Victoria Libertas (also known as "VL" or in Italian ''Vuelle''), full name Unione Sportiva Victoria Libertas Pallacanestro, is a professional basketball team that is based in

Pesaro Pesaro () is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Marche, capital of the Province of Pesaro e Urbino, on the Adriatic Sea. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the Marche, ...

, Italy. The club competes in the top level Italian professional basketball league, the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). It was commonly known across Europe as Scavolini Pesaro, from the name of its historical main sponsor Scavolini (from 1975 to 2014), an Italian kitchen and bathroom products designer and manufacturer, whose co-founder Valter Scavolini was formerly club president. Now, it is known as Carpegna Prosciutto Basket Pesaro after its title sponsor. For past club sponsorship names, see the list below.

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 under the name Scavolini Pesaro, won its first important trophy the

1982–83 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup The 1982–83 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup was the seventeenth edition of FIBA's 2nd-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, contested between national domestic cup champions, running from 5 October 1982 to 9 March 198 ...

, rival the historic French club of ASVEL. Also Scavolini, participated in consecutive lost finals in 1985–86 against the title holder FC Barcelona and in 1986–87 against

Cibona Košarkaški klub Cibona, commonly referred to as Cibona Zagreb or simply Cibona, is a men's professional basketball club based in Zagreb, Croatia. The club is a founding member and shareholder of the Adriatic Basketball Association, and competes ...

. Since then,

Italian League The Italic League or Most Holy League was an international agreement concluded in Venice on 30 August 1454, between the Papal States, the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, and the Kingdom of Naples, following the Tr ...

was won twice (in 1988 and 1990), and the

Italian Cup Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

was also won twice (in 1985 and 1992). Scavolini participated in

1990–91 FIBA European Champions Cup The 1990–91 FIBA European Champions Cup was the 34th season of the European top-tier level professional FIBA European Champions Cup (now called EuroLeague). It was won by POP 84, after they beat FC Barcelona Banca Catalana 70–65. It was th ...

, and managed to play in the semi-final of the Final Four in Paris where the club eliminated by the legendary Pop 84 (the former Jugoplastika) and ranked fourth after one more defeat in the third place game by Maccabi Tel Aviv. The two lost finals in the FIBA Korać Cup in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

(against

Ram Joventut Club Joventut Badalona, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional basketball club based in Badalona, Catalonia, Spain, playing in the Liga ACB and the EuroCup. Known to their fans as ''La Penya'' (in English, ''The Club''), it is one of only two teams ...

) and in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

(against il Messaggero Roma) show the dynamic of the club and at the beginning of the new decade.
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 and was defeated in the quarter finals by the eventual champion Maccabi Tel Aviv. Furthermore, Victoria Libertas shooting guard, Charles Smith, was honored with the first-ever Euroleague's ''

Alphonso Ford Alphonso Gene Ford (October 31, 1971 – September 4, 2004) was an American professional basketball player. A 1.92 m (6 ft 3 in) tall, 98 kg (216 lbs.) shooting guard, he was one of the greatest scorers in college basketball histor ...

Top Scorer Trophy'', named after the late Euroleague scoring champ who died in 2004 and who was replaced in Victoria Libertas by Smith himself.

Recent history

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 Rodney Charles White (born June 28, 1980) is an American former professional basketball player. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, White played college basketball at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he was named the nationa ...

(9th overall pick of the

2001 NBA draft The 2001 NBA draft took place on June 27, 2001 in New York City, New York. Kwame Brown became the first high school player to be drafted with the first overall pick in the history of the NBA. The selection of Kwame Brown by the Washington Wizards, ...

Mindaugas Žukauskas Mindaugas Žukauskas (born 24 August 1975 in Šiauliai, Lithuanian SSR, USSR) is a retired Lithuanian professional basketball player, a former captain of the Lithuanian national basketball team. He is a small forward 2.01 m tall. Žukauskas is ...

(captain of the

Lithuanian national basketball team The Lithuania men's national basketball team ( lt, Lietuvos nacionalinė vyrų krepšinio rinktinė) represents Lithuania in international basketball competitions. They are controlled by the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, the governing body ...

) and Michael Hicks ( Panamian national team star). The team was therefore promoted, for the second straight year, to play the Lega Basket Serie A 2007–08 league. Following the 2009–10 season, Spar's secondary sponsorship contract expired. The club picked up a new secondary sponsor in Italian clothing company Siviglia, thereby changing its full sponsored name to Scavolini Siviglia Style Pesaro (more simply Scavolini Siviglia Pesaro). The club changed its secondary sponsorship again with the expiration of Siviglia's contract at the end of the 2011–12 season, becoming Scavolini Banca Marche Pesaro. From the 2014–15 season the historical sponsor ''Scavolini'' was replaced (for the first time since 1975) by the new main sponsor ''Consultinvest'', whereby the name of the team became Consultinvest Pesaro. Since 2019 summer the new club naming is Carpegna Prosciutto Basket Pesaro thanks to the relationship with the new Title Sponsor Prosciutto di Carpegna.

Players

Current roster

Honours

Total titles: 5

Domestic competitions

: Winners (2): 1987–88, 1989–90 : Runners-up (4): 1981–82, 1984–85, 1991–92, 1993–94 *

: Winners (2): 1984–85, 1991–92 : Runner-up (5): 1985–85, 1986–87, 2000–01, 2003–04,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

* Italian Supercup : Runners-up (1): 2001

European competitions

* EuroLeague : 4th place (1): 1990–91 : Final Four (1):

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

* FIBA Saporta Cup (defunct) : Winners (1): 1982–83 : Runners-up (2): 1985–86, 1986–87 : Semifinalists (2): 1983–84, 1987–88 * FIBA Korać Cup (defunct) : Runners-up (2): 1989–90, 1991–92 * FIBA EuroChallenge : 4th place (1): 2009–10 : Final Four (1):

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Worldwide competitions

* McDonald's Championship (defunct) : 4th place (2):

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

Other competitions

* FIBA International Christmas Tournament (defunct) : 4th place (1):

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

*Torneo de Vasco Martini-Castelfiorentino : Winners (1): 2007

International record

Logos

Vuelle logo.png, Former logo

Arena and supporters

In 1996 Victoria Libertas moved from the historic "''hangar''" arena into the new ''BPA Palas'' arena (today: Vitrifrigo Arena) which now hosts its home games. Drawing large audiences from nearby towns and the whole

Marche Marche ( , ) is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches ( ). The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the ...

region, in mid 2000s Victoria Libertas was among the top ten basketball teams in Europe for average attendance.

Notable players

Head coaches

* Petar Skansi 2 seasons: '81-'82, '82-'83 * Aleksandar Nikolić 1 seasons: '83-'84 * Valerio Bianchini 5 seasons: '87-'88, '88-'89, '93-'94, '94-'95, '95-'96 * Sergio Scariolo 2 seasons: '89-'90, '90-'91 * Duško Vujošević 1 season: '97-'98 * Marco Crespi 2 seasons: '02-'03, '04-'05 * Piero Bucchi 1 season: '16-17 *

Spiro Leka Spiro(s) may refer to: * Spiro, Oklahoma, a town in the U.S. ** Spiro Mounds, an archaeological site * Spiro (band), a British music group * Spiro (name), including a list of people with the name * Špiro, South Slavic masculine given name * ARA S ...

1 season '17-'18 *

Massimo Galli Massimo, also Massimino, and Massimine () is a masculine Italian given name. Notable people with the name include: Given name: *Massimo Agostinelli (Max Agos) (born 1987), Swiss based Italian American artist, entrepreneur and activist *Massimo Ago ...

1 season '18-'19 *

Matteo Boniciolli Matteo Boniciolli (born 18 April 1962) is an Italian basketball coach of APU Udine in the Italian Serie A2. He has been a head coach since 1999, guiding several clubs in Italy and abroad to titles, also having taken charge of the Italian nati ...

1 season '19 *

Federico Perego Federico Perego (born 29 September 1984) is an Italian basketball assistant coach for Vanoli Cremona in the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). Career Federico Perego started his coach-career managing the youth sector of Pallacanestro Lissone and Aurora D ...

1 season '19-present

Sponsorship names

In the past, due to sponsorship deals, it has also been known as:Lega A Basket page on history of Victoria Libertas.
*Benelli Pesaro (1952–58) *Lanco Pesaro (1958–61) *Algor Pesaro (1961–63) *Butangas Pesaro (1966–69) *Frizz Pelmo Pesaro (1969–70) *Tropicali Pesaro (1970–71) *Maxmobili Pesaro (1971–75) *Scavolini Pesaro (1975–2014) *Consultinvest Pesaro (2014–2017) *No Main Sponsor (2017–2019) *Carpegna Prosciutto Basket Pesaro (2019–present)

References

External links

Official Site

Eurobasket.com Team PagePrevious Season Stats
(LegaBasket 2007–08)
Latest Stats
(LegaBasket 2008–09) {{Victoria Libertas Pesaro 1982–83 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup champions 1946 establishments in Italy Basketball teams established in 1946 Basketball teams in the Marche Sport in Pesaro