There are also those traveling from Rome to Brescia: Marco Calvani

The back-and-forth between Brescia and Rome during what has been a truly scorching summer for basketball seems never-ending. The latest development, however, appears to be heading in the opposite direction from so many others: from the capital to Lombardy. The new Leonessa club, set to restart in Serie B Nazionale, could do so with Marco Calvani on the bench. The coach, born in 1963, led Virtus last season, having previously done so several times throughout his long career.

According to reports from ‘Il Giornale di Brescia,’ the new club’s technical committee held a lengthy board meeting on Saturday. It was during this meeting that Calvani’s name reportedly emerged as the top choice for the team’s new head coach, edging out competitors Bechi and Di Paolantonio.

Calvani is a seasoned coach with an impressive resume built over years of experience in the top tiers of Italian basketball. Just last year, before joining Virtus Bologna, the coach shared his impressions of the LBA league, demonstrating an in-depth understanding of the dynamics of the top division: a wealth of experience that the new Brescia club intends to leverage in its climb back up the ranks, starting from Serie B Nazionale.

It’s worth noting that the other two candidates who were not selected have well-defined recent track records. In recent months, Luca Bechi had also been linked to Fortitudo Bologna, where he was among the candidates considered to replace Attilio Caja following the team’s failure to secure promotion to Serie A, before the Bologna-based club turned its attention elsewhere. Emanuele Di Paolantonio, on the other hand, was fired by Benedetto XIV Cento last April, after two years on the bench for the Emilia-Romagna-based club.

The context in which this new Brescia team is emerging is that of a profoundly reshaped Lombardy basketball scene. As Frank Vitucci, Cantù’s new head coach, also noted in a recent interview, the departure of Vanili Cremona and Brescia from Serie A marked a significant shift in the basketball landscape of northern Italy, with their respective spots being taken by Roma SPQR and Maxima Roma. This revolution makes the decision by the new Brescia club to rebuild with an experienced coach like Calvani all the more symbolic.