Tony Binetti in action during his SPU days.
Tony Binetti, now playing in Italy, was the 2006 GNAC Player of the Year.

Catching Up With ... Tony Binetti

Former Falcon Star is Flying High in Italy's Professional Basketball League

7/30/2010 11:40:08 AM


       Tony Binetti's 2009-10 stats
       A look at Italy's LegADue

       Catching Up With ... Rower Rachel Alexander (June 25)
       Catching Up With ... Volleyball player Alyssa Given (July 2)
       Catching Up With ... Soccer player Meredith Teague (July 9)
       Catching Up With ... Coach Ken Foreman and his new book (July 16)
       Catching Up With ... Howie Kellogg (July 23)

ENUMCLAW, Wash. – If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And sometimes – even if you can beat 'em, join 'em.

Tony Binetti just took the latter route. And, a little more than a month after basking in the glow of winning the Italian LegADue playoffs, it's a route that will ensure the former Seattle Pacific star keeps his professional basketball sojourn in Europe going at full speed.

Tony Binetti
Binetti, who took his talents across the Atlantic after capping his Falcons career with an All-American senior season and a trip to the NCAA Elite Eight in 2006, is fresh off helping his Banco di Sardegna Sassari team win a best-of-5 final series against favored Basket Veroli. In his role as the sixth man, Binetti was a key contributor as Sassari split the first two games on the road (losing the first, 95-82, but winning the second, 90-88), then swept the next two at home, 86-79 and 99-78.

Binetti had eight points and five rebounds in the clincher.

“It was a pretty crazy experience and pretty surreal,” said the 27-year-old Binnetti, now back in Enumclaw, about 40 miles and an hour-plus drive southeast of SPU, to work a series of summer basketball camps. “That's the first time I've won it. After we won, people were partying in the streets until 5 or 6 in the morning.”

Come next season, Binetti will be hoping to turn the tables. While Sassari will be moving up to Italy's top-flight Serie A by virtue of winning the playoffs, Basket Veroli will be back in the second division LegADue. And this time, Veroli will have Binetti on its side after he signed last week.

“It was a tough decision,” Binetti said. “Sassari offered (a contract), and I really thought I would return. But Veroli is making a big push to move up, and it was a better situation and a bigger role for me.”

Binetti certainly has gotten used to donning different uniforms. Since heading to Europe after graduating from Seattle Pacific in 2006 with a degree in business finance/economics, he now will have been with eight teams altogether, seven of those in Italy. (The exception was one year in Spain.)

While that has meant a certain amount of moving around, Binetti has relished the continued opportunity to play his favorite game.

“Everyone who is really serious about basketball and loves the game wants to keep playing after college,” he said. “I've been pretty blessed to actually do it and sustain it. … I play against guys every game who have been in the NBA.”

LAYING THE FOUNDATION AT SPU
Binetti's time with the Falcons helped set up his chance to make it as a pro. During his four years in maroon, he played in 114 of SPU's 115 games, and from his sophomore through his senior year, he started 85 of 86 games.

Tony Binetti in action during his SPU days.
A 6-foot-1 guard, his scoring average rose from 4.0 as a freshman to a team-leading 18.2 as a senior. He also led the team in assists each of his last three seasons. The 162 he dished out as a senior tied for the fifth-best single-season total in school history, and his 459 career assists also ranks No. 5 on Seattle Pacific's all-time list.

By his junior year, people were noticing. Binetti earned a spot on the All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference honorable mention list. Then, following his senior season in 2006, Binetti was on two first-team All-American and All-District squads, and was the GNAC's Player of the Year, as he led the Falcons to a 14-4 conference record and the title.

Seattle Pacific swept through three NCAA West Region games in Brougham Pavilion in March 2006, then won its Elite Eight opener, 79-65 against Montevallo in Springfield, Mass., before seeing its 26-6 season end in the semifinals with a 68-63 loss to Virginia Union.

“SPU and its program and the people there, especially coach (Jeff) Hironaka and (Brock) Veltri and (George) Parker and (Scott) Reid really helped prepare me for playing at that next level,” Binetti said. “Having the success that we had at SPU and developing as a person and as a player has contributed to my success now.”

While Binetti certainly would have enjoyed a shot at the NBA, he has found the European pro competition to be very close.

“It's the next best thing to the NBA,” he said. “Italy is one of the better leagues, Spain is one of the better leagues, France and Germany have really good leagues. They are right there, just a notch down (from the NBA). But it's better than the D-League (the NBA's Development League).”

SUPER SUB
Although Binetti didn't start for Banco Sassari, he said he played approximately 25 minutes a game in his sixth-man role. The team's best scorer started at the point guard spot, but would move over to shooting guard when Binetti came in off the bench to play the point. Binetti averaged 6.1 per contest and 6.2 in the playoffs.

“I finished every single game,” Binetti said “I had played for our coach three years ago (with another team), so I was familiar with his system and what he wanted to do. Just like with any coach, it's not who starts, it's who finishes. That was my goal the whole year: to be in the game when it mattered.”

The Italian regular season is longer than the NBA, starting in early October and ending in early May, but isn't nearly as strenuous. Teams play a 30-game regular-season schedule, with just one game a week, typically on weekends.

“That's just how they have it set up,” he said. “But every single game is that much more important. You're preparing for just one game a week.”

Binetti said he and his wife, who have been married for two years, have had a chance to see a good portion of both Italy and Spain. Sassari, their home this past season, is on the island of Sardinia, which lies to the west of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea.

Veroli, where he'll play when he heads back in mid August to prepare for training camp, is located about 40 minutes outside of Rome.

While Europe's transportation system makes it relatively easy to get around, Binetti also has had to learn to navigate the roads. As for the stories about how challenging it is to drive in Europe?

“You just have to be as aggressive as they are, and you'll be OK,” he said with a laugh.

Binetti figures he has plenty of basketball left in him, and will keep playing as long as the right opportunities to do so keep presenting themselves. Whenever that times come to step away, he'll have options.

“I wouldn't mind doing something with my degree and doing something in the business world,” Binetti said.

“We'll just put our faith in God, and whatever happens, happens.”


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