Shooting guard |
| 11 |  |
Michael Hicks | Small forward |
| 12 |  |
Keydren Clark | Point guard |
| 13 | |
Dan Gay | Center |
| 14 | |
Samuele Podestà | Center |
| 15 | |
Michele Bei | Small forward |
|
Alberto Rossato |
[edit] Notable past players
- Agide Fava
- Sandro Riminucci
- Franco Bertini
- Walter Magnifico 19 seasons: '80-'96, '98-'01
Dragan Kićanović 2 seasons: '81-'83- Andrea Gracis 11 seasons: '83-'94
- Ario Costa 12 seasons: '84-'96
- Darren Daye 5 seasons: '87-'92
- Darwin Cook 3 seasons: '87-'88, '89-'91
- Greg Ballard 1 season: '87-'88
- Aco Petrović 1 season: '87-'88
- Larry Drew 1 season: '88-'89
- Haywoode Workman 2 seasons: '91-'93
- Dean Garrett 2 seasons: '93-'95
- George McCloud 1 season: '93-'94
- Antonello Riva 2 seasons: '94-'96
- Corey Gaines 1 season: '94-'95
- Paolo Conti 5 seasons: '95-'00
- Kevin Thompson 2 seasons: '95-'97
- Lloyd Daniels 1 season: '95-'96
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Peter Guarasci 3 seasons: '96-'99 - Vincenzo Esposito 2 seasons: '96-'98
- Lance Miller 1 season: '96-'97
- Melvin Booker 4 seasons: '97-'98, '99-'02
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Juan Manuel Moltedo 3 seasons: '97-'00 
Yann Bonato 1 season: '97-'98- Tony Dawson 1 season: '98-'99
- Myron Brown 1 season: '98-'99
-
Silvio Gigena 6 seasons: '99-'05 - Joseph Blair 2 seasons: '99-'00, '01-'02
- DeMarco Johnson 2 seasons: '00-'02
Marko Tušek 2 seasons: '00-'02
Jason Smith 1 season: '01
Miroslav Berić 2 seasons: '01-'03- Clarence Gilbert 1 season: '02-'03
Ken Lacey 1 season: '02-'03- Aaron McGhee 1 season: '02-'03
- Norm Richardson 1 season: '02-'03
- Chris Gatling 1 season: '02-'03
- Marko Milič 2 seasons: '03-'05
Aleksandar Djordjevic 2 seasons: '03-'05- Alphonso Ford 1 season: '03-'04 (his last team before his untimely death on September 4, 2004)
- Rodney Elliott 1 season: '03-'04
- Bud Eley 1 season: '03-'04
- Charles Smith 1 season: '04-'05
Hanno Möttölä 1 season: '04-'05- Scoonie Penn 1 season: '04-'05
- Robert Archibald 1 season: '04-'05
- Rodney White 1 season: '06-'07
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- (Italian) Official Site
- (Italian) Latest stats (2006/07 Italian LegaDue)
- (Italian) Previous season stats (2005/06 Italian B1 League)
