Big-time basketball returns to Turin
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 The ULEB Cup Final Eight represents a return for high-level European basketball to the courts of Turin, but it is far from the first time that the first capital of unified Italy was a haven for hoops. Turin has been without representation in the top Italian basketball leagues since Auxilium Torino was relegated nearly 15 years ago, however for about two decades between the mid 1970s and mid 1990s, the city breathed big-time basketball. Highlights included Auxilium reaching the 1976 Korac Cup final, making four trips to the Italian League playoff semifinals in the 1980s and hosting stars like Scott May, Mike Bantom, Darryl Dawkins, Charlie Caglieris and Ricky Morandotti as well as famous coaches like Sandro Gamba, Dido Guerrieri and Gianni Asti. Indeed, there is a quite a story to tell on basketball in Turin, whose proximity to another traditional Italian hoops capital, Milan, has made for some great rivalries.
It all began when the club Sacla from nearby Asti began playing in Turin at the PalaRuffini, a new, grand structure built for basketball. With the new arena serving as a hub for the fans, basketball found a foothold in Turin and began to grow in popularity while the club was able to develop young players including future European champions Caglieris and Renzo Vecchiato. With Caglieris and a young Romeo Sacchetti taking center stage, the club reached the Saporta Cup semifinals in 1974 and two years later and known as Chinamartini Torino, it advanced to the Korac Cup final against Jugoplastika Split.
Those successes launched the club forward and the arrival of head coach Gamba, who had previously led Ignis Varese to a pair of Euroleague titles, marked another milestone in Torino’s improvement. Rising star Morandotti made his debut as a teenager in 1982 and a year later along with May and big man Vecchiato came the first of three consecutive Italian League semifinals appearances. Torino came closest to the finals in 1986 when Bantom joined May and Morandotti to form a dominant trio. That year the club beat eventual champion Simac Milano on the road in the semifinal opener and had two chances to close out the series, but lost at home and on the road to lose 2-1.
By 1989 the team had dropped to the second division, but the arrival of Dawkins spiced things up again and Torino immediately earned promotion and then advanced to the playoffs the next season. After Dawkins left, Kevin Magee also spent a season carrying the club to the playoffs, but soon the Torino empire began to disappear as the team slipped back to the second, and by 1995, the third division. Turin's era of high-level basketball ended, but the region of Piemonte continues supporting a first-division team in nearby Biella, that made it to the Italian first division in 2001 and reached the Italian League playoffs in each of the last two seasons.
Now, with the first ULEB Cup Final Eight coming to the city's Olympic park, Turin has the chance to enjoy the best European club basketball in a brand new, exciting event.
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ULEBCup.com
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