For the first time in nearly a decade, MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg will rub elbows with some of Europe’s strongest clubs as it makes its return to the Eurocup. Ludwigsburg last played the Eurocup in 2007-08 – when it was still known as the ULEB Cup – and won its final three games of the regular season. After a run of some unsuccessful seasons, Ludwigsburg returned to the German League playoffs last year for the second year in a row, even though it lost to eventual champion Brose Baskets Bamberg in the quarterfinals. With some positive momentum, Ludwigsburg can hope to start living up to the long tradition basketball has in its city. The roots of today's team started in 1960, when a sports club called DJK Ludwigsburg created a basketball section. Once the team started to find some success, the basketball section moved to another club, Spvgg 07 Ludwigsburg, due to financial reasons. It took another decade to make it to the first division in the 1979-80 season. It returned to the second division in the early eighties only to earn promotion again in the 1985-86 season. Ludwigsburg became a basketball-only club in December 1987, and by that time was a German playoff regular and even made three consecutive Korac Cup appearances from 1992 and 1994 led by the likes of Markus Jochum, Jens Kujawa, Bertram Koch and Walter Palmer. It didn't last long, however, and the team started to miss the playoffs and was relegated to the German second division in 1997, even playing a year in the third division in 2000. Ludwigsburg started a new era when it returned to the German elite in 2002. Jimmal Ball, MC Mazique, Derrick Phelps and Vedran Morovic helped the team to keep its name in the German first division, while Jerry Green, Lamayn Wilson and Andrius Geidraitis led Ludwigsburg to the playoffs in 2005. New highs came two years later when Michel Ferreira, Pavelas Cukinas and Miljan Goljovic took the team to a second-place finish in the German regular season and an appearance in the semifinals before losing against Brose Baskets. Then came its Eurocup debut and in 2008, a shot at its first title. EnBW Ludwigsburg lost to Artland Dragons in the championship game and the team slipped into a funk after that. Ludwigsburg missed the German playoffs that season and the two that followed and by 2012 was fighting against relegation. But now Ludwigsburg seems to be back on track and eager to shot that in the Eurocup.