Italian LegaDue 2011-2012

[sagenas]

Effe Biancoblu signed Lithuanian player Egidijus Dimša.

[boyd20]

Effe Biancoblu signed Lithuanian player Egidijus Dimša.

Fourth Lith of the league with Busma and veterans Lukauskis and Slanina.
Effe Biancoblu remains the only team that still has to sign both US players.

Piacenza signed veteran G/F C.C. Harrison, last season in LegaDue with Udine (15.5 ppg, 39.6%3p, 88.3% ft) and USA/Danish sharpshooter Alan Voskuil (18.4 ppg with 57.6% 3p with Bornova + 18.7 ppg with 41.5% 3p with Horsens)

[ArnoldPettybone]

Two significant moves made by Bologna that signed former Italian NT member and ACB player Andrea Pecile who will be the starting PG.

Could you elaborate on the new-old Fortitudo Bologna team? how did they suddenly had money to buy Ferrera's license and "jump" two leagues upwards?

[boyd20]

Could you elaborate on the new-old Fortitudo Bologna team? how did they suddenly had money to buy Ferrera's license and "jump" two leagues upwards?

It's the hot case of the summer. Not very easy to explain, indeed, but let's try.

The real Fortitudo, I mean the team that used to compete at high levels in both Italy and Europe, is not competing in any league after being kicked out last summer (a few days after the promotion in LegaDue) due to financial problems. That team ended its race at the end of 2009-2010 season and R.I.P..

Thereafter the owner (the responsible for the team's fall) acquired the license of a small team (Budrio) located near there and competing in Italian 4th division to move it to Bologna and create a brand new Fortitudo. This generated a lot of buzz and controversy among fans, since most of them felt that this was just a fake copy of the original Fortitudo and stopped to support.

The team that is currently competing in LegaDue named "Effe Biancoblu" is another team aiming at replacing the original Fortitudo. It's a club founded this summer in Bologna, after acquiring Ferrara's rights. Obviously, the hardcore and old fans of original Fortitudo refuse to support this team as they think it's just one more clumsy attempt to recreate their old team and not only they don't support it, they really see Effe Biancoblu as an insult to Fortitudo's history and traditions.

So, summing it up, real Fortitudo does not exist anymore, currently there are two teams pretending to replace it but none of them is really allowed to do it.
The largest part of the fans feels a lot closer to the team competing in the 4th division, though, while "Effe Biancoblu" has very few fans, mostly kids and guys that just recently came into basketball.

[GIANLUCA]

Thank you!
Eventually i understand something about Foritudo drama

[boyd20]

Thank you!
Eventually i understand something about Foritudo drama

You're welcome.

Sant'Antimo signed British forward Nick George.

[boyd20]

Effe Biancoblu Bologna signed Croatian SF Zoran Vrkic (Peristeri).

[Fortitudo]

Effe Biancoblu Bologna signed Alfrie"Tre" Kelley.
Anyone knows this player ?

[boyd20]

Rosters are complete, at last. Empty spots likely to be filled by youngsters.

ENEL BRINDISI
Alex Renfroe (USA) - Alex Simoncelli
Jimmie Lee "Snap" Hunter (USA) - Matteo Formenti
Klaudio Ndoja (Albania/Italy) - Matteo Maestrello
Craig Callahan (USA/Italy) - Matteo Vorzillo
Dejan Borovnjak (Serbia) - Mitchell Poletti


UMANA REYER VENEZIA
Keydren "KeeKee" Clark (USA/Bulgaria) - Giovanni Tomassini
Alvin Young (USA) - Guido Meini
Guido Rosselli - Marko Jovancic
Tamar Slay (USA) - Marco Allegretti - Alberto Causin
Tommaso Fantoni - Sylvere Bryan (Dominican Rep./Italy) - Daniele Magro


SIGMA BARCELLONA
Mike Green (USA) - Alessandro Piazza - Tancredi Rotundo
Mindaugas Lukauskis (Lithuania) - Ryan Bucci
Michael Hicks (Panama) - Daniele Bonessio
Luigi Dordei - Matteo Da Ros
Phil Martin (Canada/Italy) - Manuele Mocavero


PRIMA VEROLI
Jason Rowe (USA) - Roberto Rullo - Claudio Tommasini
Jarrius Jackson (USA) -
Martin Colussi - Riccardo Cortese
David Brkic - Ivan Gatto
Gerald Lee (Finland) - Marco Ammannato


SCAFATI BASKET
Mats Levin (Sweden) - Juan Marcos Casini (Argentina/Italy)
Paul Marigney (USA) - Ousmane Gueye (Senegal/Italy)
Andrea Ghiacci - Dario Guadagnola
Nikola Radulovic (Croatia/Italy) -
James Thomas (USA) - Davide Rosignoli


GIORGIO TESI GROUP PISTOIA
Donte Mathis (USA/Italy) - Lorenzo Saccaggi
Dwight Hardy (USA) - Giacomo Gurini
Bobby Jones (USA) -
Giacomo Galanda - Fiorello Toppo
Guillaume Yango (France) - Francesco Tuci - Francesco Della Torre


FILENI BPA JESI
Mickey McConnell (USA) - Matteo Battisti
Ryan Hoover (USA/Belgium) - Marco Santiangeli
Franco Migliori (Argentina/Italy) - Federico Ginesi
Jeff Brooks (USA) - David Djolic (Croatia/Italy)
Michele Maggioli - Alessandro Di Giacomo


AGET SERVICE IMOLA
Filippo Masoni - David Cournooh
Trent Whiting (USA) - Michael Riga
Patricio Prato (Argentina/Italy) -
Tuukka Kotti (Finland) - Davide Andreaus
Erik Daniels (USA) - Davide Bruttini


MARCOPOLOSHOP.IT FORLI'
Mike Nardi (USA/Italy) - Stefano Borsato
Austin Freeman (USA) - Christian Colosio
Shawn Huff (Finland) -
Luca Campani - Nicola Natali
Tony Easley (USA) - Roberto Casoli - Marco Bianchi


TRENKWALDER REGGIO EMILIA
Dawan Robinson (USA) - Francesco Veccia
Donatas Slanina (Lithuania) - Kenneth Viglianisi
Donell Taylor (USA) - Matteo Frassineti - Enrico Germani
Rodolfo Valenti Jr. - Demian Filloy (Argentina/Italy)
Roberto Chiacig - Riccardo Cervi


EFFE BIANCOBLU BOLOGNA
Tre Kelley (USA) - Andrea Pecile - Matteo Montano
Brett Blizzard (USA/Italy) -
Zoran Vrkic (Croatia) - Donato Cutolo
Patrick Baldassarre - Matteo Canavesi
Egidijus Dimsa (Lithuania) -


CENTRALE DEL LATTE BRESCIA
Leemire Goldwire (USA) - Rodolfo Rombaldoni - Lorenzo Gergati - Stevan Stojkov
Franko Bushati (Albania/Italy) - Andrea Scanzi
Ryan Thompson (USA) -
Mario Ghersetti (Argentina/Italy) - Massimo Farioli
Deividas Busma (Lithuania) - Massimo Rezzano


TEZENIS VERONA
Antonio Porta (Argentina/Italy) - Giacomo Mariani
Mario West (USA) - Giorgio Boscagin
Dusan Vukcevic (Serbia/Greece) -
Shane Edwards (USA) - Andrea Colli
Andrea Renzi - Christian Di Giuliomaria - Diego Banti


ASSI BASKET OSTUNI
Aaron Johnson (USA) - Tommaso Marino
Mareks Jurevicus (Latvia) - Georgi Sirakov (Bulgaria/Italy)
J.J. Williams (USA) - Marco Rossetti
Dane DiLiegro (USA/Italy) - Tommaso Carenza
Tommaso Rinaldi - Francesco Basei


MORPHO BASKET PIACENZA
Marco Passera - German Scarone - Francesco De Nicolao
Alan Voskuil (USA/Denmark) -
C.C. Harrison (USA) - Andrea Casella
Dwayne Anderson (USA) - Riccardo Perego
Luca Infante - Ryan Amoroso (USA/Italy)


PALLACANESTRO SANT'ANTIMO
Marco Rossi - Carlo Cantone
Folarin Campbell (USA/Nigeria) -
David Teague (USA) - Diego Petrazzuoli
Nick George (Great Britain) - Giacomo Eliantonio
Alessandro Cittadini - Filippo Gagliardo

[Fortitudo]

Interesting rosters,Venezia and Verona favorite,but other teams are contenders,like Barcellona and Reggio Emilia.

[boyd20]

I see Brindisi and Venezia as the main candidates. They have the largest budgets and both openly aim at the promotion.

- Brindisi is a bit deeper and is a very well-rounded team. They are experienced and have plenty of players who can win games. Venezia's main strength is team chemistry as they confirmed most players from last year's roster and Clark should still be the league's top scoring threat, but most of their key players are a bit old or injury-plagued (Young, Slay...), I wonder if they will hold on for such a long season.

- Veroli might be the darkhorse, they're ambitious and wealthy and I guess they're going to add a top-class US player as soon as Jarrius Jackson officially gets an Italian passport, which should happen midway through the season.

- There's a quite wide bunch of teams capable to join the race for the promotion, as Verona, Barcellona, Reggio Emilia, Scafati, Pistoia, Jesi and even Bologna, that completed the roster just a few days ago, all have talented players.

[boyd20]

First round of Italian LegaDue Cup completed (qualified teams in bold).

Ostuni-Brindisi 73-77
Brindisi-Ostuni 70-72

Piacenza-Barcellona 69-73
Barcellona-Piacenza 69-80

Sant'Antimo-Scafati 57-81
Scafati-Sant'Antimo 81-79

Biancoblu B. Bologna-Imola 79-89
Imola-Biancoblu B. Bologna 68-72

Brescia-Reggio Emilia 70-65
Reggio Emilia-Brescia 84-64

Pistoia-Veroli 81-68
Veroli-Pistoia 92-75

Forlì-Jesi 77-80
Jesi-Forlì 84-81

Verona*-Venezia 75-85

*Verona is qualified since Venezia will now compete in Serie A.

Great upset by newly promoted Piacenza, that won at Barcellona (30 pts + 10 rebs by Dwayne Anderson), that is among the favorites for the promotion.

[boyd20]

LegaDue 1st week


A couple of big upsets, as favorites Brindisi and Barcellona both fell at home. Amazing (televised) performance by Forlì's rookie Austin Freeman.

Biancoblu Bologna - Verona 96-83 (Pecile 27 pts, Baldassarre 18 pts, Kelley 18 pts ; Vukcevic 17 pts, West 15 pts, Edwards 14 pts + 9 rebs)

Pistoia - Ostuni 85-67 (Hardy 23 pts, Yango 16 pts ; DiLiegro 18 pts + 8 rebs, A. Johnson 15 pts + 9 asts)

Barcellona-Brescia 92-94 O.T. (Bucci 20 pts, Hicks 17 pts + 8 rebs ; Goldwire 29 pts, Thompson 18 pts, Ghersetti 10 pts + 11 rebs)

Brindisi-Imola 70-77 (Ndoja 17 pts, Borovnjak 15 pts ; Prato 24 pts)

Jesi-Piacenza 86-82 (Brooks 27 pts + 9 rebs + 4 asts, Maggioli 22 pts + 13 rebs + 3 asts, McConnell 21 pts + 4 stls + 3 asts ; Harrison 21 pts + 6 rebs, Voskuil 21 pts)

Sant'Antimo-Veroli 70-80 (George 18 pts + 6 rebs, Campbell 15 pts ; Rowe 18 pts, Lee 14 pts)

Forlì - Scafati 93-81 (Freeman 38 pts + 4 asts, Easley 15 pts + 9 rebs ; J. Thomas 24 pts + 16 rebs, Marigney 17 pts)



Week 1 MVP
Austin Freeman (Forlì) 38 pts (5/8 2p, 5/9 3p, 13/13 ft) + 4 rebs + 4 asts, 45 rating.

[boyd20]

Trent Whiting (league's top scorer last season with 22.4 ppg) got injured and will be sidelined for 1 month. Imola replaced him with veteran Slovenian guard Gregor Hafnar.

Folarin Campbell (Sant'Antimo) got injured too and will be out for around a month.

[boyd20]

LegaDue 2nd Week

Brescia-Sant'Antimo 92-74 (Busma 24 pts + 7 rebs + 3 stls, Ghersetti 14 pts + 6 rebs, Bushati 12 pts + 7 rebs + 1 blk + 2 asts in 22 minutes ; George 22 pts + 8 rebs, Teague 17 pts + 7 rebs + 1 blk, but shooting 7/23 from the field..., Eliantonio 15 pts + 5 rebs in 20 minutes)

Veroli-Biancoblu Bologna 78-80 (Brkic 18 pts + 8 rebs + 3 asts ; Baldassarre 20 pts + 6 rebs, Kelley 14 pts)

Ostuni-Brindisi 73-79 (Aaron Johnson 21 pts + 4 asts, Diliegro 16 pts + 9 rebs ; Renfroe 19 pts + 5 rbs+ 3 asts, Hunter 15 pts + 6 stls)

Piacenza-Reggio Emilia 82-91 (Ryan Amoroso 18 pts + 8 rebs, Voskuil 18 pts, Passera 16 pts + 4 asts ; Dawan Robinson 24 pts + 6 rebs + 4 stls, Donell Taylor 22 pts + 4 rebs + 4 stls + 4 asts, Demian Filloy 17 pts + 10 rebs + 3 stls + 3 asts, Slanina 14 pts)

Verona-Jesi 76-77 (West 23 pts + 6 stls, Boscagin 18 pts + 6 stls ; Maggioli 19 pts + 9 rebs, Hoover 19 pts + 7 rebs + 5 stls, McConnell 17 pts but 9 turnovers)

Imola-Pistoia 73-64 (Daniels 13 pts + 9 rebs + 5 asts, Hafnar 13 pts + 7 rebs + 3 asts ; Hardy 19 pts)

Scafati-Barcellona 90-76 (Marigney 21 pts, Levin 16 pts, Radulovic 13 pts + 7 rebs ; Dordei 19 pts, Lukauskis 16 pts)

Forlì had a bye week.

Several big upsets. Biancoblu Bologna keep surprising with a come from behind win at Veroli against one of the main candidates to the promotion. They were trailing by 13 with just 6 minutes left in the game, but managed to post a terrific run later in the game.

Barcellona is in crisis. Kicked out off the cup, they're now 0-2 in the league, after a clear loss at Scafati. Quite shocking to find Verona at the bottom, yesterday they fell at home by 1 after losing to Jesi.

Brindisi played very bad in the first half and went down by 16, but managed to come back and took advantage of Ostuni's short bench and bad luck (Williams did not play and Johnson got injured down the final stretch) to grab the win.

Week 2 MVP
Deividas Busma (Brescia) 24 pts + 7 rebs + 3 stls + 1 ast + 1 blk (12/12 2p, 0/1 ft) = 33 rating in just 23 minutes