A season for the ages: at 35, Andrea Cinciarini is still proving a lot of people wrong / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: ZUMAPRESS.com/Scanpix Credit ZUMAPRESS.com/Scanpix

Sometimes, to move forward, you have to go back. This motto ideally suits the type of season that Italian veteran point guard Andrea Cinciarini is having with UnaHotels Reggio Emilia.

Andrea Cinciarini

Position:PGAge:35Height:193 cmWeight:85 kgBirth place:Cattolica, ItalyProfileNewsStatistics

After spending six seasons with Italian giants AX Armani Exchange Milan last summer, Cinciarini decided to go back where his career skyrocketed. Before moving to Milan, he had already played for Reggio Emilia for three seasons from 2012 to 2015.

During that first stint with Reggio, he also won the FIBA Eurochallenge with the club, claiming the MVP title of the competition.

He could have stayed with Armani for at least one more season, but he wanted to have a more central role, which would have been difficult in Milan since his playing time decreased in the past two seasons.

Cinciarini felt he could still have been a key player for a team, so returning to Reggio Emilia, the place that turned him into one of the best Italian players in the league, looked like the best option.

And trust me, that decision is paying off big time. Cinciarini averages 10.6 points, 10.0 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 37% from 3-point. You read it correctly, the Italian point guard is averaging a double-double per game, and he's the best assist man of the league.

Not only that, he's breaking some serious records, too. In February, he recorded the first-ever triple-double for an Italian player in Serie A with 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists in the win against Treviso.

Before Cinciarini's triple-double, the last one ever recorded in the Italian league was back in 2004, when American forward Tyrone Grant, who was playing for Teramo, had 29 points, 11 steals, and 10 rebounds in a win against Avellino.

He didn't stop there, though. Last Sunday, in Reggio Emilia's road win against Vanoli Cremona, Cinciarini tied the record for the most assists in a game, which was owned by fellow Italian point guard Luca Vitali with 18.

When asked about all these impressive performances, Cinciarini denied the existence of some sort of magical elixir.

"I feel great, and I'm very happy for my performances and the type of season the team is having. But there's no secret, only hard work and lot of will to keep my condition, both physically and mentally, taking of care of every single detail", Cinciarini told BasketNews.

The original goal for Reggio Emilia this season was to avoid relegation without too much stress. But so far, those plans went much better than expected. Coach Attilio Caja's side is currently tied for fourth place in the standings only behind Armani Exchange Milan, Virtus Segafredo Bologna, and Germani Brescia.

They also reached the semifinals of the FIBA Europe Cup, in which they'll face Danish side Bakken Bears.

"When I came back last summer, I already knew a couple of players like Candi and Baldi Rossi," Cinciarini explained to our website.

"I also knew how coach Caja wanted his teams to play, I played against his teams many times. I knew that the new project of the team, with a new president, was to keep the direction but at the same time with the room to grow.

As soon as we started to work together, I realized that we had a very nice group of players, we love to spend time together, everyone plays for the team, we always try to find the open man, and we play hard on defense just like the coach wants."

"Game after game, I've started to have the awareness that this group could achieve something more than what we anticipated at first," Cinciarini continued. "Now there's a lot of confidence, and we hope that we can strongly finish the regular season."

Cinciarini is not the only player that's shining for Reggio Emilia this season. Among the best surprises of the Serie A season, there's also Lithuanian forward Osvaldas Olisevicius.

After spending the past season in Germany with Medi Bayreuth, Olisevicius signed a one-year deal with Reggio Emilia last summer and quickly became one of the top forces of the team.

So far, the Lithuanian player is averaging 17 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1,4 assists, and 1 steal per game in Serie A while shooting 38.5% from 3-point. In a match against Allianz Trieste in January, he had his career-high with 29 points. Recently, Olisevicius also signed a contract extension with the club until 2024.

Cinciarini didn't know Olisevicius but quickly fell in love with his game.

"When I joined the team, I didn't know Osvaldas," Cinciarini admitted. "But I have to say that this was a great addition made by the front office, and it's great that he has already been signed to a contract extension."

"He's a really nice player with great shooting skills. In every position on the court, he always knows how to find the basket. He's a scorer but with a great knowledge of the game, and he's one of my favorite teammates to feed with my assists," added the Italian guard.

The Italian point guard is averaging more than 30 minutes per game this season. Now that he's 35-years-old, his conditioning and the ways to maintain it are keys for his game. In the last two seasons in Milan, his playing time wasn't that big, but when coach Messina called him, he was always ready to give his contribution as a true leader of the locker room.

One of the reasons to leave Milan was precisely to play more and be more of a key factor for a team.

Cinciarini told BasketNews that the work during the summer with the trainer Giustino Danesi is fundamental for him.

"The physical work is really important. Every summer I work with my trainer Giustino Danesi and I trust him completely. Even when I was playing limited minutes in Milan, I never gave up, I kept working on my condition and my strength so that my body could always be ready for everything.

From a mental standpoint, when I decided to leave Milan, I knew the fire that I had inside of me. I was convinced that I could help a group like Reggio with my abilities. I wanted to be myself and have fun on the court."

During his time with Armani Exchange Milan (from 2015 to 2021), Cinciarini won two Italian league titles, three Italian Cups, and four Italian Supercups. Last season he also reached the EuroLeague Final Four, in which Milan was eliminated by Barcelona in the semifinals.

After his first season in Milan, Cinciarini was named captain of the team and remained such until the end of his experience with the team. Among all the victories, though, there's one that Cinciarini keeps in his memory more than the others.

"All the trophies and the victories are special," Cinciarini told BasketNews. "But for sure, the nicest trophy for me was the second league title (2017-2018 one). That season, until January, I wasn't playing that much. Then, after the loss in the Italian cup against Cantù and the injury of Jordan Theodore, coach Pianigiani decided to give me a bigger role and use me as the starting point guard."

"We won 10 games in a row in the league, and we were able to readjust ourselves. We did a very good job in the playoffs, and we won the finals against Trento. That was a very important win for me because it made me realize even more that sometimes you have to wait for your moment and then be able to use it in the best way possible, giving your everything on the court. That was a really important victory."

Returning to Reggio Emilia was a natural choice for Cinciarini, but since 2015 some things have changed. As of right now, the team is playing in Bologna because Reggio Emilia's arena, PalaBigi, is still not ready after the redevelopment work.

Hopefully, the arena will be ready for the summer but the feeling to play away from home is something that Cinciarini definitely felt.

"Unfortunately, the PalaBigi is still not ready, and we played our home games in Bologna this season. I remember the atmosphere of PalaBigi for the home games, and now it's not the same thing, even with the fans trying to do their best to come to see us in Bologna," the point guard explained.

"Having 1000-1500 fans in an 8000 people arena it's one thing, having an almost full house with a 4000 people capacity is a completely different thing, so we definitely lost something related to the home factor.

Luckily when I came back, I had a very good sensation. With people in the front office like Dalla Salda (the CEO of Reggio Emilia) and Barozzi (the GM of the team), I always had a good relationship, and we kept an open dialogue even during my days in Milan. The new president, Veronica Bartoli, has a really interesting project, so I really had only positive sensations when I joined the club," Cinciarini added.

"I'm an ambitious person, I always want to reach the best," Cinciarini continued. "We reached the semifinals of the FIBA Europe Cup, for the Italian league, I'd love to play in the playoffs, and considering our current situation in the standings, we have a chance.

But there are a lot of teams in just a few points, so we need to keep working hard and don't underestimate anyone. We need to remain humble but at the same time with confidence in ourselves."

As a true floor general, Cinciarini grew up with some idols. He took inspiration from the 'Greek school' of point guards, superb players like Vassilis Spanoulis, Dimitris Diamantidis, Theodoros Papaloukas, and Kostas Sloukas. But those weren't the only ones that inspired Cinciarini to become the best point guard possible. "I had the pleasure to watch Sasha Djordjevic playing when I was in Pesaro. I was doing my last season as a junior player, and he taught me a lot of things. In Milan, I was lucky enough to play with Sergio Rodriguez.

El Chacho is a magician in his role. In Serie A, we have a player like Milos Teodosic, who's absolutely incredible for his ability to make passes that only he can see. Another point guard that I appreciate a lot is Vasilije Micic of Efes, a great player."

At 35, Andrea Cinciarini is showing everyone that he can still mightily contribute to a team's success, even if it's not one as ambitious as Milan.

To move forward in his career, he decided to take a step back and return to a place that he considers home. Sometimes it's necessary. As a leader, he knew this was the right move for him, and the results are on his side.

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