Thorsten Leibenath (born 7 April 1975) is a German former

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

coach and basketball player. He is the Sports Director of

ratiopharm Ulm Ratiopharm Ulm, officially stylized as ratiopharm ulm, is a professional basketball club based in Ulm, Germany. The club has two teams, one professional team, which plays in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the major German professional league an ...

in the German

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the German basketball league system, highest level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in German ...

. Leibenath coached the Ulm basketball team for eight years, spanning from 2011 until 2019.

Coaching career

Leibenath began his coaching career at TV Lich, a second-division team in Germany. With TV Lich, Leibenath won the championship, promoting the club to the first division. After his stint with TV Lich, Leibenath moved to

Gießen 46ers The GIESSEN 46ers (formerly GIESSEN 46ers) is a professional basketball club based in Gießen, Germany, that plays in the ProA. Their home arena is Sporthalle Gießen-Ost, with a capacity of 4,003 people. History The biggest achievements in clu ...

where he worked as an assistant coach for six seasons. During the 2006-07 season the German was head coach of the

Scottish Rocks The Caledonia Gladiators are a Scottish professional basketball club based in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire and are the only Scotland-based team in Super League Basketball, the top tier of domestic basketball in the United Kingdom. Founde ...

in the

British Basketball League The British Basketball League (BBL) was a men's professional basketball sports league, league in Great Britain. Since its establishment in 1987 the BBL represented the highest level of basketball competition within the United Kingdom. The orga ...

. At the end of his first season in British basketball, Leibenath reached the

BBL Cup The British Basketball League Cup, often shortened to the BBL Cup, was an annual cup competition for the British Basketball League (BBL). It was one of two peripheral competitions operated by the League during the regular season, with the other b ...

final, eventually losing to

Guildford Heat The Surrey Scorchers were an English professional basketball team based in Guildford, Surrey, that competed in the British Basketball League. The team was established in 2005 as the Guildford Heat by fans of former British Basketball League te ...

82–79, while also finishing 4th in the League Championship, and lead the Rocks to the BBL Playoff final, losing eventually to

Newcastle Eagles The Newcastle Eagles are a professional basketball club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. They play in Super League Basketball, the top-tier professional basketball league in Britain for men and women, and the European North Basketball Leag ...

. He also picked up the BBL Coach of the Month award for March 2007. In 2008, Leibenath returned to Germany, taking over as head coach of

Artland Dragons QTSV Quakenbrück, widely known as Artland Dragons is a professional basketball club based in Quakenbrück, Germany. The club's home arena is the Artland Arena, which has a capacity of 3,000 spectators. From 2003 till 2015 the club played in the B ...

basketball team. While playing in the EuroCup and the EuroChallenge in the 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 season, the club only ranked 9th in the regular season in both years, missing the

play-offs. In May 2010, team management decided to release Leibenath who moved to GiroLive-Ballers Osnabrück in the German Pro-A league (lower division). In May 2011, Leibenath signed as head coach with

in the German

. In the 2016–17 season, he led Ulm to a Bundesliga all-time best winning streak of 27 games and was honored as Bundesliga Coach of the Year. In March 2019, it was announced that Leibenath would step down after the end of the season and would assume the function of Sports Director at ratiopharm Ulm.

References

External links

Profile of Leibenath
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leibenath, Thorsten 1975 births Living people German basketball coaches German men's basketball players Sportspeople from Leverkusen Ratiopharm Ulm coaches German expatriate basketball people in the United Kingdom German expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Guards (basketball)