Pallacanestro Cantù

Pallacanestro Cantù
Leagues	LBA
Founded	1936
History	Associazione Pallacanestro Cantù 1936–1940 Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro Cantù 1940–1948 Pallacanestro Cantù 1948–present
Arena	Palasport Pianella PalaDesio
Arena Capacity	3,910 (Pianella) 8,000 (PalaDesio)
Location	Cantù, Lombardy, Italy
Team colors	White, Blue, Sky Blue
President	Irina Gerasimenko
Head coach	Carlo Recalcati
Ownership	Dmitry Gerasimenko
Championships	3 Italian Leagues 2 EuroLeagues 4 Saporta Cups 4 Korac Cups 2 Intercontinental Cups 2 Italian Supercups
Website	Official website
Uniforms
Home Away

Pallacanestro Cantù, known for sponsorship reasons as MIA Cantù (domestically), is an Italian professional basketball club that is based in Cantù, Lombardy. On the European-wide club competition scene, Cantù is second only to Real Madrid – against whom they have an 8–2 record – for European trophies won, with twelve titles (two EuroLeagues, four Saporta Cups, four FIBA Korać Cups and also two FIBA Intercontinental Cups.),^[1] in addition to three domestic Italian Leagues and two Italian Supercups.

History

1936–1969: Formation and early years

The club was founded as Associazione Pallacanestro Cantù in 1936 with impetus from youngsters Mario Broggi and Angiolino Polli. At a time when basketball was an unknown sport, a nucleus composed of Broggi, Polli, Attilio Molteni, Peppino Borghi, Alberto Broggi, Vittorio Sgariboldi, Nene Marchi and Peppino Colombo started to play in the uncovered courtyard of the Sacramentine Sisters Institute. A name change in 1940 would see the club become Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro Cantù, winning their first major trophy in 1942 with the Bruno Mussolini Trophy after a Luigi Cicoria -coached squad downed Pallacanestro Varese and General Cantore Milano. The club reemerged after World War II as Pallacanestro Cantù, playing in the third division Serie C in 1949. It then reached the second division Serie B in 1953 and the first division Serie A in 1954, though they were relegated after one season. The Broggi brothers retired during this period, replaced on the court by Lino Cappelletti – the first Cantù player to make the Italian national team, Lietti, Ronchetti and Quarta whilst the squad was sponsored for the first time, by the distillery Milenka.^[2][3]

Returning to the Serie A in 1956, the club was sponsored by Ettore Casella through his Oransoda brand, two years later he became the club's owner, nominating Aldo Allievi as president.^[4] The arrival of American Tony Vlastelica allowed Cantù, now playing in a covered Parini arena, to finish fourth in 1957–58 and start challenging Minganti Bologna and Simmenthal Milano. Over the summer, Casella transferred his Oransoda sponsorship to Virtus Bologna whilst using another of his brands, Fonte Levissima, for Cantù,^[4] whilst a young Gianni Corsolini was named coach. On the court, Cappelletti retired but was replaced in 1962 by a young player from Milano, Carlo Recalcati. Recalcati, along with the "wall of Cantù" – composed of Bob Burgess (arrived from Real Madrid), Alberto De Simone and Alberto Merlati – Antonio Frigerio and Carlos D'Aquila formed the team – coached by Borislav Stanković – that would win the club's first ever Serie A title in 1967–68.^[2][3]

1969–1979: Creating a powerhouse

The 1969 off-season saw Erminio Casella, who had replaced his father as owner at his death in 1967, leave the club, with Allievi stepping in to take his place. Arnaldo Taurisano was named coach and a future club legend arrived in Pierluigi Marzorati (who would stay fifteen years with the club). Though Ignis and Simmenthal had a hold on the Italian league during that period, a Forst-sponsored squad containing Marzorati, Recalcati, Antonio Farina, Ciccio Della Fiori and Renzo Tombolato captured three successive Korać Cups in 1973, 1974 and 1975, beating respectively Maes Pils Mechelen, Partizan from Belgrade and FC Barcelona. The 1974–75 saw the club conquer its second scudetto (Serie A title) with players such as Marzorati, Della Fiori, Recalcati, Farina, Tombolato, Bob Lienhard, Franco Meneghe and Mario Beretta, who later the same year would add the Intercontinental Cup, downing Real Madrid and the finally runners-up Amazonas Franca on the way. Harthorne Wingo joined the squad in 1976 and led the club to another European title, the 1977 Cup Winner's Cup claimed against Radnički Belgrade, a title repeated the next year over Sinudyne Bologna, whilst John Neumann helped them achieve the three-peat in 1979 by beating Den Bosch.^[2][3]

1979–1984: On top of Europe

That form would continue into the 1980s, thanks to a squad coached by Valerio Bianchini that contained Americans Tom Boswell and Bruce Flowers, future Serie A all-time top scorer Antonello Riva, Renzo Bariviera, Denis Innocentin, Giorgio Cattini, Fausto Bargna and of course Marzorati. The latter, along with Riva, were decisive in the Italian's fourth Cup Winner's Cup in 1981 with a 86–81 win over FC Barcelona, also helping them win their third scudetto that same year. Earning a place in the 1981–82 Champions Cup, having a rocky start as a grieving Bianchini didn't travel with the squad early in the season whilst Marzorati and Bariviera were injured, with the Italian champions losing 85–87 away to Maccabi Elite after a basket by new signing C. J. Kupec was disallowed after having counted at first. They travelled to Belgrade needing to win, or lose by 15 or fewer points against Partizan to reach the final, which they managed as they lost 89–104 after Dražen Dalipagić scored 55 points. Again pitted against Maccabi in the final, Squibb Cantù brough 1,200 fans to Cologne on 25 May 1982, prevailing 86–8à thanks to 23 points from Kupec, 21 from Flowers, and 18 apiece for Marzorati and Riva. Though they conceded their league title to Bologna from Sinudyne in the play-off quarterfinals, they were allowed to defend their European title in the 1982–83 edition as title holders, where they faced a decisive game, overcoming CSKA Moscow 106–73 to reach the final against rivals Billy Milano. The game in Grenoble saw a close game go to the wire, with Jim Brewer blocking John Gianelli's last-second shot to see the team emerge 69–68 winners as fans swamped the court whilte Marzorati held the cup, the team's other American, Wallace Bryant, had 18 points as did Riva, with Brewer adding 14.

1984–1994: The latest flare of a legend club

The rest of the 1980s saw the club stay competitive but fail to add any titles despite counting American players like Dan Gay, Richard Anderson, Lorenzo Charles, Jeff Turner and Kent Benson, stalling in the league playoffs and losing the 1989 Korać Cup to Vlade Divac's Partizan.^[2][3]

Riva had left for Milano in 1988 but Pace Mannion joined the club in his heed, he would be decisive in the conquest of the 1991 Korać Cup, scoring eight consecutive three-pointers to down Real Madrid, with Marzorati ending his career on yet another title. At the second season of Fabrizio Frates as head coach of the team, Clear Cantù made another great season in the 1991–92 FIBA Korać Cup after having reached in the semi-finals of the competition where excluded from Scavolini Pesaro for one point difference (76:74 home win and 86:89 defeat in Pesaro). The 1992–93 season established the good performances in Europe (1992–93 FIBA Korać Cup) and accompanied respectively by domestic. Once again in the European course Clear Cantù interrupted in the semi-final by anonther one Italian club after being surrounded by "Saša" Đorđević's Philips Milano (who subsequently won the trophy). In Serie A although the team ranked fifth in the regular season, ruled with -handicap- the play-off quarterfinals, Stefanel Trieste with 2–0 wins. In the semi-finals the barrier of knorr Bologna proved impossible to overcome. Ιn any case the team won the right to compete in the next season's FIBA European League and to return in the top European basketball club's competition after an absence of nine years. The 1993–94 season saw the club playing in FIBA European League against great and popular European clubs like Efes Pilsen, Panathinaikos, 7up Joventut, Buckler Bologna, Cibona or Pau-Orthez (ranked 8th and last in the group with 2–12 record) and changing coaches and foreign players but this could not prevent the team from getting relegated to the second division, ending a forty-year tenure in the first division, the Allievi family conceded the ownership to Franco Polti in its wake.

1994–2009: The decline

It would return to the first division after two seasons, with coach Dado Lombardi and Thurl Bailey helping Polti Cantù reach the Italian Cup final and an eighth place in the league on its return season. Francesco Corrado bought the club to enable its survival in 1999. During the course of the season, promising player Enrico Ravaglia died in a car crash, the team – with a returning Riva – regrouped on the court to stave off relegation that season. The 2000–01 season started badly, which led to the incumbent coach being replaced by long-time youth coach Stefano Sacripanti who guided the club to safety. He would do even better the next season, leading an American-centric group of Jerry McCullough, Bootsy Thornton, Sam Hines, Shaun Stonerook, Todd Lindeman and Ryan Hoover to a fourth place in the league, enough to qualify for the EuroLeague (though Corrado decided to renounce participating for financial reasons).^[2][3]

The 2002–03 season saw the club again reach the Italian Cup final, though it would concede the title to Benetton Treviso. It would avenage its loss by beating Treviso in their own arena in the 2003 Italian Supercup. Reaching the league playoffs on a number of occasions, Cantù also returned to Europe, participating in the 2004–05 ULEB Cup and the 2005–06 FIBA EuroCup. The club celebrated its 70th anniversary during the 2006–2007 season, as part of the commemoration, a 54 yearl old Marzorati played 1:48m during an October 2006 game, beating records as the oldest ever professional basketball player and the only player to have played for the same club in five different decades.^[5] When Corrado left the club to become president of Lega Basket, his son Alessandro became the eighth president in team history, another change saw Sacripanti leave for Pesaro and be replaced by Luca Dalmonte. During the 2008 summer, Cantù was brought by the NGC group led by Eugenio Cremascoli along with his children Paolo and Anna, though Corrado remained president.

2009–present: The recovery (?)

Dalmonte left in 2009 and was replaced by young coach Andrea Trinchieri, who took the club to the Italian Cup Final Eight and the fourth place in the league, before reaching the playoff semi-finals where they lost to holders Montepaschi Siena, earning a place in the next year's EuroCup.

The next season, Trinchieri led a squad with long-time players such as captain Nicolas Mazzarino, Manuchar Markoishvili, Maarty Leunen and Vladimir Micov to first the Italian Cup final and then the league final, that they would lose to perennial champions Siena. Meanwhile, Anna Cremascoli became the club's president in September 2011, the first woman ever to hold the position at a Serie A club (she would be joined by other part-owners in 2014, including the team's fans with a 10% share, though she remained president and majority owner). Having earned a place in the 2011–12 Euroleague, the Italians reached the Top 16 thanks to a buzzer beater from Gianluca Basile against Gescrap Bizkaia Bilbao. Placed in a tough Group H with Maccabi Electra and FC Barcelona Regal, they tied Tel Aviv for second but exited on points scored, having the penultimate game to Barcelona by a single point as Basile could not repeat his earlier exploit.^[1] Meanwhile, they played in the Supercup and Italian Cup finals but lost both to Siena, whilst in the league they were defeated in the quarter-finals by Scavolini Pesaro.^[3]

The 2012 summer saw main sponsor Bennet leave, to be replaced by Mapooro, a brand from the NGC group, whilst the squad saw wholesale changes with Basile leaving and eight new players coming in. Mapooro Cantù beat Siena to win the Supercup, then triumphed in the qualifying rounds (organised at "home" in the PalaDesio) to reach the EuroLeague regular season.^[1] Though they beat Real Madrid and Fenerbahçe Ülker they exited at the group stage after losing to the Turks in Istanbul, where Manuchar Markoishvili went mid-season by transferring to Galatasaray. The now Lenovo-sponsored team came back from a shaky start to crack the league playoffs, where – thanks to the arrival of Joe Ragland – they reached the semi-finals, losing the seven game series against Acea Roma in the last game. Trinchieri left the club over the summer and was replaced by Sacripanti, whilst Daniele Della Fiori replaced Bruno Arrigoni as general manager and Acqua Vitasnella became main sponsor. A solid season saw the side reach the Italian Cup Final 8, the EuroCup Last 32 and the league playoffs, remaining unbeaten at home during all of the latter's regular season, though they lost their quarter-finals series against Roma. Known as FoxTown Cantù in Europe, the team went to the EuroCup Round of 16 before exiting at the hands of UNICS.

Domestically, they again reached the playoffs, with help from NBA All-Star Metta World Peace who joined the club in March, but were undone in the last game of the quarter-final series against Reyer Venezia. In November 2015 the club was bought by Ukrainian-Russian billionaire Dmitry Gerasimenko: in the first weeks of its ownership he announced he plans to build a new arena, brought in coach Sergey Bazarevich and four new players.^[3]

In August 2016, the club brought in coach Rimas Kurtinaitis from Khimki.^[6]

Arena

Cantù started playing in the uncovered courtyard of the Sacramentine Sisters Institute (having to remove snow when playing) before moving to another outside court on Piazza Parini. A covered arena, the PalaParini was erected on the sport in 1956 (when the Italian Basketball Federation disallowed the use of outside courts), they would stay there until moving to the newly built Palasport Pianella for the 1974–75 season.^[3]

When they qualified for the EuroLeague in 2011, they had to move to the PalaDesio for their games, 15 km away in Desio, as the Pianella did not meet EuroLeague standards.^[1] The PalaDesio itself underwent a €130,000 refurbishment over the summer, with changes to the court, electrical installations and outside area that made it fall in line with the aforementioned standards.^[7] They would also play their European games in Desio the next season, in addition to a number of domestic games over the next seasons (one game during in 2010–11, four more the next season,^[8] then two local derbies against Vanoli Cremona and Milano in 2014–15).^[9]

The arena situation has driven a wedge between the club management and the local authorities as a promised new venue to replace the obsolete Pianella (which costs around €400,000 in upkeep, ten times more than most Serie A arenas) not yet coming to fruition, whilst renting the PalaDesio full-time would prove too costly.^[10]

On July 6, 2016, there was the official presentation of the project for the new arena in Cucciago, Cantù. The project consists of a renovation and an extension of the Palasport Pianella, with the increase of capacity from 3,910 to 5,634. Inside the building there will be a new museum of the club, a cafe/restaurant, a gym, a children fun area, a new Team's training court and the offices of the Club. It will be the fourth largest basketball arena in Lega Basket Serie A. Constructions works will last between 11 and 13 months.^[11]

2016–17 roster

Pallacanestro Cantù roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age 2.0 !SG 7000300000000000000♠3 USA ! Acker, Alex 7000196000000000000♠1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 7001840000000000000♠84 kg (185 lb) 000000001983-01-21-0000 34 – (1983-01-21)21 January 1983 1.5 !G 7000500000000000000♠5 ITA ! Cournooh, David 7000187000000000000♠1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) 7001830000000000000♠83 kg (183 lb) 000000001990-07-28-0000 27 – (1990-07-28)28 July 1990 1.5 !G 7000800000000000000♠8 ITA ! Parrillo, Salvatore 7000190000000000000♠1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 7001850000000000000♠85 kg (187 lb) 000000001992-12-02-0000 24 – (1992-12-02)2 December 1992 2.0 !SG 7001100000000000000♠10 HRV ! Pilepić, Fran 7000193000000000000♠1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 7001860000000000000♠86 kg (190 lb) 000000001989-05-05-0000 28 – (1989-05-05)5 May 1989 4.0 !PF 7001120000000000000♠12 GRE ! Calathes, Pat 7000208000000000000♠2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 7002104000000000000♠104 kg (229 lb) 000000001985-12-12-0000 31 – (1985-12-12)12 December 1985 4.0 !PF 7001130000000000000♠13 USA ! Callahan, Craig (C) 7000204000000000000♠2.04 m (6 ft 8 in) 7002105000000000000♠105 kg (231 lb) 000000001981-05-26-0000 36 – (1981-05-26)26 May 1981 3.0 !SF 7001210000000000000♠21 USA ! Darden, Tremmell 7000196000000000000♠1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 7001910000000000000♠91 kg (201 lb) 000000001981-12-17-0000 35 – (1981-12-17)17 December 1981 1.0 !PG 7001220000000000000♠22 USA ! Dowdell, Zabian 7000192000000000000♠1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) 7001900000000000000♠90 kg (198 lb) 000000001984-09-10-0000 32 – (1984-09-10)10 September 1984 4.5 !F/C 7001550000000000000♠55 SVN ! Slokar, Uroš 7000210000000000000♠2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) 7002115000000000000♠115 kg (254 lb) 000000001983-05-14-0000 34 – (1983-05-14)14 May 1983 5.0 !C ITA ! Crosariol, Andrea 7000212000000000000♠2.12 m (6 ft 11 in) 7002114000000000000♠114 kg (251 lb) 000000001984-11-11-0000 32 – (1984-11-11)11 November 1984 1.5 !G USA ! Culpepper, Randy 7000183000000000000♠1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 7001750000000000000♠75 kg (165 lb) 000000001989-05-16-0000 28 – (1989-05-16)16 May 1989 3.5 !F ITA ! Raucci, Davide 7000196000000000000♠1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 7002106000000000000♠106 kg (234 lb) 000000001990-06-28-0000 27 – (1990-06-28)28 June 1990 1.0 !PG USA ! Smith, Jaime 7000190000000000000♠1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 7001830000000000000♠83 kg (183 lb) 000000001989-07-11-0000 28 – (1989-07-11)11 July 1989 4.5 !F/C USA ! Thomas, Charles 7000202999999999999♠2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 7002102000000000000♠102 kg (225 lb) 000000001986-01-21-0000 31 – (1986-01-21)21 January 1986	Head coach Carlo Recalcati Assistant coach(es) Marco Sodini Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: 30 December 2016

Depth chart

Season by season

Honours and achievements

Total titles: 17

Domestic competitions

Italian League

• Winners (3): 1967–68, 1974–75, 1980–81
• Runners-up (2): 1979–80, 2010–11

Italian Cup

• Runners-up (4): 1996–97, 2002–03, 2010–11, 2011–12

Italian Supercup

• Winners (2): 2003, 2012
• Runners-up (1): 2011

European competitions

FIBA European Champions Cup / EuroLeague

• Winners (2): 1981–82, 1982–83

FIBA European Cup Winner's Cup / FIBA Saporta Cup

• Winners (4): 1976–77, 1977–78, 1978–79, 1980–81
• Runners-up (1): 1979–80

FIBA Korać Cup

• Winners (4): 1973, 1973–74, 1974–75, 1990–91
• Runners-up (1): 1988–89

Worldwide competitions

FIBA Intercontinental Cup

• Winners (2): 1975, 1982
• Runners-up: 1983

Top performances in European and Worldwide competitions

Notable players

Coaches

Sponsorship names

Throughout the years, due to sponsorship deals, the club has also been known as:

References

External links

• Official website (in Italian)
• Serie A profile (in Italian) Retrieved 15 September 2015
• FIBA Europe profile Retrieved 15 September 2015
• Eurobasket.com profile