Pallacanestro Reggiana, simply known as Reggiana or Reggio Emilia, currently known for sponsorship reasons as Unahotels Reggio Emilia, is an Italian professional basketball team based in Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna. It currently plays in the LBA.
Contents
History
1970s
Pallacanestro Reggiana was founded on 3 September 1974 by eight friends who wanted to establish a club that would unite the basketball community of Reggio Emilia. They started to play in the regional Promozione in a white and blue jersey sponsored by Magazzini Jolly, with the season ending with a promotion to the Serie D, in which they stayed a couple of seasons before again moving up, to the Serie C. The 1977–78 preseason saw the club merge with Cestistica Tricolore and come under the ownership of Cantine Riunite who also started sponsoring the club and changed its colours to white and red in the process. During the season itself, a team composed mainly by young local players led by Gianni Codeluppi earned a promotion to the third division Serie B.
The summer again saw an organisational change as the club amalgamanated Pallacanestro Correggio, which led to the arrival of future great Orazio Rustichelli in the squad. On the court, the team struggled, finishing the season at the last place which would have seen it relegated if not for an off-the-court reprieve. Over the next seasons the team established itself in the Serie B without managing to reach the next level, debuting promising youngster Piero Montecchi in the process.
1980s
Players such as Rustichelli (now captain), Montecchi, Fuss and Zonta helped Pallacanestro Reggiana reach the professional ranks with a win in a promotion play-off played in Udine over Necchi Pavia that opened the gates of the second division Serie A2 at the end of the 1981–82 with thousands of young supporters invading the basketball court to celebrate.
President Enrico Prandi kept Gianni Zappi as coach and recruited Americans Roosevelt Bouie and Rudy Hackett, father of future Italian national team player Daniel Hackett. These players, along with Pino Brumatti among others under new coach Gianfranco Lombardi, would help reach the Serie A anew. They would stay three seasons in the league, reaching the title playoffs in 1985–86 but going down the next season, with Montecchi leaving for Olimpia Milano at the end of the season.
Coach Piero Pasini ensured Reggio Emilia only stayed one year away and the team stayed in the Serie A over the following seasons which saw club great Joe Bryant arrive (along with his future superstar son Kobe, who played with the youth side).
1990s
In 1990 the holding company was brought by Coopsette, with Sidis becoming the team sponsor, the ambitious club reached the Italian Cup Final Four but struggled in the second part of the league season and was relegated. The 1992–93 preseason saw the arrival of a Pallacanestro Reggiana legend in Mike Mitchell, who helped the club return to the elite.
Two seasons later the club was back in the second division, following which it decided to bank on its young academy players such as Alessandro Davoli and Gianluca Basile. Returning to the Serie A in 1997, Reggio Emilia rehired Lombardi as coach, with a young Max Menetti as assistant to guide a team containing players of the caliber of Chris Jent, Diego Pastori, Marcelo Damiao, Gianluca Basile and the evergreen Mike Mitchell. Thereafter came a successful season that saw them reach the title playoffs, downing first Milano (2–0) then in turn Treviso (3–2) winning Game 4 at the buzzer and Game 5 at PalaVerde without Mitchell to reach the semifinals where they exited at the hands of local rivals Teamsystem Bologna. The result was nevertheless enough to send the Italian outfit to a European competition for the first time, in the 1998–99 Korać Cup. Losing Mitchell (now 41) to retirement and Basile to a transfer towards Fortitudo Bologna, they reached the round of 32 in Europe and stalled at the playoff eight finals, losing against Pepsi Rimini.
2000s
Two new presidents (Elio Monducci and Chiarino Cimurri) and three different coaches could not prevent the side from falling to the second division at the end of the 1999–00 season with a 7–23 record. A nearly completely re-hauled squad coached by Franco Marcelletti reached the promotion playoffs finishing third the next season, reached the promotion finals after a 3–2 win over Pallacanestro Ragusa, but lost a heartbreaking game five to Livorno on a last second basket (81–79) at home.
Staying in the second division but now playing in the newly created LegaDue, Reggio Emilia also made changes, with Stefano Landi becoming president whilst Cimurri was named head of the LegaDue, a reorganization that also saw Alessandro Dalla Salda, the young former local press officer arising through the ranks, becoming general manager of the first team. Still coach, Marcelletti recruited Alvin Young during the NBA Summer League, with the American turning into an instant success along with compatriot Kris Clack, as the team reached the playoff finals again, after eliminating Ferrara and Scafati, but lost to Napoli, coached by a young Piero Bucchi, after five games, losing again at home (93–82).
A policy change in 2002–03, with Luca Dalmonte brought in as coach and veteran Stefano Rusconi as player, didn't yield better results, on the contrary as the team exited the promotion playoffs in the first round against Sicc Jesi, the first episode of a five years rivalry. Dalmonte lost his place to Fabrizio Frates (with Menetti assisting him), who proceeded to sign Kiwane Garris, Marco Mordente, Angelo Gigli and re-sign Alvin Young and Marcelo Damiao, with side avoiding the playoffs altogether as it finished the regular season in first place to grab the promotion race, sending Carife Ferrara and Jesi to the playoffs.
With a similar squad, the team readapted well to the first division finishing the first round in the second place in order to qualify for the Italian Cup Final Eight, where it made a shocking path to the final beating giants Milano and Roma, but eventually lost the cup 74–64 to Benetton Treviso led by Andrea Bargnani, Marcus Goree and David Blu. An anonymous domestic season in 2005–06 (finishing eleventh) was highlighted by good results in the side's ULEB Cup campaign (eligible to Europe's second competition thanks to their cup final) where they survived the regular season and downed Ventspils in the top 16 to reach the quarterfinals, with Hemofarm Vršac led by Milenko Topić ending their run.
2010s
The club flirted with relegation during the 2010–11 season, saving their skin with a last game win over Veroli combined with other results that saw Scafati beating Verona. In a complete turnaround in the 2011–12 season, the team led by Massimiliano Menetti (who had previously become head coach) romped to a promotion that they confirmed with a game to spare against Imola, with a 20–8 record .
The good run of form continued in the Serie A, with Reggio Emilia grabbing a sixth place before taking Luigi Datome's Roma to seven games in their quarterfinals series, losing game 7 in the Eternal City in front of 600 away fans. Qualified for another European competition, the third-tier EuroChallenge, a team spearheaded by EuroChallenge Final Four MVP Andrea Cinciarini - helped by James White among others - recorded an emphatic 79–65 victory over Triumph Lyubertsy in a packed PalaDozza Bologna arena to win their first even international title on 27 April 2014 in front of 4,000 enthusiastic fans.
On the domestic front they again reached the playoffs but were edged 2–3 by holders Montepaschi Siena in their quarterfinal series, after a controversial defeat in a game 4 played at home with Reggio Emilia 2–1 at the time marked by bad refereeing.
The next season saw the stages switched around, with Reggio Emilia jinxed by injuries underperforming in the 2014–15 EuroCup to exit the competition at the group stage with two wins in ten games. However, their league form proved more resilient as they regrouped from a March 68–118 demolition by Milano, finishing third at the end of the regular season. They would make their home advantage count in the quarterfinal series against Enel Brindisi, winning game five at home to go through.
The semifinals against Umana Reyer Venezia had the team with their backs to the wall after a 67–89 defeat in game 5, but they won the next two games to progress to a first ever final. Against Italian Cup and Supercup holders Sassari, the first five games were split between respective home victories with Reggio Emilia favoured. They forced the sixth game in Sassari to three overtimes, with Cinciarini missing two title-winning shots in the dying moments of the fourth quarter, a three from Achille Polonara followed by a steal and layup from Rimantas Kaukėnas put them 5 ahead with seconds left in the first overtime but Sassari came back to force a second overtime, it went back and forth to finish tied and bring another overtime, in which Sassari pulled away for a win.
In European competitions
The club has participated in various European tournaments, winning the FIBA EuroChallenge in 2014.
Arena
Pallacanestro Reggiana has played its home games in the PalaBigi (capacity: 4,530) since 1980. Built in 1968, it is named after the city's Secretary of Sports, Giulio Bigi, and seated 3,800 until a 2007 redesign. Because it was not originally up to standard for some European-wide competitions, Reggio Emilia has had to play some of its home games in European-wide competitions, at the PalaDozza (capacity: 5,721), in Bologna. Construction was undertaken over the summer of 2015, to modernise the arena, in order for it to be able to host EuroCup games.
New locker rooms and new bath fixtures were built at PalaBigi. Then, in October 2015, Luca Vecchi, Mayor of Reggio Emilia, announced a plan to further modernise PalaBigi, increasing the arena's capacity to 4,600 seats. An option to build a new arena near Stadio Città del Tricolore, is still under consideration. During the 2015 and 2016 Italian League Playoffs, the old structure of the arena couldn't accommodate the large amount of ticket requests from the local fans, leading the club to install viewing screens in the cities' biggest squares, "Piazza Martiri del 7 Luglio", and "Piazza San Prospero".
Academy
Pallacanestro Reggiana has invested in the youth programme in order to develop new young prospects: the team that won promotion to "Serie A2" in 1982 was almost entirely composed of players born in the town and trained in the club academy, such as Gianni Codeluppi, Piero Montecchi and Orazio Rustichelli. From 1989 to 1991 a very young Kobe Bryant played in the Academy teams while his father Joe was playing for Pallacanestro Reggiana.
Notable graduates
1982: Piero Montecchi
1987: Roberto Casoli
1987: David Londero
1990: Luca Usberti
1993: Alessandro Davolio
1995: Gianluca Basile
1997: Marco Carra
1987: Filippo Masoni
2000: Andrea Ghiacci
2002: Federico Pugi
2002: Angelo Gigli
2004: Nicolò Melli
2005: Andrea Ancellotti
2008: Jakub Kudláček
2008: Luca Campani
2009: Riccardo Cervi
2009: Francesco Veccia
2010: Giovanni Pini
2010: Simone Zanotti
2010: Kenneth Viglianisi
2012: Ojārs Siliņš
2013: Federico Mussini
2014: Andrea Rovatti
2015: Federico Bonacini
2016: Artūrs Strautiņš
2016: Alessandro Lever
Players
Honours
Individual awards
Awards earned by members of Pallacanestro Reggiana whilst at the club:
Serie A
Season Top Scorer: Mike Mitchell (1997–98) Scoring Average 24.08
Season Top Scorer: Donell Taylor (2012–13) Scoring Average 19.10
Best Executive: Alessandro Dalla Salda (2012–13)
LegaDue
Best Coach (2): Fabrizio Frates (2003–04), Massimiliano Menetti (2011–12)
EuroChallenge
Final Four MVP: Andrea Cinciarini (2014)
Notable players
Hall of Fame
The following players were inducted into the club's hall of fame:
Head coaches
1974-1975: Marzio D’Arrigo
1975-1978: Giuseppe Ferretti
1978-1981: Mondo Vecchi
1981-1983: Gianni Zappi
1983-1986: Dado Lombardi
1986-1987: Cesare Pancotto
1987: Leo Ergelini
1987-1988: Piero Pasini
1988: Massimo Grisanti
1989-1991: Joe Isaac
1991-1992: Massimo Grisanti
1992-1994: Virginio Bernardi
1994-1995: Zare Markovski
1995-1997: Giordano Consolini
1997-2000: Dado Lombardi
2000-2002: Franco Marcelletti
2002-2003: Luca Dalmonte
2003-2006: Fabrizio Frates
2006: Renato Pasquali
2006-07: Max Menetti
2007-2009: Franco Marcelletti
2009-2010: Alessandro Ramagli
2010: Piero Coen
2010-11: Alessandro Finelli
Sponsorship names
Throughout the years, due to sponsorship deals, the club has been known as: