Official, Luca Banchi is the new technical commissioner of'Italbasket
The Italian Basketball Federation has announced that it has reached a three-year technical collaboration agreement with Luca Banchi, who, after being announced by President Giovanni Petrucci today at the Federal Council, is officially the new Technical Commissioner of the men’s Senior National Team.
The presentation of the new Azzurro coach will take place on Friday, October 3, in Rome at 11:30 a.m. at the Salone d’Onore of CONI (Piazza Lauro De Bosis, 15). Live streaming on Italbasket’s YouTube channel is planned.
Banchi’s debut on the Italbasket bench will take place on Thursday, November 27, 2025 when the Azzurri play against Iceland in the first qualifying match for the FIBA World Cup 2027, the World Cup to be held in Doha, Qatar, in two years.
Born in Grosseto on August 1, 1965, Luca Banchi is the 23rd head coach of the Italian Senior Men’s National Team.
Named best coach of the 2023 FIBA World Cup, Banchi is the architect of the great leap forward made by Latvia’s national team from 2021 to the present. Starting from 27th place in the FIBA World Ranking and pre-qualifying, the Baltics surprised the whole of Europe by qualifying for the first time in their history for a rainbow competition, which ended in the Quarterfinals (fifth place finish) at the hands of Germany then World Champions. After EuroBasket 2025 played at home, Latvia is 11th in the world rankings and sixth at the European level.
Luca Banchi’s career began at age 18, in 1983, in the Youth Sector of Basket Grosseto and then continued as an assistant coach first in the Air Force team and then at Affrico Firenze. From 1987 to 1997 he coached the Don Bosco Livorno Youth Sector teams, winning three junior titles and being promoted to head coach of the first team in A2 in 1999. The jump to A1 took place in Trieste in the two-year period 1999-2001 and continued, again in the top division, with a return to Livorno until 2004. In the following two years he is in A2 first in Trapani and then in Jesi. In the meantime, his first experiences in Azzurro: in 2001 he leads the National Under 20 team winning the “Challenge Round” and in the same year he wins the Bronze Medal at the Mediterranean Games in Tunis with the National Experimental Team. In 2004 he was second at the Military World Championships in Croatia.
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In 2006 he joined Mens Sana Siena’s coaching staff as Simone Pianigiani’s assistant, contributing to the victory of five Scudetti, five editions of the Italian Supercoppa and three editions of the Coppa Italia. In the 2012-2013 season he is the head coach of the Tuscans.
In 2013 he was called by Olimpia Milano and won the Scudetto in his first year, a feat that no coach of the club had ever managed to achieve before him at that time. After Milan, experiences at Auxilium Torino, Brose Bamberg in Germany, AEK Athens in Greece, where he won the 2019 FIBA Intercontinental Cup in Rio de Janeiro against the Brazilians of Flamengo, and then at Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia. Before accepting the Latvia coaching job, he is at the Long Island Nets (Brooklyn Nets affiliate) in the G-League for an assistant stint under Bret Brielmaier.
During his time as head coach of Latvia, Banchi sits first on the bench of VL Pesaro (2021-2022) and then on the bench of French Strasbourg (2022-2023): on both occasions, taking over as the season progressed with the teams in last place, he makes the Playoffs. In September 2023 he is in Bologna and with Virtus he wins the Italian Supercup, finishing the season in the Euroleague Play-in and playing the Scudetto Final against Milan. From January 2025 he is at Anadolu Efes Istanbul leading the club from 13th place to the Euroleague Playoffs.
