Ratiopharm Ulm

ratiopharm Ulm
Nickname	Die Spatzen (The Sparrows)
Leagues	Basketball Bundesliga
Founded	2001; 20 years ago (2001)
Arena	Ratiopharm Arena
Capacity	6,000 (BBL)/5,100 (EuroCup)[1]
Location	Ulm, Germany
Team colors	Black, White, and Orange
Main sponsor	Ratiopharm
Head coach	Jaka Lakovič
Ownership	Basketball Ulm/Alb-Donau GmbH
Affiliation(s)	OrangeAcademy
Website	ratiopharmulm.com
Home Away

Ratiopharm Ulm, officially stylized as ratiopharm Ulm, is a professional basketball club that is located in Ulm, Germany.^[2][3] The club has two teams, one professional team, which plays in the Basketball Bundesliga, the major German professional league and one youth team, which plays in the NBBL (Nachwuchs Basketball-Bundesliga). The home arena of the team is the Ratiopharm Arena, an indoor sporting arena with a capacity of approximately 6,000 spectators.^[4]

The mascot of the team is a rabbit named called Spass ("fun"), who somewhat resembles Bugs Bunny. The main sponsor of the team is the pharmaceutical company Ratiopharm. The team colors are orange, white, and black.

History[]

Early years (2001–2006)[]

The club was founded in 2001 after the previous professional basketball team in Ulm, run by the sports-club SSV Ulm 1846, became insolvent and had to resign from the league. Dr. Thomas Stoll and Andreas Oettel, the current CEO of the Basketball Ulm/Alb-Donau GmbH, which is the owner of the club, bought the license of the former team and started a second division team with the name of Basketball Ulm GmbH.^[5] After playing in the second division for five years, the team qualified for the Basketball Bundesliga in 2006.

First Bundesliga seasons (2006–2011)[]

Inside view of the Ratiopharm Arena, the club's home arena since 2011

In the 2006–07 season, led by Head coach Mike Taylor and Assistant coach Rainer Bauer the team headed into their first season in the Basketball Bundesliga as the team with the smallest funds and the smallest arena in the league. With just two new players for the starting five, the team was seen by the media and many experts as the team most likely to be relegated to the second division again after the season. But due to a well-rehearsed team, with only a few players changed in the off-season, the team had some big upset wins and remained in the league with a 16–18 record. At the end of the season point guard Austen Rowland had the league's best assists per game rate and power forward Jeff Gibbs became the best rebounder in the league and was nominated as a starting-five player for the All-Star game.

Still a club with one of the smallest funds in the league, the team experienced some major changes in the pre-season of their second year in the Bundesliga because starting point guard Austen Rowland and shooting guard Jonathan Levy left the team while starting small forward Emeka Erege received a serious injury during an exhibition game. Nevertheless, the team was ranked twelfth in the league after 16 of 34 games with a 9–6 record.

In the 2008–09 season, with a young and talented team, ratiopharm Ulm had a very successful season. At the end of the 2008–09 season ulm was ranked on position five and entered the playoffs with a 21–13 record. But in the playoff the team was eliminated early, throughout a 3–0 loss against Telekom Baskets Bonn.

After a very good season in 2008–09, Ulm lost the league's best rebounder and most efficient player Jeff Gibbs to Eisbären Bremerhaven. The 2009–10 season ended on rank thirteen, which means Ulm was far away from the playoffs and away from a relegation spot, too. In the 2010–11 season, Ulm ended on the 14th place.

Climbing the ranks (2011–present)[]

Per Günther, Ulm player since 2008, has been the leader of the team

In the 2011–12 season Ulm reached the Basketball Bundesliga Finals, after finishing second in the regular season. In the Playoffs Ulm had beaten Phantoms Braunschweig and S.Oliver Baskets and had a Playoff record of 6–0 coming into the Finals. In the Finals Ulm, lost 0–3 to Brose Baskets.

In the 2012–13 season Ulm entered a European competition for the first time, in the 2012–13 Eurocup, the team reached the quarterfinals. Ulm reached the BBL semi-finals and lost in the German Cup Final, 67–85 against Alba Berlin, as well that season.

In the 2016–17 season, the club had a historically successful season as the team started the Basketball Bundesliga with 27 consecutive wins. The club ended in the first place of the regular season with 30 wins and just 2 losses,^[6] but could not achieve the title as it lost in the semi-finals of the playoffs by EWE Baskets Oldenburg.

In June 2019, Jaka Lakovič signed a three-year contract as head coach of Ulm.^[7] His appointment meant the end of the Thorsten Leibenath era, who coached the club for eight seasons. Leibenath stepped down as head coach and started working as sporting director of the club.^[8]

Players[]

Current roster[]

ratiopharm Ulm roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. PG 0 Christon, Semaj 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) 86 kg (190 lb) 28 – (1992-11-01)1 November 1992 F/C 1 Felício, Cristiano 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in) 123 kg (271 lb) 29 – (1992-07-07)7 July 1992 F 4 Blossomgame, Jaron 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 100 kg (220 lb) 27 – (1993-09-16)16 September 1993 PG 6 Günther, Per 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) 77 kg (170 lb) 33 – (1988-02-05)5 February 1988 SG 8 Simon, Justin 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 98 kg (216 lb) 25 – (1996-05-06)6 May 1996 PG 9 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) 84 kg (185 lb) 22 – (1999-07-09)9 July 1999 SF 10 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 89 kg (196 lb) 23 – (1998-08-15)15 August 1998 F/C 13 2.12 m (6 ft 11 in) 118 kg (260 lb) 22 – (1999-05-29)29 May 1999 PF 14 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 104 kg (229 lb) 22 – (1999-06-29)29 June 1999 PG 22 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) 82 kg (181 lb) 30 – (1991-08-04)4 August 1991 SF 27 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 84 kg (185 lb) 21 – (2000-08-27)27 August 2000 C 29 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 106 kg (234 lb) 21 – (2000-02-03)3 February 2000 G/F 35 Jallow, Karim  1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 90 kg (198 lb) 24 – (1997-04-13)13 April 1997 SG 44 Žugić, Fedor 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 85 kg (187 lb) 17 – (2003-09-18)18 September 2003	Head coach Jaka Lakovič Assistant coach(es) Tyron McCoy Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: August 28, 2021

Depth chart[]

Season by season[]

Honors and Awards[]

• Stechert Cup

Winners: 2011

Team[]

Award winners[]

Notable players[]

Head coaches[]

2001	Tom Ludwig
2003–2011	Mike Taylor
2011–2019	Thorsten Leibenath
2019–present	Jaka Lakovič

References[]

External links[]

• Official website (in German)
• Eurobasket.com Team Profile
• Basketball Bundesliga Team Profile (in German)