Serie A2 (basketball)

For the women's league, see Serie A2 (women's basketball).

Serie A2

Organising body	Lega Nazionale Pallacanestro (LNP)
Founded	1974;49 years ago (1974)
First season	1974–75
Country	Italy
Confederation	FIBA Europe
Number of teams	27
Level on pyramid	2
Promotion to	LBA
Relegation to	Serie B
Domestic cup(s)	Coppa Italia LNP
Supercup	Supercoppa LNP
Current champions	Scaligera Verona (2021-22)
Most championships	18 teams (1 title each)
TV partners	LNP  [ it ]
Website	legapallacanestro.com

Serie A2, known for sponsorship reasons as Serie A2 Old Wild West, is a men's basketball league in Italy. It constitutes the second-tier of the Italian league pyramid, below the first division LBA and above the third division Serie B, with promotion/relegation occurring between these leagues.

It is run by the Lega Nazionale Pallacanestro (LNP), itself regulated by the FIP, the Italian federation.

Names

1974–2001: Serie A2 2001–2013: LegaDue Basket 2013–2014: Divisione Nazionale A Gold Basket 2014–present: Serie A2

History

Logo used from 2013 until 2019

The league was created in May 1974, by the Lega Basket, the organisation in charge of running the LBA (to this day), that decided to create a new second division with 10 clubs. The two that were relegated during that season, and 8 from the now-former second tier Serie B, chosen with an on and off the court criteria.

The 1975–76 season saw 12 clubs take part, after a complicated system had seen a transfer of clubs from the Serie A1 to the A2. ^[1]

In June 2001, the LegaDue was created to replace the Serie A2. Lega Basket now took part in running the league, though a system of promotion and relegation between the leagues remained. ^[2]

During the 2013 summer, another revamp was decided. The LegaDue was amalgamated with the third division DNA, to form a two-tiered league, the DNA (Divisione Nazionale A) Gold and DNA Silver. The two DNA's had separate season's, but the first ranked team in DNA Silver joined the seven best Gold teams to compete for the single promotion spot in the Serie A. The next best eight Silver squads fought for one spot in the next Gold season, whilst the three worst teams were relegated. ^[3]

The next season saw the league retake its Serie A2 moniker, keeping a similar but tweaked hybrid model, with the eight best Gold and the four best Silver teams taking part in the promotion playoffs (still for the one spot), whilst the last two Gold and the penultimate and ante-penultimate Silver squads play a relegation play out (the last ranked Silver team was relegated outright). ^[4]

Competition format

For the 2015–16 season, the Serie A2 Basket is composed of 32 teams with a regional subdivision in two equal groups of sixteen, East and West.

Each team plays the others in its subgroup twice, the first ranked team of each group then plays the eighth ranked team of the other group (e.g. East #1 against West #8), then the second best against the seventh, and so on, to form a promotion playoffs (for one place) of sixteen teams. ^[5]

Since the 2018–19 season the Playoffs winner is the third promoted team to LBA. The two other promoted clubs, which are also the top seeded on the League Table at the end of the Regular Season, have to face a final of two matches to decide the winner of the Serie A2. ^[6]

Since the 2019–20 season the Playoffs winners (2 tournaments) are promoted to LBA.

Current clubs (2020-2021)

A Group		B Group
Team	City	Team	City
Agribertocchi Orzinuovi	Orzinuovi	Benacquista Assicurazioni Latina	Latina
2B Control Trapani	Trapani	Givova Scafati	Scafati
BCC Treviglio	Treviglio	Allianz Pazienza Cestistica San Severo	San Severo
Apu Old Wild West Udine	Udine	GeVi Napoli	Naples
Benfapp Capo d'Orlando	Capo d'Orlando	Tramec Cento	Cento
Bergamo Basket 2014	Bergamo	Kleb Basket Ferrara	Ferrara
Bertram Tortona	Tortona	Unieuro Forlì	Forlì
Edilnol Biella	Biella	OraSì Ravenna	Ravenna
Pompea Mantova	Mantova	Eurobasket Roma	Rome
Urania Milano	Milano	Chieti Basket 1974	Chieti
Assigeco Piacenza	Piacenza	OriOra Pistoia	Pistoia
Tezenis Verona	Verona	Zeus Energy Group Rieti	Rieti
Novipiù Casale Monferrato	Casale Monferrato	Stella Azzura Roma	Rome
Reale Mutua Torino	Turin

League champions

Season	Champions	Other promoted team
2001–02	Pastificio di Nola Napoli	–
2002–03	Sanic Teramo	Pallacanestro Messina
2003–04	Bipop Reggio Emilia	Sicc Cucine Jesi
2004–05	Upea Capo d'Orlando	Caffè Maxim Bologna
2005–06	Eurorida Scafati	Premiata Montegranaro
2006–07	Sebastiani Rieti	Scavolini Pesaro
2007–08	Carife Ferrara	Pepsi Caserta
2008–09	Pallacanestro Varese	Vanoli Soresina
2009–10	Enel Brindisi	Dinamo Sassari
2010–11	A.S. Junior Pallacanestro Casale	Reyer Venezia
2011–12	Trenkwalder Reggio Emilia	Enel Brindisi
2012–13	Pistoia Basket 2000	–
2013–14	Aquila Basket Trento	–
2014–15	Manital Torino	–
2015–16	Centrale del Latte Brescia	–
2016–17	Segafredo Virtus Bologna	–
2017–18	Alma Pallacanestro Trieste	–
2018–19	Lavoropiù Fortitudo Bologna	Virtus Roma & Treviso
2019–20	Not assigned [lower-alpha 1]	–
2020–21	GeVi Napoli & Bertram Tortona	–
2021–22	Scaligera Verona	–

MVP

Season	MVP	Team
2009–10	Omar Thomas	New Basket Brindisi
2010–11	Ricky Hickman	Junior Casale
2011–12	Dwight Hardy	Pistoia Basket
2012–13	Casper Ware	Junior Casale
2013–14	Davide Pascolo	Aquila Basket Trento
2014–15 [7]	Darryl Monroe	Tezenis Verona
2015–16 [8]	Damian Hollis	Centrale del Latte Brescia

Best Coach

Season	Coach	Team
2003–04	Fabrizio Frates	Pallacanestro Reggiana
2004–05	Giovanni Perdichizzi	Orlandina Basket
2005–06	Luca Dalmonte	Basket Club Ferrara
2006–07	Giampiero Ticchi	Basket Rimini Crabs
2007–08	Sandro Dell'Agnello	Basket Livorno
2008-09	Andrea Trinchieri	Veroli Basket
2009–10	Luigi Garelli	Nuova Pallacanestro Vigevano
2010–11	Giulio Griccioli	Scafati Basket
2011–12	Massimiliano Menetti	Pallacanestro Reggiana
2012–13	Alberto Martelossi	Basket Brescia Leonessa
2013–14	Maurizio Buscaglia	Aquila Basket Trento
2014–15 [7]	Alessandro Ramagli	Scaligera Basket Verona
2015–16 [9]	Eugenio Dalmasson	Trieste
2019–20	NOT ASSIGNED
2020–21	Alessandro Ramagli	Scaligera Basket Verona

See also

• Italian LNP Cup

Notes

1. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic

References

1. "Storia della Lega Basket" [Lega Basket history](PDF). Lega Basket.it (in Italian). Retrieved 7 August 2015.
2. "Storia della Lega Basket" [Lega Basket history](PDF). Lega Basket.it (in Italian). Retrieved 7 August 2015.
3. Sciascia, Giuseppe (4 October 2013). "Al via Lega Gold e Silver. Nuova formula e tanti big" [At the start of the Gold and Silver League. A new formula and so many stars]. Gazzetta.it (in Italian). Retrieved 7 August 2015.
4. Banzola, Alberto (3 October 2014). "Basket, Serie A2: al via domenica l'ultima stagione divisa in due" [Basketball, Serie A2: at the start [of the league] on Sunday, the last season divided in two]. Gazzetta.it (in Italian). Retrieved 7 August 2015.
5. "Comunicato LNP sulle delibere del Consiglio Federale" [LNP press release on the Federal Council resolutions]. LegaPallacanestro.com (in Italian). 25 June 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
6. "Fortitudo - Virtus sarà la finale per il campione d'Italia Serie A2" [Fortitudo - Virtus will be the Final for the champion of the Italian Serie A2]. sportando.basketball (in Italian). Retrieved 26 April 2019.
7. "Serie A2 Gold, Monroe e Ramagli i migliori della stagione 2014-15" [Serie A2 Gold, Monroe and Ramagli the 2014-15 season's best]. LegaPallacanestro.com (in Italian). 24 April 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
8. "Damian Hollis è il Novipiù MVP della finale" [Damian Hollis is the Novipiù MVP of the final]. basketnet.it (in Italian). Retrieved 25 June 2016.
9. Eugenio Dalmasson (Alma Trieste) allenatore dell’anno per la Serie A2 Citroen (in Italian).

External links

• Official website (in Italian)