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

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 (appr ...

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 The Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) is a professional men's club basketball league that has been organised in Italy since 1920. Serie A is organised by Lega Basket, which is regulated by the Italian Basketball Federation (FIP). It is the highest-tier ...

(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 ASVEL Basket, commonly known as ASVEL or sometimes as ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, and also known as LDLC ASVEL for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional basketball team that is located in the city of Villeurbanne, which is a suburb of Lyon, ...

. Also Scavolini, participated in consecutive lost finals in 1985–86 against the title holder

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Found ...

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 compete ...

. 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 T ...

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 It ...

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 Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such ...

. The two lost finals in the

FIBA Korać Cup The FIBA Korać Cup was an annual basketball club competition held by FIBA between the 1971–72 and 2001–02 seasons. It was the third-tier level club competition in European basketball, after the FIBA European Champions' Cup (later renamed th ...

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 humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

(against Ram Joventut) and in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

(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

. 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 (

). 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 Carlton Ettore Francesco Myers (born 30 March 1971) is an Italian former professional basketball player that played in the Italian league and the EuroLeague. Myers was initially raised in the United Kingdom. One of the best European shooting g ...

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 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 (captain of the Lithuanian national basketball team) and Michael Hicks ( Panamian national team star). The team was therefore promoted, for the second straight year, to play the

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 coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

Italian Supercup The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

: Runners-up (1): 2001

European competitions

* EuroLeague : 4th place (1):

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

: 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 Phi ...

FIBA Saporta Cup The FIBA Saporta Cup was the name of the second-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, where the domestic National Cup winners, from all over Europe, played against each other. The competition was organized by FIBA E ...

(defunct) : Winners (1): 1982–83 : Runners-up (2): 1985–86, 1986–87 : Semifinalists (2): 1983–84, 1987–88 *

(defunct) : Runners-up (2): 1989–90, 1991–92 *

FIBA EuroChallenge FIBA EuroChallenge (called the FIBA Europe League in 2003–05, and FIBA EuroCup in 2005–08) was the 3rd-tier level transnational men's professional continental club basketball competition in Europe, from 2003 to 2015. It was organized and run ...

: 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 The McDonald's Championship (sometimes called the McDonald's Open) was an international men's professional basketball club cup competition that featured a representative of the National Basketball Association (representing North America) agains ...

(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 Bicenten ...

Other competitions

FIBA International Christmas Tournament FIBA International Christmas Tournament also known as the Christmas Tournament (''Torneo de Navidad'') was a men's basketball international friendly competition at the club level (and in some editions with national teams), organized by FIBA at its ...

(defunct) : 4th place (1):

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

*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 An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectator ...

into the new ''BPA Palas'' arena (today:

Vitrifrigo Arena Vitrifrigo Arena, formerly known as Adriatic Arena and originally BPA Palas, is an indoor arena, indoor sports arena in Pesaro, Italy, home to the Victoria Libertas Pesaro professional basketball team of the Lega Basket Serie A. Its seating capaci ...

) 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

teams in Europe for average attendance.

Notable players

Head coaches

Petar Skansi Petar ( sr, Петар, bg, Петър) is a South Slavic masculine given name, their variant of the Biblical name Petros cognate to Peter. Derivative forms include Pero, Pejo, Pera, Perica, Petrica, Periša. Feminine equivalent is Petra. ...

2 seasons: '81-'82, '82-'83 *

Aleksandar Nikolić Aleksandar "Aca" Nikolić ( sr-cyr, Александар "Аца" Николић; 28 October 1924 – 12 March 2000) was a Serbian professional basketball player and coach. He was also a professor at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Sp ...

1 seasons: '83-'84 *

Valerio Bianchini Valerio Bianchini (born July 22, 1943) is an Italian professional basketball coach. He was the first coach in the history of Italian basketball who won three championship titles with three clubs (Cantù, Virtus Roma and Victoria Libertas Pesaro) ...

5 seasons: '87-'88, '88-'89, '93-'94, '94-'95, '95-'96 *

Sergio Scariolo Sergio Scariolo (born 1 April 1961) is an Italian professional basketball coach who is head coach of Virtus Bologna of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) and the head coach of the senior Spain national team. Having won four EuroBasket champ ...

2 seasons: '89-'90, '90-'91 *

Duško Vujošević Duško Vujošević ( sr-Cyrl, Душко Вујошевић; born 3 March 1959) is a Montenegrin and Serbian professional basketball coach. Early life Duško Vujošević was born in Titograd (modern-day Podgorica), PR Montenegro, FPR Yugoslavi ...

1 season: '97-'98 *

Marco Crespi Marco Crespi (born 5 November 1978) is an Italian professional golfer. Career Crespi was born in Monza, Italy. He turned professional in 2002. Crespi played on the Challenge Tour in 2006–09 and 2012–13. He was invited to the 2012 Telenet Tro ...

2 seasons: '02-'03, '04-'05 *

Piero Bucchi Piero Bucchi (born March 5, 1958) is an Italian basketball coach who is the head coach of Dinamo Sassari in the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) and Basketball Champions League (BCL) and Romeo Sacchetti's assistant coach of the Italian nationa ...

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 ...

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 Ag ...

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