After Lorenzo Ambrosin (click here to read more about him) theAPU Udine immediately welcomes another new face: Giovanni Pini, wing/centre returning from a season in Serie A1 with the shirt of Scafati. Greeted Quirino De Laurentiswho signed a two-year contract with Pesaro, the Bianconeri wasted no time and focused on an expert and flexible profile, as underlined by coach Adriano Vertemati during the presentation: “Giovanni has experience, a winning mentality and flexibility. He has always been a protagonist of this championship”.
The Italian big man’s first season in Serie A2 was 2010/11 in the Pallacanestro Reggiana shirt, with which he won promotion to Serie A1 in his second season, alongside the former APU captain Michele Antonutti. In the 2012/13 season he moved to Fortitudo Bologna in search of more space. With Effe he finds a different continuity and after a convincing championship he returns to the red and whites.
His adventure in the top flight struggled to take off, because the ambitions of the Emilians, with whom he would win the Eurochallenge in the 2013/14 season and play in the championship finals in the following one, reduced his playing time. After a quick move to Avellino Pini then chose to return to A2, where he wore the Verona shirt on several occasions, with brief periods elsewhere including the return to the Effe shirt, the Giallorossi experience in A1 with Virtus Roma and the move to Cantu. In the last two seasons the big man has played in the top flight, first with his “his” team Verona and then with Scafati, carving out a supporting role for himself coming off the bench.
Player ductile and how much ever sailed, Pini brings a lot of experience to Serie A2 and offers different options to Vertemati. Although his 205 centimeters are not small, he is not an intimidating big man but rather a rather mobile wing/centre. It is therefore reasonable to expect that alongside him the Bianconeri will choose to include a more athletic and physical player, perhaps with a US passport. The permanence of Matteo Da Ros and the signing of the former Scafati big man suggest the arrival of a player with complementary characteristics, so as not to find himself suffering too much in kilos, centimeters and athleticism of the opposing centres. We will therefore have to wait for the next moves in the Juventus market to have clearer ideas.
