APU Udine

Udine and Trieste are barely an hour apart, and the Friuli derby between APU and Pallacanestro Trieste is the fixture that keeps that distance short. For Udine, it is also a fixture with a history that reaches back before the current club existed.

That history belongs to Snaidero Udine, who played in Serie A in 1968 and again in 1999. In 2011 the side went bankrupt after 67 years, and basketball in the city could have ended with it. Instead, on June 29, 2011, a new club was set up under the name Amici Pallacanestro Udinese. It kept the acronym "APU" and the fans, and it started again in the lower divisions.

The climb was slow and had its near misses. APU finished runners-up in Serie A2 in 2021 and 2022, and lost the Italian LNP Cup final in 2021. The following year they won that cup, the first trophy of the new club. The league title took until 2025, when they won Serie A2 and went up to the top flight, which Snaidero had left behind in 2011.

Games are played at the Palasport Primo Carnera, known as PalaCarnera, which holds roughly 3,500. Supporters call the team the Bianconeri, after the black and white colours, or use the name Apumania. Sponsorship often puts "Old Wild West" in front of the club's name.

Promotion means Udine now meets Trieste in the same league again. Before, the derby carried the weight of an old regional rivalry. Now it is played on the same footing as the rest of the Serie A calendar.