ratiopharm Ulm started a new era last season with former EuroLeague champion point guard Jaka Lakovic making his head coaching debut after replacing Thorsten Leibenath, who ended his eight-year reign and became the club’s sporting director. Ulm also added 18-year-old talent Killian Hayes and made him the main point guard alongside veteran Zoran Dragic. The club struggled to stay close in its first two EuroCup games, losing by 15 points at home in Round 1 against Segafredo Virtus Bologna and by 19 points at MoraBanc Andorra. Ulm led in the closing minutes in Round 3 at home against Promitheas Patras but slipped late to fall 67-70. Round 4 saw Ulm fall apart in the fourth quarter in an 82-65 defeat at AS Monaco. Lakovic finally got his first EuroCup win as head coach in Round 5 as Ulm grabbed a 103-89 home win over Maccabi Rishon LeZion with Dragic scoring 33 points and Hayes tallying 15 points, 6 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 steals. Ulm was close to building upon that win at Virtus in Round 6; it led 67-77 with 6:30 left to go. But Ulm allowed a 12-2 run and lost 92-91. In the final game of the regular season at Rishon, Ulm was up 69-81 with less than 3 minutes to play, but the game went to overtime where Ulm fell 96-92. In the German Cup, Ulm reached the semifinals where it met its match against EWE Baskets Oldenburg, losing 76-84 at home. In the German League, Ulm started with a home win but then lost five straight games. The Dragic-Hayes combo started to flourish and Ulm ran off an 8-2 run. However, after Dragic left the club to play for Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in the EuroLeague, and Ulm lost its next five games for a 10-10 record when the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the season. Playing without Hayes, Ulm was one of the biggest surprises of the season-ending tournament, going 4-0 in group play and then racing past Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt in the quarterfinals before getting bounced by MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg in the semifinals. This season, Ulm will be playing its sixth consecutive EuroCup campaign – and eighth in the last nine years.
EuroCup