ratiopharm Ulm

ratiopharm ulm
ratiopharm ulm logo
Nickname	Die Spatzen (The Sparrows)
Leagues	German League Beko BBL Top Four Eurocup
Founded	2001
Arena	ratiopharm arena
Arena Capacity	6,200
Location	Ulm, Germany
Team colors	Black, White, and Orange
Main sponsor	ratiopharm
Head coach	Thorsten Leibenath
Website	www.basketball-ulm.com
Uniforms
Home Away

ratiopharm Ulm is a professional basketball club that is located in Ulm, Germany. The club has two teams, one professional team, which plays in the beko BBL, the major German professional league and one youth team, which plays in the so-called 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.

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

History

2001–2006: Early years

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. After playing in the second division for five years, the team qualified for the Basketball Bundesliga in 2006.

2006–2011: First Bundesliga seasons

In the 2006–07 season, led by Headcoach 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 leagues 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 an relegation spot, too. In the 2010–11 season, Ulm ended on the 14th place.

2011–present: First successes

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 to Brose Baskets from Bamberg 3 to 0. 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 semifinals and lost in the German Cup Final as well that season.

Season by season

Season	Tier	League	Pos.	Postseason	German Cup	European competitions
2001–02	2	2. BBL	7	–	–	–
2002–03	2	2. BBL	3	–	–	–
2003–04	2	2. BBL	2	–	–	–
2004–05	2	2. BBL	2	–	–	–
2005–06	2	2. BBL	1	Promoted	–	–
2006–07	1	Bundesliga	12	–	–	–
2007–08	1	Bundesliga	12	–	–	–
2008–09	1	Bundesliga	5	Quarterfinalist	–	–
2009–10	1	Bundesliga	13	–	–	–
2010–11	1	Bundesliga	14	–	–	–
2011–12	1	Bundesliga	2	Runner-up	Third position	–
2012–13	1	Bundesliga	3	Semifinalist	Runner-up	2 Eurocup – Quarterfinalist
2013–14	1	Bundesliga	6	Quarterfinalist	Runner-up	2 Eurocup – Eighthfinals
2014–15	1	Bundesliga	5	Semifinalist	Quarterfinalist	–

Players

Current roster

ratiopharm Ulm roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age PG 6 Günther, Per 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) 80 kg (176 lb) – (1988-02-05)5 February 1988 F 7 Ferner, Joschka 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 84 kg (185 lb) – (1996-01-05)5 January 1996 C 8 Morgan, Raymar 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 100 kg (220 lb) – (1988-08-08)8 August 1988 SF 10 Omuvwie, Marvin 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) 94 kg (207 lb) – (1997-07-10)10 July 1997 C 11 Alte, Tom 2.07 m (6 ft 9 in) 95 kg (209 lb) – (1995-01-27)27 January 1995 PG 12 Dorsch, Michael 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 95 kg (209 lb) – (1996-05-14)14 May 1996 C 14 Neumann, Philipp 2.09 m (6 ft 10 in) 112 kg (247 lb) – (1992-02-20)20 February 1992 F 17 Butler, Da'Sean 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 102 kg (225 lb) – (1988-01-25)25 January 1988 SG 19 Babb, Chris 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 102 kg (225 lb) – (1990-02-14)14 February 1990 SG 20 Brown, Carlon 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) 98 kg (216 lb) – (1989-10-04)4 October 1989 F 21 Rubit, Augustine 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 104 kg (229 lb) – (1989-08-14)14 August 1989 C 22 Rohwer, Björn 2.12 m (6 ft 11 in) 95 kg (209 lb) – (1995-08-22)22 August 1995 G/F 24 Braun, Taylor 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 93 kg (205 lb) – (1991-07-06)6 July 1991 G/F 30 Brembly, David 1.97 m (6 ft 6 in) 95 kg (209 lb) – (1993-02-10)10 February 1993 SG 44 Krämer, David 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 83 kg (183 lb) – (1997-01-14)14 January 1997	Head coach Thorsten Leibenath Assistant coach(es) John Dieckelman Jesús Ramírez Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: 17 March 2015

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

Notable players

Stephen Arigbabu Christian Ast 3 seasons: '96-'99 Sebastian Betz 6 seasons: '07-'13 Mike Knoerr Jens Kujawa Konrad Wysocki 3 seasons: '06-'08 Olivier Bourgain 2 seasons: '99-'01 Jeff Kent 1 season: '00-'01 Alon Stein 1 season: '02-'03 John Bryant 3 seasons: '10-'13 Kyle Bailey 1 season: '07-'08 Deonte Burton 1 season: '14-'15 Jeff Gibbs 4 seasons: '05-'09 Trent Plaisted 1 seasons: '13-'14 Abdul Shamsid-Deen 1 season: '99-'00 Jarvis Walker 10 seasons: '90-'00 Alvin "Bo" Dukes 1 season: '95-'96

External links

• Official Web Site (German)
• Eurobasket.com Team Profile
• Basketball Bundesliga Team Profile (German)