| Auxilium Torino | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Leagues | LBA EuroCup | ||
| Founded | 1974 | ||
| Dissolved | 28 June 2019 | ||
| History | Auxilium Pallacanestro Torino (1974–2008; 2015–2019) | ||
| Arena | Palavela | ||
| Capacity | 6,300[1] | ||
| Location | Turin,Piedmont, Italy | ||
| Team colors | Yellow, Navy | ||
| Main sponsor | Fiat | ||
| President | Antonio Forni | ||
| Head coach | Paolo Galbiati | ||
| Team captain | Giuseppe Poeta | ||
| Championships | 1Italian Cup | ||
| Retired numbers | 1 (11) | ||
| Website | auxiliumcustorino.com[usurped] | ||
Auxilium Pallacanestro Torino was an Italian professionalbasketball club inTurin,Piedmont. It competed inthe first division of Italian basketball, theLega Basket Serie A for the last time in the 2018–19 season. The club won one trophy, theItalian Basketball Cup, in2018.
In June 2019, Auxilium was dissolved after the club was declared bankrupt after months of financial struggles, which had led to relegation from the LBA in May.[2]
The club was founded in 1966 under the initiative of Don Gino Borgogno, aSalesian priest, who regrouped all the different oratories (Christian youth social clubs) practising basketball in Turin under one organisation, Auxilium Torino, based in the Agnelli oratory.[3][4]
The club was promoted to the fourth-division Serie C in 1970 and moved up to theSerie B in 1972. At the same time another local side, Libertas, based inAsti and sponsored by Saclà, was moving quickly up the divisions, reaching the second division in 1971 and the first division Serie A in 1972.[5] However, Saclà Asti wanted to move to a bigger arena and market, transferring to Turin in 1973, which meant the city had two clubs in the national divisions.
The clubs merged in the 1974 offseason after protracted discussions, with Asti president (Carlo Ercole), coach (Lajos Tóth), players, and sponsors transferring to Auxilium (now Saclà Torino) which played in the newly-formed second divisionSerie A2 while nearly all the Auxilium players were sent to Asti to play in the Serie B.[3][4]
In its first season in Serie A2, Auxilium was promoted to the Serie A.
During the 1975 off-season, the club changed coaches and sponsors, withMartini & Rossi becoming the main sponsor under the Chinamartini brand. The renamed team was relegated domestically, but this was compensated by a run to the1976 Korać Cup final, in which it came back from a first-leg deficit of 24 points to beatJuventud Schweppes by one point in the semifinals before losing in the final to the Yugoslavian teamJugoplastika Split.
Torino returned to Serie A in 1979, staying there until 1989 and battling for honours during that decade, with playoff semifinals places in 1982, 1984, 1985, and 1986.[6]
After one season in the Serie A2, the club returned to the Serie A in 1990, staying there until 1993.
Though the club finished outside the relegation places in the two Serie A2 seasons it played, it struggled financially and, in July 1995, asked the league to play in the Serie B to reduce its debts, also selling its best players for that purpose.[3][7]
Playing a few years at that level, Auxilium was relegated to Serie B2 at the end of the 1998–99 season, following which it merged with Pallacanestro Cerea Collegno in order to ask for a place in the Serie B1. The latter organisation's president, Giovanni Garrone, became Auxilium president, with the club's base and home arena moved toCollegno.[8] The new organisation did not have more success, and was relegated from the Serie B2 to the Serie C within a year.[6] It played at that level until it was amalgamated into Torino Basket, formed from the merger of two historic Turin clubs, Don Bosco Crocetta and Reale Società Ginnastica, in 2007,[9] disappearing on the occasion.[10]
PMS Basketball was founded in 2009 by the merger of Pallacanestro Moncalieri and Libertas Amici San Mauro (with the PMS an acronym of Pallacanestro Moncalieri San Mauro). Playing in the Serie B Dilettanti (fourth division), the side won promotion and theleague's cup in 2009–10.[11]
In 2011, the senior team, based in Turin and playing in thePalaRuffini - changed its name to PMS Torino, keeping the PMS Basketball name for its youth activities. One year later, Antonio Forni, formerly president ofPallacanestro Biella, joined the founder Paolo Terzolo as club co-president, announcing his desire to return Torino to the Serie within three years.[12] It reached the second divisionDNA Gold in 2013, losing in the promotion playoffs at the end of the season.
The club obtained promotion at the second try, beating Agrigento in the 2014–15 finals series to earn a place in Serie A. Soon afterwards, it was announced that Forni had obtained the Auxilium brand that Garrone had given to former coach Giovanni Asti when the club shut down, with the club renamed as Auxilium CUS Torino as a separate legal entity with CUS Torino (Centro Universitario Sportivo, a club founded in 1946) providing the youth sector under an agreement. PMS Basketball, with Terzolo at its head, separated from the club to play inMoncalieri, at a level no higher than the Serie B.[10][13]
The2018 Italian Basketball Cup was the first played by Auxilium Torino. After beatingUmana Reyer Venezia in the quarter-finals and thenVanoli Cremona in the semi-finals, in the final gameSasha Vujačić’s layup in the dying seconds lifted Fiat Torino to a 69-67 victory overGermani Basket Brescia for the club's first Italian Cup. After a series of threes in the closing seconds left the game tied, Brescia had the ball for what appeared to be the final possession, butMarcus Landry andLuca Vitali each missed,Deron Washington picked up the loose ball and started a fast break that Vujacic finished with the winning layup.Diante Garrett paced Fiat with 16 points,Nobel Boungou Colo andVander Blue added 11 points each and Washington scored 10 for the winners. Landry paced Brescia with 22 points and 9 rebounds andMichele Vitali added 14 points in defeat.[14]
On 10 May 2019, the Federal Council deducted eight points from Torino due to financial irregularities.[15] Consequently, the club was relegated to theSerie A2 Basket after finishing last in the season. On 28 June 2019, the club was declared bankrupt.[16] InBasket Torino, a new professional club from the city was founded.
Auxilium Torino played its home games at the 4,500 seatPalaRuffini from 1974 to 2000. From 2000 to 2008, the club used the 1,350 seat PalaCollegno as its home arena. The club returned to PalaRuffini from 2015 to 2018. In 2018, the club moved to the 6,300 seatPalavela.[1]
| Season | Tier | League | Pos. | Italian Cup | European competitions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012–13 | 3 | Nazionale A | 1st | |||
| 2013–14 | 2 | LNP Gold | 5th | |||
| 2014–15 | 2 | LNP Gold | 1st | |||
| 2015–16 | 1 | LBA | 15th | |||
| 2016–17 | 1 | LBA | 11th | |||
| 2017–18 | 1 | LBA | 11th | Champion | 2EuroCup | T16 |
| 2018–19 | 1 | LBA | 16th | 2EuroCup | RS | |
1970s
John Grochowalski6 seasons: '76–'80
Romeo Sacchetti5 seasons: '79–'84Pino Brumatti6 seasons: '77–'83Maurizio Benatti6 seasons: '78–'821980s
Darryl Dawkins2 seasons: '89–'91Alessandro Abbio6 seasons: '88–'94Joe Kopicki3 seasons: '88–'91Giampiero Savio3 seasons: '85–'88Davide Pessina4 seasons: '84–'88Scott May3 seasons: '83–'86Riccardo Morandotti8 seasons: '82–'90Renzo Vecchiato5 seasons: '82–'87Carlo Caglieris4 seasons: '81–'851990s
Jay Vincent1 season: '92–'93Kevin Magee1 season: '91–'922010s
Jamil Wilson2 season: '16–'17, '18–presentRyan Hollins1 season: 2017D. J. White2 season: '15–'17Stefano Mancinelli3 seasons: '13–'16Guido Rosselli2 seasons: '14–'16Jerome Dyson1 season: '15–'16James Michael McAdoo1 season: '18–'19
Carlos Delfino1 season: '18–'19
Sasha Vujačić1 season: '17–'18Trevor Mbakwe1 season: '17–'18Lamar Patterson1 season: '17–'18Victor Rudd1 season: 2018Tony Carr
Lajos Tóth1 season: '74–'75Giovanni Asti6 seasons: '76–'77, '80–'83, '87–'89Sandro Gamba3 seasons: '77–'80Giuseppe Guerrieri6 seasons: '83–'86, '89–'91, '93–'95Romeo Sacchetti5 seasons: '96–'98, '96–'98Luca Banchi1 season: '17–'18Carlo Recalcati1 season: '18Larry Brown1 season: '18 Paolo Galbiati: '18–'19Throughout the years, due to sponsorship deals, it has been known as:
