Serie A2 (basketball)

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

Serie A2

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Organising body	Lega Nazionale Pallacanestro (LNP)
Founded	1974 (1974)
First season	1974–75
Country	Italy
Confederation	FIBA Europe
Number of teams	20
Level on pyramid	2
Promotion to	LBA
Relegation to	Serie B
Domestic cup	Coppa Italia LNP
Supercup	Supercoppa LNP
Most championships	18 teams (1 title each)
TV partners	LNP
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

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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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

Current clubs (2024–2025)

Team	City
Avellino Basket	Avellino
Fortitudo Bologna	Bologna
New Basket Brindisi	Brindisi
Pallacanestro Cantù	Cantù
Benedetto XIV Cento	Cento
UEB Cividale	Cividale del Friuli
Juvi Cremona 1952	Cremona
Pallacanestro Forlì	Forlì
Libertas Livorno	Livorno
Urania Milano	Milan
Nardò Basket	Nardò
OrziBasket	Orzinuovi
Victoria Libertas Pesaro	Pesaro
Unione Cestistica Casalpusterlengo	Piacenza
Real Sebastiani Rieti	Rieti
Rinascita Basket Rimini	Rimini
Basket Torino	Turin
APU Udine	Udine
Scaligera Basket Verona	Verona
Nuova Pallacanestro Vigevano 1955	Vigevano

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	–
2020–21	GeVi Napoli & Bertram Tortona	–
2021–22	Scaligera Verona	–
2022–23	Vanoli Basket	Giorgio Tesi Group Pistoia
2023–24	Pallacanestro Trieste & Trapani Shark	–
2024–25	APU Udine	Acqua S.Bernardo Cantù

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	Darryl Monroe	Tezenis Verona
2015–16	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	Alessandro Ramagli	Scaligera Basket Verona
2015–16	Eugenio Dalmasson	Trieste
2019–20	NOT ASSIGNED
2020–21	Alessandro Ramagli	Scaligera Basket Verona

Topscorers

By scoring average

File:Carlton Myers.jpg

Carlton Myers, 1995 Italian A2 scoring champion.

File:Drew Nicholas.jpg

Drew Nicholas, 2004 Italian A2 scoring champion.

Regular season, play-offs not included.

Top scorers by scoring average (1987–88 to present)
Season	Player (league's top scorer)	Club	Scoring average
1982–83	Roscoe Pondexter	Cover Jeans Roseto	30.7
1983–84	Dražen Dalipagić	Gedeco Udine	29.1
1984–85	Joe Bryant	Rieti	32.6
1985–86	Joe Bryant	Rieti	37.6
1986–87	Joe Bryant	Reggio Calabria	33.3
1987–88	Joe Bryant (4×)	Pistoia	36.3
1988–89	Dražen Dalipagić (2×)	Glaxo Verona	35.3
1988–90	Mike Mitchell	Filodoro Brescia	32.4
1990–91	Oscar Schmidt	Pavia	43.6
1991–92	Ron Rowan	Pistoia	31.9
1992-93	Oscar Schmidt (2×)	Pavia	39.2
1993–94	Arijan Komazec	Pallacanestro Varese	31.8
1994–95	Carlton Myers	Rimini	30.5
1995–96	Mike Mitchell (2×)	Pallacanestro Reggiana	32.8
1996–97	Kareem Townes	Juvecaserta	26.8
1997–98	Steve Burtt	Imola	27.9
1998–99	Rodney Monroe	Termal Imola	25.1
1999–00	Rodney Monroe (2×)	Fabriano Basket	21.8
2000–01	Antonio Granger	Pallacanestro Biella	25.6
2001–02	Horace Jenkins	C.S. Borgomanero	30.4
2002-03	Mario Boni	Teramo Basket	29.2
2003–04	Drew Nicholas	Fabriano Basket	27.1
2004-05	Vincenzo Esposito	Imola	26.9
2005-06	Sean Colson	JuveCaserta	30.6
2006-07	Lionel Chalmers	Dinamo Sassari	26.7
2007-08	Tim Pickett	Termal Imola	22.6
2008-09	Joe Bunn	Termal Imola	23.2
2009-10	Trent Whiting	Termal Imola	22.3
2010-11	Trent Whiting (2×)	Termal Imola	22.4
2011-12	Troy Bell	Azzurro Napoli Basket	23.2

Source: LegaBasket.it STATISTICHE (in Italian).

Distinctions

These players have played in the Serie A2.

FIBA Hall of Fame

• Oscar Schmidt
• Dražen Dalipagić

Basketball Hall of Fame

• Oscar Schmidt
• Dražen Dalipagić
• Bob McAdoo
• Alex English

FIBA's 50 Greatest Players (1991)

• Oscar Schmidt
• Dražen Dalipagić
• Antonello Riva

Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame

• Alex English
• Bob McAdoo

See also

• Italian LNP Cup

Sources

• Top scorers per season playbasket.it

External links

• Official website (in Italian)