Basketball team

USC Heidelberg

Club · Germany · BBL

«Academics»

232 Matches

102 wins

129 losses

19148–19829 Points

−681 Difference

82.5 Average per match

Form L L W W W L

Basketball came to Heidelberg's old multi-sport club in 1952, decades after the parent organisation had already been founded, in 1899, around other disciplines. What the department built over the following two decades turned it into one of the defining names of German basketball: nine national championships between 1956–57 and 1976–77, six of them in an unbroken run from 1956 to 1962, followed by two German Cup wins in 1977 and 1978. The team plays as the Academics, a name the sponsorship now extends to MLP Academics Heidelberg.

Shyron Ely's number 5 hangs retired from that era's success.

The championship run gave way to a longer stretch without silverware, and the club eventually dropped out of the Basketball Bundesliga altogether. It found its way back only in 2020–21, winning the ProA and earning promotion. The following year the SNP Dome opened, replacing the old Olympiastützpunkt hall and giving the team a proper home again, seating just over 4,400 for basketball. Locally, the fixture against SG Heidelberg-Kirchheim is played as the Kurpfalz-Derby.

Since returning to the top flight, Heidelberg has also taken part in the FIBA Champions League, finishing third in its group in 2024–25. Since 1977, the club has not added another Cup or championship to the collection built in the 1950s, '60s and '70s.

Latest results

Fixtures and results

10 Oct	Pro A	Wolmirstedt H	74:85	L
4 Oct	Pro A	OrangeAcademy Ulm A	84:68	W
2 Oct	Pro A	ETB Miners H	118:74	W
26 Sep	Pro A	Tigers Tübingen A	83:75	W
13 Sep	German Cup	Oldenburg H	63:82	L
10 May	BBL	Vechta H	89:103	L