Two trophies already on display in the Club House, three finals played, the last of which still remains undigested five years later. Nine holdings in the last ten years, with the current …
Two trophies already on display in the Club House, three finals played, the last of which still remains undigested five years later. Nine participations in the last ten years, with the current one being that of the “star”. But also ephemeral and in any case exhilarating satisfactions, such as Jack Cooley’s goal on the siren in the quarter-final three years ago in Florence against Venice, and enormous disappointments.
There is really everything in Dinamo’s Final Eight curriculum, which from 2012 to today has only skipped the 2018 edition, due to an unfortunate carom of baskets at the last second and detached classification. The Sassari’s debut in the final phase of the Italian Cup dates back to 2012, when Banco, in its second season in Serie A, collided with the “unplayable” Montepaschi Siena of that era. But already the following year the first satisfaction arrived, with the success in the quarter-finals against Brindisi in the sprint (98-96) and the first semifinal: again challenge against Siena, again an elimination.
2014 is the year of the first triumph: three unforgettable days, three legendary races. First the victory against Milan, for 80-82, then the success in the semifinal against Reggio Emilia, finally the masterpiece in the final against the last great Montepaschi, with Travis Diener elected MVP of the event. The following year comes an encore, with the team of coach Meo Sacchetti that after winning the Super Cup continues to “lay down” an incredible treble: Cremona easily surrenders to the quarterfinals, then Reggio Emilia falls again, finally the final against Milan, with one of the most beautiful and intense performances of the whole was Sacchetti. In 2016 the first big disappointment, with the upset immediately in the quarterfinals from Cremona to overtime, while in 2017 in Rimini the thrilling ride of Federico Pasquini’s band, dressed in pink, is interrupted only in the very last bars of the final against Milan.
After the absence of 2018, in 2019 the very fresh arrival of Gianmarco Pozzecco on the bench immediately leads to a sensational comeback in the quarterfinals against Venice, from -20 to +1 signed by Cooley on the siren. In the semifinal, however, Brindisi has more and Chappell freezes the enthusiasm of Sassari with a 9-meter bomb. Still bitter toast in 2020, in Pesaro, with Kelvin Martin in the role of killer of biancoblù, and huge disappointment last year at the Assago Forum, with the frozen shower at the overtime against Gerald Robinson’s Vuelle Pesaro, on the less strong card but then able to reach the final.