| Mens Sana | |
|---|---|
 | |
| League | Lega Basket Serie C |
| Founded | 1934 |
| History | Mens Sana Basket (1934–2000) MontePaschi Mens Sana Basket Siena (2000–2014) Mens Sana Basket 1871 (2015–2019) Mens Sana Basketball Academy (2019–2023) Mens Sana Basketball Siena (2023–present) |
| Arena | Palasport Mens Sana |
| Capacity | 6,000 |
| Location | Siena, Italy |
| Team colors | Green, white and black |
| President | Francesco Frati |
| Head coach | Paolo Betti |
| Championships | 6Italian Leagues 3Italian Cups 6Italian Supercups 1FIBA Saporta Cup |
| Retired numbers | 3 (5, 9,20) |
Mens Sana Basketball Siena, also known as simplyMens Sana, is an Italian professionalbasketball club based inSiena. It is a section of the sports clubPolisportiva Mens Sana, founded in 1871.
Under the nameMontepaschi Siena, derived from sponsorBanca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the club was a dominant presence in the ItalianSerie A, winning five titles in a row from 2006–07 to 2010–11, besides two more titles later revoked by theItalian Federation,[1] whilst also challenging for titles in Europe. After financial problems caused the club to go bankrupt in 2014, it moved down to thefourth division. In the 2015–16 season it played in thesecond division.
For past club sponsorship names, seethe list below.
The parent organisation,Associazione Ginnastica Senese "Mens Sana in Corpore Sano 1871", was formed on 16 April 1871 by university students. In the beginning of the 19th century the gymnastics club became a multi-sports club (Italian:Polisportiva) by adding other sports under its wing.[2]
Basketball was first practiced by the club in May 1907 when – at the Venice Gymnastics competition – teacher Ida Nomi Pesciolini led a women's team in a basketball demonstration. It's claimed this was the first time the game – invented in 1891 – was played in Italy, with Nomi discovering the sport whilst in the United Kingdom and then translating the rules in Italian.[3][4]
The official basketball section of the club was established in 1934. However, the club and the organisation as a whole had limited activities until the end of the Second World War in 1945. After that date, basketball was played again, at first by students from the Piccolomini high school.[2][4]
On 5 March 1967, Mens Sana played against city rival Costone for a place in the second divisionSerie B, with the former winning 64–63. In 1973, having lost the previous year, Siena beatBrina Rieti 80–66 to reach the top tierSerie A for the first time.[4]During the 1974–75 season, Sapori Siena finished fifth in the league thanks to a slow-paced style combined with zone defense as twin towers Carl Johnson andEnrico Bovone dominated the paint.[5]
In 1978–79, Antonini Siena reached the Serie A quarterfinals, earning a place in the1979–80 FIBA Korać Cup where they went to the Round of 16.[6]Only two seasons later the side was in the second division again and at the end of the 1986 season it moved down to the third division Serie B Eccellenza.Siena would stay there until 1990, returning to the Serie A in 1991 and staying there for good from 1994. At the beginning of the decade, the club had become autonomous from the Polisportiva.[4]
With coaches likeGianfranco Lombardi,Cesare Pancotto andValerio Bianchini and playersSandro Dell'Agnello,Sylvester Gray,Gerard King, and Larry Middleton the club had solid results, including two Serie A quarterfinals in 1997–98 and 1999–00 and two participations in theFIBA Korać Cup.[5][6]
In the summer of 2000,Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, a banking company based in the city, became the majority sponsor of the side.The club, now known as Montepaschi Siena, took a new dimension, first signing Italian internationalRoberto Chiacig and playing in the2000–01 FIBA SuproLeague.A year later coachErgin Ataman and playersVrbica Stefanov,Mindaugas Žukauskas,Boris Gorenc andMilenko Topić were added.The team, with the mid-season addition ofPetar Naumoski, beatPamesa Valencia to lift the2002 Saporta Cup, their first ever title.[5][6]
In 2002–03, Montepaschi added guardAlphonso Ford and forwardMirsad Türkcan. For their first season in theEuroLeague, Europe's best competition, the Italians reached theFinal Four (just the second team to achieve the feat), losing 62–65 toBenetton Treviso, a team that also beat them in the domestic semifinals on the way to the title.[5]
Before the2003–04 season,Carlo Recalcati, the Italian national team coach, was chosen in order to win a scudetto (Italian title), with Ford and Turkcan being replaced byDavid Andersen,Giacomo Galanda,Bootsy Thornton,David Vanterpool and laterMichalis Kakiouzis. Siena would accomplish that goal, sweeping all of its playoff series 3–0 and claiming their first ever scudetto after topplingMetis Varese,Scavolini Pesaro andSkipper Bologna.Earlier, the same Bologna side had impeded their secondEuroleague Final Four run, beating Montepaschi 103–102 in overtime.[5]
The next two seasons put a brake on that success, with the sole addition of theItalian Supercup amidst two quarterfinal eliminations in the league and one Top 16 appearance in the Euroleague.Siena native and long serving club memberSimone Pianigiani was promoted to the head coach role in 2006 whilst the roster was overhauled.[5] Montepaschi went to the quarterfinals of the2006–07 ULEB Cup (Europe's second-tier competition) before losing toUNICS. More importantly, a team led byRimantas Kaukėnas,Joseph Forte andTerrell McIntyre won 39 of the 44 games they played in theSerie A season (with a 3–0 finals sweep) to earn their second league title.[7][8]
With the return of Thornton and the addition ofKšyštof Lavrinovič, Montepaschi reached the2008 Euroleague Final Four after sweeping their quarterfinals. A 17-point second-half lead againstMaccabi Tel Aviv proved insufficient as the Italians lost in the semifinal.On the domestic front, Siena startedthe season with 18 successive wins and were never challenged in their third title conquest.[9]
In2008–09, Siena became the second side to complete a domestic treble after losing just one game on their way to the league,Cup and Supercup titles.[10]
After addingNikos Zisis,Marko Jarić,Malik Hairston andBo McCalebb, Montepaschi reached anotherEuroleague Final Four in 2011, overcoming then-top scorer McCalebb's injury and a record 48-point loss toOlympiacos in the quarterfinals game 1. However, they were again stopped in the semifinals, this time by championsPanathinaikos. Inthe league they proved unstoppable again, adding a fifth straight Serie A crown and a third straight Cup title to their trophy cabinet.[11]
In2011–12, Montepaschi achieved an unprecedented sixth consecutive Serie A title, adding the Supercup (their fifth in a row) and Cup (fourth) for good measure.The2011–12 Euroleague saw eventual champions Olympiacos avenge their preceding year's defeat by topping the Italians in the quarterfinals.[12][13]All the titles won during this season were to be revoked four years later by the Italian Basketball Federation, following an investigation for accounting and fiscal fraud.
2012–13 saw two major changes with a decrease in budget that saw several players leave and a change in coach, with Pianigiani replaced by assistantLuca Banchi.Montepaschi wasn't as competitive, being eliminated at theEuroleague Top 16 stage whilst in the domestic league they finished the regular season in fifth place with 12 losses.However the holders rallied in the playoffs, winning two Best-of–7 series in game 7, againstEA7 Emporio Armani Milano andCimberio Varese before topplingAcea Roma 4–1 in the finals to add title number seven to the Cup they had earlier won.[14][15] This title too was revoked three years later by the Italian Basketball Federation.
The next season (2013–2014) saw an ever-contracting budget and a more ordinary roster, Montepaschi found it harder to compete in the2013–14 Euroleague, alternating between close wins (sometimes on the buzzer) and closer defeats, ending the season with 3 wins and 7 losses.[16] In their final game againstUnicaja that would decide who progressed from the group, the Italians were the victims of a buzzer beating shot that eliminated them from the competition.[17]Though its financial problems emerged to the fore, with a relegation all but assured due to massive debts, on the court the holders kept fighting, pushing favourites Milan to seven games in theSerie A finals, though they would go on to concede the title.[18]
Soon after, Mens Sana Basket was declared bankrupt amidst debts of 5,4 million euros and the departure of sponsor Montepaschi even if the company had revenue for over 400 million Euro. Furthermore, an inquest had been started in 2012 after suspected undeclared payments and tax evasion by club officials for over 90 million Euro, including former president Ferdinando Minucci.[19]
On 25 October 2017, following an investigation for accounting and fiscal fraud, including the destruction of some of the company's accounts by the president Ferdinando Minucci, theItalian Basketball Federation revoked all the domestic titles won by the club during the 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons, namely two Italian titles, two Italian Cups and an Italian Supercup.[1]
The Mens Sana multi-sports club then retook ownership of the basketball club, it was registered in the fourth division Serie B for the 2014–15 season, with all players having left though Roberto Chiacig returned.In June 2015, Mens Sana 1871 won the third place game in the Serie B final four to earn a promotion to the unified second divisionSerie A2 for 2015–16.[20][21] In March 2019, Siena was excluded from the West Group of the Serie A2 for economic issues. In the beginnings of 2019, the team's roster was practically dismantled due to the club's financial troubles making it impossible to pay the league's taxes and the wages. The exclusion was determined after various renounciatiouns by the team to play certain games and on the charges of "unsportsmanlike conduct", since its line-up altered the competitiveness of the league.[22]
Following the exclusion, the team was renamed as Mens Sana Siena Basketball Academy, after absorbing again the control of Mens Sana's former satellite youth team; and enrolled for the 2019–20 Promozione Toscana, in the 7th tier of theItalian Basketball Federation. Such league was suspended due to theCOVID-19 pandemic in Italy with Siena in the lead.
On the 21st of August 2020, it was announced that Mens Sana Siena would be participating on the Group A of the Serie C silver, a regional league representing the 5th Tier of theItalian Basketball Federation.
Mens Sana played in the Sant’Agata gymnasium before moving into the Dodecaedro (later Palazzetto Giannelli) when it was built in 1968.They later moved into the Palascalavo in 1976 (nowPalasport Mens Sana, capacity 6,000[23]).[24]
| Season | Tier | League | Pos. | Italian Cup | European competitions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006–07 | 1 | Serie A | 1st | Semifinalist | 2ULEB Cup | QF | |
| 2007–08 | 1 | Serie A | 1st | Quarterfinalist | 1Euroleague | 3rd | |
| 2008–09 | 1 | Serie A | 1st | Champion | 1Euroleague | QF | |
| 2009–10 | 1 | Serie A | 1st | Champion | 1Euroleague | T16 | |
| 2010–11 | 1 | Serie A | 1st | Champion | 1Euroleague | 3rd | |
| 2011–12 | 1 | Serie A | 1st[a] | revoked[a] | 1Euroleague | QF | |
| 2012–13 | 1 | Serie A | 1st[a] | revoked[a] | 1Euroleague | T16 | |
| 2013–14 | 1 | Serie A | 2nd | Runner–up | 1Euroleague | RS | |
| 2Eurocup | L32 | ||||||
| 2014–15 | 3 | Serie B | 1st | ||||
| 2015–16 | 2 | Serie A2 | 5th | ||||
| 2016–17 | 2 | Serie A2 | 11th | ||||
| 2017–18 | 2 | Serie A2 | 11th | ||||
| 2018–19 | 2 | Serie A2 | Sacked | ||||
| 2019–20 | 6 | Promozione Toscana | 1st | ||||
| 2020–21 | 5 | Serie C Silver (Toscana) | 2nd (Group A) | ||||
| 5th (Qualification Group) | |||||||
| 2021–22 | 5 | Serie C Silver (Toscana) | |||||
| 2022–23 | 5 | Serie C Gold(Toscana) | |||||
Source:Eurobasket.com
| Mens Sana 1871 Basket retired numbers | ||||
| N° | Nat. | Player | Position | Tenure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 |  | Terrell McIntyre | PG | 2006–2010 |
| 9 |  | Alberto Ceccherini | SG | 1974-1981, 1982-1984 |
| 20 | | Shaun Stonerook | PF | 2005–2012 |
Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility atFIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.
| Criteria |
|---|
To appear in this section a player must have either:
|
2010s
| 2000s
| 1990s
|
|
Throughout the years, due to sponsorship, the club has been known as:
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
