Victoria Libertas Pesaro

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Scavolini Gruppo Spar Pesaro

Founded	1946
Arena	ADRIATIC_Arena (10,323)
Team History	Victoria Libertas Pesaro (1946-present)
Team Colors	Red and White
Lega Basket Serie A	2 (1988, 1990)
European Championship Cup	0
Cup Winners' Cup (Saporta Cup)	1 (1983)
Italian Cup	2 (1985, 1992)
Owner	Stefano Vellucci
Head Coach	Marco Calvani

Victoria Libertas (or "VL") is a basketball team based in Pesaro, Italy.
It is commonly known across Europe as Scavolini Pesaro, from the name of the main sponsor, and former president, Valter Scavolini.

1 Brief history
2 Latest facts
3 Arena and supporters
4 Players
5 External links

[edit] Brief 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 won its first important trophy in 1983 (European Cup Winners' Cup). Since then, Italian League was won twice (in 1988 and 1990), as Italian Cup was also won twice (in 1985 and 1992).
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, being defeated in the quarter finals by eventual champion Maccabi Tel Aviv. Furthermore, Victoria Libertas shooting guard, Charles Smith, was honored with the first-ever Euroleague's Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy [1], named after the late Euroleague scoring champ who died in 2004 and who was replaced in Victoria Libertas by Smith himself.

[edit] Latest facts

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, former star Carlton Myers among them, which lead the team to win the league and gain promotion to the Second Division (Legadue).

[edit] Arena and supporters

In 1996 Victoria Libertas moved from the historic "hangar" arena into the new BPA Palas arena (today: ADRIATIC Arena) which now hosts its home games. Drawing large audiences from nearby towns and the whole Marche region, in mid 2000s Victoria Libertas was among the top ten basketball teams in Europe for average attendance.

[edit] Players

Among the most important players that played for Victoria Libertas are: Agide Fava, Sandro Riminucci, Franco Bertini in the early years; Andrea Gracis, Dragan Kicanovic, Walter Magnifico, Ario Costa, Darren Daye and Darwin Cook helped in the 1980s achievements; Carlton Myers, Melvin Booker and Joseph Blair were in the following years rosters.

Victoria Libertas is the last team that Alphonso Ford played for, before his untimely death (September 4, 2004).