Pizza boy or basketball genius? Andrea Trinchieri makes something out of nothing

Anyone who has listened to Estonia’s most popular basketball podcast knows that Kaunas Žalgiris head coach Andrea Trinchieri has not always been highly regarded, although he should be.

This season, the Italian is proving once again that he can make a living from very little. Or, to put it in basketball terms: Trinchier has no problem successfully steering a team who is not exactly swimming in money. While Real Madrid is managing the EuroLeague with more than 40 million euros, Žalgiris’ budget set a record, but is “just” 17.7 million.

Of course, fortunately, the size of the wallet does not determine success, but the probability of achieving it. A striking example is the current season, where after ten rounds, or roughly the first third, Real has lowered the bar to only 11 with four wins and six losses. With the opposite balance, Lithuanian club basketball has the honor and pride of ninth position, although it has lost the last three games in a row. This is far from the first time Trinchieri has managed to squeeze water out of a rock. Although the 56-year-old coach has been in this line of work for 20 years and has a lot to show for it, he has never been able to steer a real top club.

Trinchieri’s turning point

Milan-born Trinchieri’s career began at his hometown and European club Olimpia. Those were turbulent times for his as an assistant coach, as the club changed ownership twice during his time.

In addition, Olimpia, accustomed to winning, did not have the easiest period. Trinchieri was at the club between 1998 and 2004, when the former EuroLeague giants did not have a single title between their fingers.

Perhaps this also played a role in the fact that Trinchieri’s first jobs as a head coach were in the lower leagues of Italy. After five seasons in the third and second tiers of the pyramid, in the summer of 2009 a call came from the top league: Cantu, who had been part of the European elite in the early 1980s, needed someone to help the club take a step forward.

Because while in the past the team won three Italian championships and the EuroLeague twice, by the time Trinchieri arrived, Cantu had regressed to a team that was once in the domestic league playoffs, then again not.

Under the guidance of the ambitious Trinchieri, Cantu never dropped out of the top five. In addition, they played in two cup finals, once in the league final, returned to the EuroLeague and in the fall of 2012 they managed to win the club’s last title so far: the Italian Super Cup, where they defeated the now forgotten Siena Montepaschi 80:73 under the leadership of the Georgian Manuchar Markoishvili, who currently works as a coach in Monaco.

The time at Cantu was a turning point in Trinchieri’s career. The twice-elected Italian league coach of the year proved that he could be (very) successful in the big picture with a (very) small budget, and this was noticed by foreign clubs. Trinchieri has not worked in his home country since leaving Cantu in October 2013.

These two Euroleague playoffs…

In the meantime, Trinchieri has made history abroad. When he took over Partizan Belgrade six years ago, he became the first coach not from Yugoslavia or its former countries to lead the Serbian giants. In Belgrade, the Italian managed two local cups, but it was not enough for Partizan, which had high expectations.

Trinchieri has enjoyed his greatest success in Germany. With Bamberg, he won the Bundesliga for three seasons in a row, but only one season ended with a positive balance in the EuroLeague. With Bayern Munich, he came very close to something wonderful twice in the Old World’s strongest league.

Bayern had never been a special force in the EuroLeague, but Trinchieri changed the paradigm. In the spring of 2021, they met Olimpia, Trinchieri’s former employer, in the quarterfinals, where they lost the first two games played in Milan.

The series was turned upside down in Munich, when they won both the third and fourth games. So it was time to return to Milan for the decisive battle.

The hosts had everything under control until the fourth quarter, as they went into the final ten minutes with a 14-point lead. With 1:18 left before the final whistle, Milan were up by 12 points, but Bayern closed to within two points thanks to Wade Baldwin and Jalen Reynolds.

With seven seconds left, Milan ace Shavon Shields, who had scored 34 points, hit one of two free throws. Reynolds grabbed the rebound, passed the ball to Baldwin, who found NBA-experienced Paul Zipser. His long-range shot missed, and the German could have made a pass in hindsight, as Vladimir Lučić was alone in the left corner…

A year later, Bayern was back in the quarterfinals, and the series was decided again by the fifth game. The opponent was regular season winner Barcelona, ​​who crushed Trinchieri and the German club’s hopes with a powerful third quarter.

The promised land was so close.

Again.

Despite a beautiful career and praise, Trinchieri, who has roots in Croatia, Montenegro, the USA and Italy, has said that he does not consider himself a basketball genius. However, people who know European top basketball well say that there is no better tactician on our continent.

And this is probably the reason why Trinchieri has repeatedly managed to achieve good results with teams whose budgets are much smaller than those of his competitors.