Poitiers Basket 86

Poitiers Basket 86, also known as PB86 or simply Poitiers, is a French professional basketball team located in the city of Poitiers, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, France. It competes in the French Pro B league. The club's home games are played at Salle de Saint-Eloi except for several matches played at Les Arênes. The players wear white and blue uniforms. History Poitiers Basket 86 was founded in 2004, following the merging of two teams - CEP Poitiers and Stade Poitevin. The club began its first season in Nationale 3 with Grégory Thiélin as head coach and ranked at a promising 5th place at the end of the season. The following year, the team was promoted to the LNB Pro B, making it the first team ever from Poitiers to play at a professional level. The 2006/2007 season was difficult for the team which finished 13th. During the 2007/2008 season, Ruddy Nelhomme was named head coach. He kept the following French players (Costentin, Devéhat, Gomez, Guillard, Maynier) and recruited two Americans from Brest (Younger and Gunn), the experimented Thomas Darnauzan and some young players from the under-20 team (Kanté, Florimont, Dienepo, Dalmat). In salle Lawson Body, Poitiers began its second season with the ambition of doing well in its second professional season. At the end of the regular season, the team finished third and gained access to the playoffs but eventually lost in the final against Besançon.