By Cesare Milanti/ info@eurohoops.net
Head coach Mihai Silvasan has been with U-BT Cluj-Napoca for two decades. Silvasan, 37, first arrived as an ace three-point shooter and after calling it quits on his playing career in 2015, was roaming the sidelines in a suit and tie a year later. No one quite understands the growth of the club like he does.
“When I came to this team in 2002, there were totally different conditions than what we have now. We weren’t so professional back then, we weren’t that good. If I remember well, we did not even have import players,” Silvasan recalled.
“All of the Romanian basketball was in the same situation: it was not a competitive league, but year by year, with the help of some sponsors, and people who love basketball in our city, we managed to grow. There weren’t always good moments, but finally, now we’ve come to a point where we can talk about our organization as a very professional one, a team that has all the conditions to make great performances at the highest level.”
The rapid growth that saw the club take Romanian basketball by storm, make some waves in pan-European competitions and, for the first time this season, play in the 7DAYS EuroCup, started in 2016-17. That season was Silvasan’s first on the sidelines and the first for Branko Cuic, also a former Club player, as its sporting director. They promptly led Cluj to its fifth Romanian championship, a Romanian Cup, and the Romanian SuperCup.
It seemed like the dawn of an extremely satisfying period for the city of Cluj-Napoca, but in the following two seasons came more tears than bright smiles. Then came the decision to hire Dusko Vujosevic, the 2009 Alexander Gomelskiy Coach of the Year. And things only got better.
Officially an advisor to the head coach, Vujosevic became an integral part of the staff with an unusual setup. Vujosevic would run most of the practices, but Silvasan was the head of the bench during games. Though it may have been an uncomfortable situation for some, Silvasan embraced it.
“It was a great experience for me. I think I was extremely lucky to have the chance to work for two years with a coach like him. I learned a lot from him and from this experience,” Silvasan said.
“I try to create my own style of coaching and I try to be myself, but of course, you need to learn every day. You need to add information from different people. And here I’m speaking not just about other coaches: I’m talking about even other sports, businesses, people, and even different types of friends. So I believe that in this profession, it’s really important to keep educating yourself and not to believe that you know everything. That is the biggest mistake a coach can make.”
Silvasan had given thought to coaching as a profession for many years. In his early 20s, he suffered a back injury and underwent surgery for a herniated disc. Though he would go on to make a recovery, the process forced him to contemplate what he wanted to do next.
“I love basketball so much. So I was thinking that I wanted to stay all my life in this beautiful sport,” Silvasan said. “I think I was 22 when I made the decision that I want to be a coach, but then I still played for eight years more. But from then I started to read about coaching, looking for international camps and clinics to go to during the summertime. I remember that in 2014, I was still playing and I went to the EuroLeague coaching clinic in Madrid. So I started my coaching education early.”
Those years spent thinking about coaching while still playing helped Silvasan build his coaching identity. It also meant that he would always be able to see things from the standpoint of his players. So in 2019, when he was entering his fourth season as a coach and the team signed guard Patrick Richard, who is only five years younger, the two quickly built a special relationship.
“My whole career, I was pretty much moving around, but I always wanted to stay and not constantly change teams each year. And then when I came to Cluj, I just fell in love with the city immediately,” Richard said. “Me and Coach Silvasan, we got along great from day one. He just lets me be me and I felt appreciated from the beginning by our beloved fans and each year we’ve had so much success.”
After traveling the world for seven seasons in Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Israel, Spain, New Zealand, and Italy, Richard found a home in Cluj, where he is signed through the end of the 2024-25 season.
“I think we have really good chemistry,” Silvasan agreed. “Last season, I think that was one of the keys to the successes that we had. Of course, it’s a really important part of our group. [Richard and Andrija] Stipanovic are the leaders that we need in the locker room and on the court and they are very good examples for the young players.”
After their ambitions had died out in the early stages of the FIBA Europe Cup in the previous seasons, in 2020 they managed to reach the quarterfinals, where they were defeated at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic by Germany’s medi Bayreuth.
“Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have thought that I would end up being a citizen and playing for the national team representing the country,” Richard said looking back at his first season with Cluj. “From the first year I came here, the goals of the club were always to be winners, to win. In my first year, we were successful in winning the [Romanian] Cup and going to the elite eight of the FIBA Europe Cup and then COVID happened. So we were able to accomplish the main goal of winning… and each year, after that, we have been able to do that. It’s been a blessing to be in a situation like this and to be able to just be myself and flourish to the highest ability that I possibly could.”
Of all the great teammates with whom he has shared the locker room in these last few years, Richard had no doubt when asked who the one with whom he has cultivated the most beautiful relationship is.
“I surely have the best connection with Stipanovic as far as on the court,” Richard answered. “These last two years when we just look at each other, we know what the other one is thinking. So me and him from a basketball standpoint, we have 100% the best connection.”
Despite the difficulties of the 2020-21 campaign, which was played without fans due to the pandemic, Cluj took another major step forward by defeating CSM Oradea in the Romanian League finals. And then last season it broke more barriers by reaching the Basketball Champions League quarterfinals and even bringing more than 10,000 fans to its home games in the best-of-three series that it lost in the maximum games to German side MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg.
“It was extremely important and an extremely nice experience for our club, for us, our staff and for the players also,” Silvasan noted. “We really enjoyed every single game that we had last season. We didn’t try to think about the outcome but just to go out there and give our best. To try to enjoy every action of the game.”
Behind the scenes, the sporting director Branko Cuic was an integral part of the project that was being built. The thrills of last season have left a lasting impression on him.
“Playing for eight years and then being in management, there are a lot of things I will never forget that are tattooed in my soul. But let’s stick with last year. When I stopped playing basketball, I never wished to come back on the court. I never felt that in my blood I would have wanted to play again or something. But those two games against Ludwigsburg, two times 10,000 people in the arena… Wow, how nice would the time on the court as a player have been. I was jealous, I was jealous of our players who were a part of that,” Cuic said.
“Another game I’ll never forget is the one against Darussafaka… We were down like 19 points; we came back thanks to some wonderful plays that our players gave us. We eventually won the game, and there were my parents, my wife, and colleagues there for her because of her career in the Turkish League, so I was really proud. I was really proud because I’m part of the team.”
The team’s experience in the BCL led Cuic to seek a spot for the club at an even more competitive level, the EuroCup.
“We’ve always wanted to grow a little more: playing in the EuroCup, where there are 18 guaranteed games, is a huge step for us and our fans,” Cuic explained. “In the BCL there are only six guaranteed games and until the last game of the championship, nobody knows if the Romanian champion will go directly into the groups or pass the qualification round, so our decision was to go to the EuroCup.”
If last season the bar was raised, it then soared to new heights with an invitation to the EuroCup and that meant Cuic would have to upgrade the roster. He adopted a modest strategy when trying to bring in new players: “We really try to be honest, to not promise something that we cannot give you and that gives us credibility… Back in the day, when you spoke about Romania, trying to bring some good name here was really hard. So we just wish to grow even bigger. As I usually say, ‘We are walking on the land and dreaming about the sky.'”
Thus far, Coach Silvasan has relished the opportunity for himself, his players, and Cluj’s fans to experience the EuroCup this season.
“It’s a great opportunity for me and especially for our club to participate in such a prestigious competition like the EuroCup. We don’t just want to participate, we want to make ourselves a name in this competition and establish ourselves there as a good team. We are here to stay, we don’t want to be a team that doesn’t deserve to be in the EuroCup. We have big goals,” Silvasan said.
Richard concurred with his coach: “We have a winning mentality in the entire club and all we want to do is be great at the European level, playing in the EuroCup for the first time in the history of the team. We want to go as far as possible. Take one game at a time. Domestically we still want to focus on our goal to win the Romanian Cup which we have won in the last couple of years and try to three-peat in the championship.”
No story about the growth of basketball at Cluj-Napoca would be complete without mentioning the team’s devoted fan base.
“Our fans are unique and they always demonstrate their loyalty to the club, the players, and the staff,” Cuic said. “Some of them traveled with us around Europe. We were among the few teams to sell out our full arena and that was a big message for our community. Basketball is loved and followed in Cluj, and we will become stronger in the EuroCup”.
“This is a historic moment for our club, we made great things to show up and to let people know about U-Banca Transilvania as a club, as an organization, and as a basketball team. I think it is a great opportunity to grow up in Romanian basketball right now. These moments push the kids to start to play the sport and to have some idols and models to follow and that is already obvious in our city. Our players are loved in Romania. There are a lot of kids knocking at the door when we have practice. And we all started like that: I grew up in Yugoslavia and I remember when we won the European championship back in 1995, I just wanted to be like them, to celebrate on that balcony in front of 5,000 people.”
Cuic, Silvasan, Richard, and the rest of the Cluj players, coaches, plus the front office staff are well on their way to getting another chance to celebrate with their fans again and again as they continue to build a basketball powerhouse.