s.Oliver Würzburg

s.Oliver Würzburg
Leagues Beko BBL
Founded 2007
History SCH Würzburg Baskets
(2007–2010)
s. Oliver Baskets
(2010–2016)
s. Oliver Würzburg
(2016–present)
Arena s.Oliver Arena
Arena Capacity 3,140
Location Würzburg, Germany
Team colors Black, Red
         
President Steffen Liebler
Head coach Doug Spradley
Website soliver-wuerzburg.de
Uniforms
Home
Away

s.Oliver Würzburg (formerly known as s.Oliver Baskets) is a German professional basketball club located in Würzburg, Germany. After one year of absence from the Basketball Bundesliga, the club has returned to first division German basketball for the 2015-16 season.

It was founded in 2007 with the aim to substitute the original club of the city, who was known as DJK Würzburg, which stood for "Deutsche Jugendkraft" (German youth power), and was affiliated to the DJK-Sportverband (Sport Association), which is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. The club has gained fame through its basketball department, in which NBA player Dirk Nowitzki got his start.

History

The old DJK Würzburg

The DJK Sport Association was founded on September 16, 1920 in Würzburg. Due to the geographic location of its home office, the DJK soon founded a local club in Würzburg. However, the different athletic departments found themselves divided among various Catholic clubs. During the Third Reich, all DJK affiliates were banned by the government. After World War II, the DJK consolidated all of its local departments into DJK Würzburg. Today the club has over 3000 members, including a variety of non-Catholic members.

The club's top women's handball team played in the Handball-Bundesliga Frauen, the top flight of women's handball in Germany, from 1976 to 1985, during the 1987–88 season and from 1993 to 1995.

The club's basketball department gained fame in the 1990s as both the men's and women's teams qualified for the top German Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) division. The women's team played many years in the first and second divisions and was crowned German Champion in 1993. In 1989, the men's team made the jump into the second division. In 1997, featuring Dirk Nowitzki in the line-up, DJK Würzburg claimed the 2nd Division South title, qualifying for the Basketball Bundesliga. In 2001, DJK spun off its men's basketball team into a private corporate entity, now known as the Würzburg Baskets, to capitalize on their growth as a professional basketball team. DJK Würzburg has produced numerous players who have gone on to have success in the BBL, with the senior men's German national basketball team and, for Nowitzki, the NBA.

In 2005, the club resigned its spot in the BBL and the club stopped competing.

The actual club

In 2007, American businessman Jochen Bähr acquired a license in the Regional league for a new team in Würzburg with the aim to reach the Pro A in few seasons.

In 2011, the Würzburg Baskets, now by the name of s.Oliver Baskets (after their new sponsor s.Oliver), gained promotion from the PRO A (German Second Division), and moved up to the Basketball Bundesliga (German First Division). In its first season back in the first division, in 2011-12, the team reached the German League semifinals, after beating Alba Berlin by 3–1 in the quarterfinal series of the playoffs. In 2012–13 the actual club played in Europe for the first time, in the second tier Eurocup.[1] In 2013–14 they relegated from the BBL. They immediately promoted back to the first tier in the 2014–15 season. The 2015-16 season was finished on rank 8, thus qualifying for the playoffs for the second time after 2012. In quarterfinals the team was eliminated by future league champion Brose Baskets, losing every game with at least a 35-point margin.

On July 15, 2016 the team changed their name from "s.Oliver Baskets" to "s.Oliver Würzburg" to strengthen the identification of team and city. Additionally the sponsoring contract with s.Oliver was extended through 2019.[2]

Logos

Season by season

Season Tier League Pos. Postseason European competitions
2007–08 4 RegionalLiga 3
2008–09 4 RegionalLiga 1 Promoted
2009–10 3 ProB 3 Promoted
2010–11 2 ProA 2 Promoted
2011–12 1 Bundesliga 4 Semifinalist
2012–13 1 Bundesliga 9 2 Eurocup Regular Season
2013–14 1 Bundesliga 17 Relegated
2014–15 2 ProA 2 Promoted
2015–16 1 Bundesliga 8 Quarterfinalist

Current roster

s.Oliver Würzburg roster
Players Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age
PG 4 Sweden Barton, Charles 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 85 kg (187 lb) 24 – (1992-01-07)7 January 1992
SG 5 Montenegro Mihailović, Vladimir 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 93 kg (205 lb) 26 – (1990-08-10)10 August 1990
F 6 Germany Ugrai, Max 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 103 kg (227 lb) 21 – (1995-07-28)28 July 1995
SG 9 Germany Stuckey, Maurice 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) 81 kg (179 lb) 26 – (1990-05-30)30 May 1990
F 10 Germany Betz, Sebastian  1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 93 kg (205 lb) 31 – (1985-06-12)12 June 1985
PF 11 Croatia Lončar, Krešimir 2.10 m (6 ft 11 in) 115 kg (254 lb) 33 – (1983-02-12)12 February 1983
PG 13 United States Odum, Jake 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 80 kg (176 lb) 25 – (1991-02-11)11 February 1991
SF 15 United States Ulmer, Lamonte 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 93 kg (205 lb) 30 – (1986-09-17)17 September 1986
F/C 21 United States Lane, Brendan 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 104 kg (229 lb) 26 – (1990-11-19)19 November 1990
F 22 United States Southerland, James 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 98 kg (216 lb) 26 – (1990-04-28)28 April 1990
PF 31 Germany Voigtmann, Georg 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in) 100 kg (220 lb) 22 – (1994-10-09)9 October 1994
SF 42 Germany Wank, Lukas 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 87 kg (192 lb) 19 – (1997-01-19)19 January 1997
Head coach

United States Doug Spradley

Assistant coach(es)

Germany Stephan Völkel


Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • Injured

Roster
Updated: 20 October 2016

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.

Depth chart

Pos. Starting 5 Bench 1 Bench 2 Bench 3
C Brendan Lane
PF Max Ugrai Krešimir Lončar
SF Lamonte Ulmer James Southerland Felix Hoffmann
SG Vladimir Mihailović Maurice Stuckey
PG Jake Odum Charles Barton

Honors

Numerous Bavarian amateur titles Women's German Basketball Champions: 1993 Men's 2nd Division South Basketball Champions: 1997

Notable players

To appear in this section a player must have either:

Notable coaches

2nd team

Würzburg's second team plays in the ProB, the German third division.

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.

TG s.Oliver Würzburg roster
Players Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name
PG 5 Germany Marvin Heckel
PG 6 Germany Jakob Jessberger
SG 7 Germany Oliver Erb
PG 8 Germany Christian Hoffmann
G/F 9 Germany Sebastian Rauch
PG 10 Germany Lennard Larysz
G/F 11 Germany Tim Leonhardt
C 12 Germany Christoph Hackenesch
G 14 United States Marcellus Barksdale
G/F 17 Germany Lukas Wank
C 34 Germany Georg Voigtmann
Head coach

Germany Peter Guenschel

Assistant coach(es)

Germany Christian Graf


Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • Injured

Roster
Updated: 17 October 2016

References

  1. s.Oliver Baskets Wurzburg - Welcome to Eurocup, eurocupbasketball.com Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  2. Aus den s.Oliver Baskets wird s.Oliver Würzburg, s.Oliver Würzburg Retrieved 18 July 2016
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