Ratiopharm Ulm

History

Early years (2001–2006)

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

First Bundesliga seasons (2006–2011)

In the 2006–07 season, led by Head coach 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 the 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 a 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 league's best assists per game rate and power forward Jeff Gibbs became the best rebounder in the league and was nominated as a starting-five player for the All-Star game.

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 twelfth in the league after 16 of 34 games with a 9–6 record.

In the 2008–09 season, with a young and talented team, ratiopharm Ulm had a very successful season. At the end of the 2008–09 season ulm was ranked on position five and entered the playoffs with a 21–13 record. But in the playoff the team was eliminated early, throughout a 3–0 loss against Telekom Baskets Bonn.

After a very good season in 2008–09, Ulm lost the league's best rebounder and most efficient player Jeff Gibbs to Eisbären Bremerhaven. The 2009–10 season ended on rank thirteen, which means Ulm was far away from the playoffs and away from a relegation spot, too. In the 2010–11 season, Ulm ended on the 14th place.

Climbing the ranks (2011–present)

In the 2011–12 season Ulm reached the Basketball Bundesliga Finals, after finishing second in the regular season. In the Playoffs Ulm had beaten Phantoms Braunschweig and S.Oliver Baskets and had a Playoff record of 6–0 coming into the Finals. In the Finals Ulm, lost 0–3 to Brose Baskets.

In the 2012–13 season Ulm entered a European competition for the first time, in the 2012–13 Eurocup, the team reached the quarterfinals. Ulm reached the BBL semi-finals and lost in the German Cup Final, 67–85 against Alba Berlin, as well that season.

In the 2016–17 season, the club had a historically successful season as the team started the Basketball Bundesliga with 27 consecutive wins. The club ended in the first place of the regular season with 30 wins and just 2 losses, but could not achieve the title as it lost in the semi-finals of the playoffs by EWE Baskets Oldenburg.

In June 2019, Jaka Lakovič signed a three-year contract as head coach of Ulm. His appointment meant the end of the Thorsten Leibenath era, who coached the club for eight seasons. Leibenath stepped down as head coach and started working as sporting director of the club.

On 16 June 2023, Ulm won their first-ever national championship after winning the 2022–23 Basketball Bundesliga season. They defeated Telekom Baskets Bonn in the finals, 3–1, behind Finals MVP Yago dos Santos. As the seventh seed, they were the lowest seed ever to win the national championship in league history.

Players

Current roster

• AUS USA Ty Harrelson
• USA Tyron McCoy

Depth chart

Season by season

Games against NBA teams

Honors and awards

• Basketball Bundesliga

  • Winners: 2022–23
  • Runners-up: 1997–98, 2011–12, 2015–16, 2024–25

• BBL-Pokal

  • Winners: 1996
  • Runners-up: 1994, 1995, 2013, 2014, 2024

• BBL Champions Cup

  • Runners-up: 2012

• **ProA **

  • Champions: 2005–06

• Stechert Cup

  • Winners: 2011

Team

Award winners

;BBL Most Valuable Player

• John Bryant (2012, 2013)
• Raymar Morgan (2017) ;BBL Finals Most Valuable Player
• Yago dos Santos (2023) ;BBL Coach of the Year
• Thorsten Leibenath (2012, 2017) ;BBL Best Young Player
• Daniel Theis (2014) ;BBL Best Offensive Player
• John Bryant (2013)
• Raymar Morgan (2017)

Players in the [[NBA draft]]

Notable players

• GER Ismet Akpinar
• GER Stephen Arigbabu
• GER Robin Benzing
• GER Jens Kujawa
• GER Tim Ohlbrecht
• GER Uwe Sauer
• GER Daniel Theis
• GER Konrad Wysocki
• BRA Bruno Caboclo
• BRA Yago dos Santos
• ENG Ray Carter
• FRA Pacôme Dadiet
• FRA Killian Hayes
• FRA Noa Essengue
• Greece Ian Vougioukas
• ISL Fannar Ólafsson
• ISR Ben Saraf
• ISR Alon Stein
• POL Igor Miličić Jr.
• Spain Juan Núñez
• USA Chris Babb
• USA Kyle Bailey
• USA John Bryant
• USA Deonte Burton
• USA Will Clyburn
• USA Jeff Gibbs
• USA Trent Plaisted
• USA Abdul Shamsid-Deen
• USA Jarvis Walker
• USAMNE Javonte Green

Head coaches

References

References

1. [https://ratiopharmulm.com/news/noch-13-tage-zehn-dinge-499/ ratiopharmulm.com {{in lang. de]
2. (2022-04-18). "ratiopharm ulm". ratiopharm ulm.
3. "Ratiopharm Ulm basketball, News, Roster, Rumors, Stats, Awards, Transactions, Details-eurobasket".
4. [http://www.basketball-bundesliga.de Basketball Bundesliga homepage {{in lang. de.]
5. [http://www.basketball-ulm.com/english/682-history Basketball Ulm history]
6. [http://www.easycredit-bbl.de/de/easycredit-bbl/historie/teams/t/2016-2017/418-ulm/ Gameplan ratiophram ulm]
7. "Jaka Lakovic neuer Trainer in Ulm". easycredit-bbl.de.
8. (21 March 2019). "Basketball: Ratiopharm Ulm: Thorsten Leibenath künftig nicht mehr Chef-Trainer". swp.de.
9. "Ulm conclude miraculous German playoff run by winning first-ever championship title".