By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Ludwigsburg was founded in 1960. It has not the roster of Murcia that includes international stars like Augusto Lima, the recent success of Monaco, or the tradition and the prestige of AEK.
The biggest success of the club remains to be a finalist in the German Cup back in 2008 and losing to the Artland Dragons by 14 points.
However, Basketball Champions League proved to be the right environment for the club, which since the 1980s is a regular member of the German top division, with a five-year break between 1997 and 2002.
In the 2016–17 season, Ludwigsburg participated in the inaugural Basketball Champions League season, where it was eliminated by one point on aggregate in the quarter-finals by Banvit. The campaign marked Ludwigsburg’s best European performance in history, as it was the first time the team reached the knock-out phase of an European competition.
This season, after defeating Oldenburg and Bayreuth in the round of 16 and quarter-finals, they made it to the Final Four. It’s the first time ever the club qualified for the final stage of a European tournament.
John Patrick’s creation
And while it’s easy to always pinpoint the coach as the main responsible for a team success, in the case of John Patrick, that’s more than evident. A Stanford alumnus who played professionally in Germany and Japan for 13 years, started his coaching career in 2003 when he was appointed head coach of BG Göttingen, then a second-division team from Germany.
He stayed then until 2011 – with one small break during the 2005-06 season when he coached the Toyota Alvark in Japan – and then he left Göttingen was part of the top German division. The club had also won the 2010 EuroChallenge title, the fourth tier continental competition, and he was named Bundesliga’s coach of the year both in 2009 and 2010.
Patrick moved for the 2011-12 season to s.Oliver Würzburg and on January 2013, he signed with MHP Riesen. He couldn’t save the season, as the club was relegated, but ultimately they were granted a wildcard and remained in the BBL.
Since then everything changed. Ludwigsburg qualified for the playoffs in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, finishing the regular season of the BBL on the 6th spot during the 2015-16 season.
The once-struggling club has transformed into a respectable opponent inside the German borders and now they will have the chance to do damage on the European stage.