Official, Nicola Brienza starts again with Valtur Brindisi
New Basket Brindisi has made official the arrival of Nicola Brienza as the new head coach of the first team. The coach, released from his previous agreement with Pallacanestro Cantù, has signed with the Apulian club, thus kicking off a new technical project. The official presentation will be held today, Wednesday, May 27, at 5:30 p.m. in the “Antonio Corlianò” room at PalaPentassuglia. The press conference will be attended by sports director Giulio Iozzelli and Brienza himself.
Born in Cantù on Jan. 25, 1980, Brienza has built much of his career within the technical sector of the Brianzola club, coaching youth from 1999 to 2009 and then joining the first team staff alongside such thick coaches as Pino Sacripanti, Luca Dalmonte and Andrea Trinchieri.
His debut as a head coach in Serie A comes in 2016, when he temporarily takes over after Fabio Corbani’s exoneration, before returning to the role of assistant with the arrival of Sergey Bazarevich. He then lives an experience in Switzerland at the helm of the Lugano Tigers, brought all the way to the playoff semifinals, before returning to Italy as assistant coach at Capo d’Orlando. In 2019 he returns to Cantù and takes the place of the resigning Evgeny Pashutin, guiding the team to an excellent turnaround in Serie A with nine wins in thirteen games.
The results obtained open the doors to Aquila Basket Trento, with which he hits for two consecutive seasons the qualification to the Eurocup Top 16. Then, from 2021, the winning cycle begins with Pistoia Basket 2000: he conquers the A2 Series Supercup and, in the 2022/23 season, he obtains promotion to Serie A starting from the sixth position in the playoff table. The following year consecrated Brienza among the best Italian coaches: Pistoia closed the regular season in sixth place, reached Final Eight of the Italian Cup and the playoffs scudetto, results that earned him the Best Coach of the Year award at the LBA Awards.
In May 2024 finally comes the return to Cantù with the goal of bringing the club back to Serie A after three seasons in A2. The goal was achieved by Brienza, who thus won his second promotion as head coach and the recognition of “Coach of the Year” in the A2 Series.
