Ratiopharm Ulm

Ratiopharm Ulm is a basketball club located in Ulm, Germany. The club has two teams, one professional team, which plays in the Basketball Bundesliga, the major German professional league and one youth team, which plays in the so-called NBBL (Nachwuchs Basketball-Bundesliga).

Current Players

History

Early Years

The club was founded 2001 after the previous professional basketball team in Ulm, run by the sports-club SSV Ulm 1846, became insolvent 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. After playing in the second division for five years, the team qualified for the Basketball Bundesliga in 2006.

The season 2006/2007

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 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 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 leagues best assists per game rate and Power Forward Jeff Gibbs became best rebounder of the league and was nominated as starting-five player for the All-Star game.

The season 2007/2008

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 eighth in the league after 16 of 34 games with a 9-6 record.

Miscellaneous

The home arena of the team is the Kuhberghalle an indoor sporting arena with a capacity approximately 3,000 spectators. [ [http://www.basketball-bundesliga.de Basketball Bundesliga homepage] ] , sometimes called "Kuhberghölle" ("Kuhberg-hell)" because of sound volume of the cheering fans.

The mascots of the team are a rabbit, which resembles Bugs Bunny and is called "Spass" ("fun"), and a coyote called "Ernst" ("Ernest").

The main sponsor of the team is the pharmaceutical company Ratiopharm.

The team colors are orange, white, and black.

References

External links

* [http://www.eurobasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=GER&Team=127 Eurobasket team details]
* [http://www.basketball-bundesliga.de/linkit.php?menuid=2&topmenu=270&keepmenu=inactive Basketball Bundesliga team details]
* [http://www.basketball-ulm.com Ratiopharm Ulm] official web site