The coach from Grosseto in Istanbul with a contract until the end of this season with an option for the next one: he resigned from Bologna at the beginning of December and now takes on a team fighting for the playoffs. It is his fifth career experience in the Euroleague
A month after his farewell to Virtus Bologna, Luca Banchi returns to the bench and does so in the Euroleague: the coach from Grosseto, who also remains coach of the Latvia national team, has signed a contract until June, with an option also for next season, with Anadolu Efes of Istanbul. He takes the place of Croatian Tomislav Mijatovic, who after 13 years as an assistant was promoted to head coach in February 2024 in place of Erdem Can, and who will however remain at the club as a member of Banchi’s staff. The Turks have lost their last two cup matches away to Monaco and in the derby against Fenerbahce, but are still fully in the play-in zone with 10 wins and 9 defeats so far, the same as Milan, just one point away from the playoff zone. In the league, where they lost by 17 to Besiktas on Sunday, Efes are second in the table, two wins behind leaders Fenerbahce.
the situation
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Efes has five more victories than Virtus Bologna, who after Banchi’s departure won three out of five matches with Dusko Ivanovic on the bench, losing only away to Olympiacos and Panathinaikos. The Tuscan coach, 59 years old, resigned after the home defeat against Alba Berlin after which Segafredo found themselves in last place in the table with 10 defeats in 12 European matches. Fresh from the feat of having led Latvia to fifth place at the 2023 World Cup, Banchi had arrived in Bologna just over a year earlier, in mid-September 2023, after the dismissal of Sergio Scariolo, ending the season in the Euroleague play-in and losing the Scudetto final with Milan. Historic assistant coach of Siena from 2006 to 2012 with whom he reached two Final Fours (2008 and 2011), as head coach in Tuscany he won the 2013 scudetto (later revoked) repeating the following year at the helm of Olimpia Milano, which did not had won the title for 18 years, also reaching the Euroleague playoffs. Banchi then coached Turin, Bamberg, Aek Athens, Lokomotiv Kuban (with which he won the Intercontinental Cup), Pesaro and Strasbourg: adding Turkey to his experiences in Germany, Gregia, Russia, USA (as assistant in the G-League at the Nets) , Latvia and France, Efes is his fifth Euroleague team in his career after Siena, Milan, Bamberg and Bologna.
Gazzetta dello Sport
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