Virtus names Luca Banchi new head coach

Virtus Segafredo Bologna has followed up the sudden departure of Sergio Scariolo by hiring Luca Banchi as its new head coach for the upcoming Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season, the club announced on Friday evening. Their contract is for two seasons.

Banchi, 58, returns to the EuroLeague after a five-year absence. He had finished the 2017-18 season with a 2-4 record for Brose Bamberg after replacing Andrea Trinchieri. Most recently, he was named Best Coach of FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 after leading Latvia to an unexpected fifth-place finish.

Banchi had started his EuroLeague career as an assistant coach with Montepaschi Siena between 2006 and 2012, when that club reached the Final Four twice, in 2008 in Madrid and 2011 in Barcelona, finishing in third place both times.

His high-water mark as a EuroLeague head coach came when he took EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, another team from his native Italy, to the team's first playoffs appearance this century in 2014. Milan lost that series to eventual champion Maccabi Tel Aviv. Banchi's overall record in four EuroLeague seasons with those three clubs was 39-43.

He also coached two seasons in the EuroCup, first with Turin of Italy in 2017-18 and then with Lokomotiv Kuban of Russia in 2019-20, with an 8-11 overall record between those two seasons.