By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Bertram Detonator Tortona parted ways with head coach Marco Ramondino on Sunday.
A five-year partnership, including promotion to LBA UnipolSai in 2021 and debuting in the Basketball Champions League this season, concluded.
The team based in Tortona finished Group H of the BCL Regular Season at 5-1 to clinch a berth in the Play-Ins. A best-of-three series against Galatasaray Ekmas with homecourt advantage sets up the second opportunity to reach the Round of 16.
Four straight domestic levels forced the team down to 5-8 in the LBA Regular Season and out of contention for a spot in the Final Eight of the Italian Cup.
Per the press release: “Bertram Derthona announces that he has been sacked coach Marco Ramondino from the position of first team coach after the defeat against Nutribullet Treviso.
Coach Ramondino entered and will remain in the history of the Club for the historic and unique cycle – from October 2018 – in which he guided Bertram Derthona to the highest levels of Italian basketball. The 2019 LNP Old Wild West Super Cup, promotion to Serie A in 2021, two Scudetto semi-finals, an Italian Cup final, access to the BCL Play-Ins for the Club’s first ever participation in a European competition are just some of the moments highlights of his journey in black and white.
Among all competitions (Serie A2, Serie A and BCL), since his arrival coach Ramondino has sat on the Bertram Derthona bench 214 times, obtaining 120 victories.
There are many unforgettable matches in which coach Ramondino led the team: the matches against Udine and Turin in the Final Four of the LNP Old Wild West Super Cup 2019, the exhilarating journey against Ravenna, Eurobasket Rome and Turin in the ride towards Serie A in 2021 , the successes against Virtus Bologna – in Casale in the championship and in Pesaro in the semi-final of the Italian Cup – and the subsequent final against EA7 Emporio Armani Milano, although lost, which brought over 500 Juventus fans to Pesaro to chase a dream. The latest – only in chronological order – are the five victories achieved in Group H of the BCL, the new chapter undertaken by the Club starting from this season.
Many players who shared the journey with him, starting with captain Riccardo Tavernelli and Luca Severini – on the roster since 2019/20 – passing through Jamarr Sanders, Semaj Christon, Ariel Filloy, J.P. Macura, Mike Daum and many others with whom the coach wrote memorable pages in the history of Bertram Derthona.
Marco Ramondino, in the over five seasons in which he coached in Tortona, contributed decisively to the technical and structural growth of a Club that has established itself season after season: the LBA Coach of the Year award for the 2022/23 season it’s just the icing on a cake that will remain in everyone’s memory forever.”
Sassari and Darussafaka complete signings
Also heading to the Play-Ins of the Champions League, Dinamo Banco di Sardegna Sassari and Darussafaka Lassa boosted their respective squads with new players.
The Italian club welcomed 32-year-old floor general Brandon Jefferson. After 14 games played in the BCL with SIG Strasbourg in 2020-21, his returns meets Sassari in a best-of-three series opposite Cholet.
Preparing for the best-of-three series against MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, the Istanbul outfit picked up 24-year-old forward/center Josh Carlton and 20-year-old forward Tolga Kay.
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League