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1971–72 Serie A (basketball)

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The 1971–72 Serie A basketball championship was the 49th season of the Serie A, the highest professional basketball league in Italy.

Serie A
Season1971–72
Duration24 October 1971 – 4 April 1972
Games played22
Teams12
Regular season
RelegatedStella Azzurra Roma
Finals
ChampionsSimmenthal Milano
19th title
  Runners-upIgnis Varese
Statistical leaders
Points United States John Fultz 29.8
Records
Highest scoringS. Milano 113–78 Udine
(16 January 1972)
Winning streak12 games
Ignis Varese
Losing streak9 games
Stella Azzurra Roma

The regular season ran from 24 October 1971 to 4 April 1972, twelve teams played 22 games each. As Simmenthal Milano and Ignis Varese ended joint first with an equal head-to-head record, a single playoff game decided the title for the second year running. Milano won the game, played in Rome, to break Varese's three-year title streak, taking home their nineteenth overall title (and a spot in the European Champions Cup).

To accommodate a league expansion to 14 teams due the following year, only one side was relegated that season, newly promoted Stella Azzurra Roma went straight back to the Serie B.[1]

Preseason

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Holders Ignis Varese were seen as the favourites to retain their title, with habitual rivals Simmenthal Milano – whom they had beat in a title playoff game the previous season – as challengers. Ambitious teams Forst Cantù and Splügen Venezia could take a few points off the leading duo but were not considered as strong enough to join the title fight.[1]

A Nikolić coached Ignis had kept all their major players, with star Mexican Manuel Raga complemented by Italian internationals Dino Meneghin, Ottorino Flaborea, and Ivan Bisson among others. The addition of Tony Gennari and Marino Zanatta (both from Mobilquattro Milano, the re-sponsored All'Onestà) had created an abundance of star players in their squad, something ironically seen as their only potential weakness.[1]

Simmenthal, coached by Cesare Rubini, had virtually kept the same squad yet were seen as more potent, with combative American Art Kenney settled in and youngsters Giulio Iellini and Mauro Cerioni more mature.[1]

Regular season

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Simmenthal's title hopes took a dent when they lost 69-67 away to Forst Cantù during the fourth round, leaving Ignis as the only undefeated team at that stage.[2] When the two met in Varese on 9 January 1972, Simmenthal was already in a do-or-die situation, trailing the leaders by four points (having lost again in between, to mid-table Norda Bologna led by league top scorer John Fultz). Ignis' 62-57 win in a nervous game characterized by poor shooting from both sides (Bisson and Renzo Bariviera top-scoring for their respective teams with 16 points each) led some observers to already declare them champions, with their now 6-point lead seen as insurmountable.[3]

However, the same month, Pierluigi Marzorati and Carlo Recalcati helped Cantù end Ignis' four-year invulnerability at home with an 84-83 overtime win that made that claim less certain.[4] Soon after, the leaders lost by a single point again, this time to Venezia after two overtimes, to see their lead on Simmenthal reduced to only two points.[5]

That gap remained the same until the penultimate round game between the two freshly crowned European champions (Ignis winning the Champions Cup and Simmenthal the Cup Winners' Cup) played on 26 March 1972 in Milan.[6] Contrarily to the previous encounter, the game was reportedly an entertaining affair, Cerioni neutralised a diminished Raga defensively whilst adding 18 points to a vindictive Kenney's 21. Meneghin's 28 points were not enough for a Varese missing the injured Bisson, as they were undone 77-72 to concede their hold on first place.[7] Both teams comfortably won their last round games, which meant they finished as joint leaders, making a one-off playoff game at a neutral venue necessary to decide the title.

Standings

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Milano
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bologna
 
 
 
class=notpageimage|
Serie A 1971–72 – Club Locations
Pos Teams P W L PF PA Champion or relegation
1 ● Ignis Varese 22 21 1 1805 1380 Title playoff (see below)
2 ● Simmenthal Milano 22 21 1 1845 1565
3 Forst Cantù 22 18 4 1852 1675
4 Splügen Venezia 22 13 9 1627 1579
5 ● Norda Bologna 22 11 11 1701 1696
6 ● Snaidero Udine 22 11 11 1666 1752
7 Mobilquattro Milano 22 10 12 1686 1740
8 Maxmobili Pesaro 22 9 13 1541 1610
9 Eldorado Bologna 22 8 14 1549 1679
10 Gorena Padova 22 6 16 1521 1656
11 Partenope Napoli 22 5 17 1542 1668
12 Stella Azzurra Roma 22 3 19 1471 1712 Relegation to Serie B

Source: Lega Basket

● Ranking by head-to-head record then points differential in case of tie (see record).

Individual scoring table

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Rank Name Team Points PPG
1.   John Fultz Norda Bologna 655 29.8
2.   Manuel Raga Ignis Varese 511 23.2
3.   Gary Schull Eldorado Bologna 498 22.6
4.   Enrico Bovone Snaidero Udine 492 23.4
5.   Carlo Recalcati Forst Cantù 479 21.8
6.   Larry Saunders Gorena Padova 424 19.3
7.   Ubiratan Splügen Venezia 414 18.8
8.   Jim Williams Partenope Napoli 404 18.3
9.   Bob Lienhard Forst Cantù 400 18.2
10.   Art Kenney Simmenthal Milano 371 16.9

Source: unofficial statistics compiled by the Giganti del Basket magazine (official statistics started from the 1975–76 season).[8]

Postseason

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Title playoff

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The title-deciding playoff game was played in Rome's Palazzo dello Sport on 4 April 1972 in front of more than 15,000 people. Raga, having returned to fitness, scored a game-high 25 points, with Meneghin adding 22 points for the defending champions as Varese led by 9 points in the first half. Despite this, a team-effort by Simmenthal's mayor players such as Kenney, Giuseppe Brumatti and captain Massimo Masini allowed them to get back in the game, with the teams tied on 60 with only 29 seconds left to play. Barivera scored twice in succession to allow Milano to win the closely contested game and the league title for the first time in five years.[9]

4 April
21:00
Simmenthal Milano 64, Ignis Varese 60
Pts: Giuseppe Brumatti 14
Rebs: Arthur Kenney 16		 Pts: Manuel Raga 25
Rebs: Dino Meneghin 13
Palazzo dello Sport, Rome
Attendance: 15,000

Italian Cup

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Simmenthal completed the domestic double over Ignis, beating their rivals 81-77 in Turin to lift the cup. As both teams were already qualified for the 1972–73 European Champions Cup (Milano through the league and Varese by winning the 1972 edition), the spot in the European Cup Winners' Cup was given to Mobilquattro Milano after they beat Forst Cantù 84-83 in the third-place game.[10]

Championship-winning squad

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Simmenthal Milano 1971–72 Serie A champions

Source: Lega Basket

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Ricomonciano i duelli dei giganti" [The giants' battles start anew]. ArchivoLaStampa.it (in Italian). 23 October 1971. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  2. ^ "Basket: il Simmenthal cade a Cantù" [Basketball: Simmenthal slips in Cantù]. ArchivoLaStampa.it (in Italian). 15 November 1971. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  3. ^ Tavarozzi, Antonio (10 January 1972). "Lo scudetto è ancora dell'Ignis" [The championship is Ignis' again]. ArchivoLaStampa.it (in Italian). Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  4. ^ "L'Ignis perde con la Forst. Botte a Bologna e a Torino" [Ignis loses against Forst. Fights in Bologna and Turin]. ArchivoLaStampa.it (in Italian). 31 January 1972. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  5. ^ "Perdono le grandi del basket. Ignis a Venezia, Saclà a Forlì" [The big basketball teams lose. Ignis at Venice, Saclà at Forlì]. ArchivoLaStampa.it (in Italian). 21 February 1972. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  6. ^ Tavarozzi, Antonio (26 March 1972). "Le due grandi del basket, dalle Coppe allo scudetto" [The two big teams of basketball, from Cups to the championship]. ArchivoLaStampa.it (in Italian). Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  7. ^ Tavarozzi, Antonio (27 March 1972). "Il Simmenthal alla carica (ed è subito spareggio)" [Simmenthal in charge (and it's already a playoff)]. ArchivoLaStampa.it (in Italian). Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  8. ^ "Serie A 1971-72 - classifica marcatori e spareggi" [1971–72 Serie A – scorers table and playoffs] (PDF). LegaBasket.it (in Italian). Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  9. ^ Tavarozzi, Antonio (5 April 1972). "Grande il "Simm" campione ma ci vorrebbero due scudetti" ["Simm" a great champion but two championships would be needed]. ArchivoLaStampa.it (in Italian). Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  10. ^ Tavarozzi, Antonio (2 June 1972). "Simmenthal batte Ignis anche in Coppa" [Simmenthal also beats Ignis in the Cup]. ArchivoLaStampa.it (in Italian). Retrieved 6 July 2016.
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