This is the second time the Spaniard has won this award
BKT EuroCup Coach of the Year, 2024-25: Pedro Martinez, Valencia Basket
Awards
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Having constructed the best offense in club history and the second best all-time in the BKT EuroCup, Valencia Basket play-caller Pedro Martinez has been named the 2024-25 EuroCup Coach of the Year. This marks the second time that Coach Martinez has won the award.
Valencia was a locomotive that could not be stopped during the EuroCup Regular Season, scoring 96.4 points per game – the second-highest average in history, only behind Paris Basketball from last season (97.0 ppg.). Including the Spanish side’s four postseason games, Valencia’s season average in scoring stands at 95.8 ppg., just ahead of the 2023-24 Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv (95.7 ppg.) and behind the 2023-24 Paris (97.0 ppg.).
Coach Martinez finished first overall in voting for the Coach of the Year award, followed by Bahcesehir College Istanbul’s Dejan Radonjic and Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana’s Zvezdan Mitrovic in second and third, respectively.
The Coach of the Year award is among several trophies handed out to recognize the outstanding work achieved by EuroCup participants during the 2024-25 BKT EuroCup season. The Rising Star Trophy, also voted by the head coaches, was won by Valencia guard Jean Montero. The All-EuroCup Teams and the 2024-25 MVP – for whom coaches, team captains, fans and media all vote – will be announced before the EuroCup Finals begin.
Having been appointed last summer, Coach Martinez knew that expectations were high entering the 2024-25 campaign and his team delivered in style, winning the first 11 games of the season to create a sizeable gap at the top of Group A. Across those 11 games, Valencia poured in 100 or more points seven times, including in four straight contests between Round 2 and Round 5. It would finish the 18-game regular season having netted 100-plus points on 11 occasions.
Despite back-to-back defeats – at home to 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys and on the road at Umana Reyer Venice – Valencia won its last five games of the regular season to finish with a competition-best 16-2 record. Having secured a bye in the last 16, Valencia comfortably eliminated U-BT Cluj-Napoca in the quarterfinals to set up a semifinal series with Hapoel Tel Aviv. After winning 91-82 in Game 1, Valencia fell 96-91 in Bulgaria in Game 2 before losing 92-94 in Game 3.
Such was the impressiveness of Coach Martinez’s troops that they posted a team PIR of 114.3, the best mark ever seen in the EuroCup. One of the main keys to Valencia’s offense was its three-pointers, with the team making 264 triples to tie the all-time record, which the Valencia team of 2013-14 previously set. Its average of three-pointers made, however, ranks first in competition history (12.8 threes made per game).
That's not all. Valencia also led the EuroCup in assists (23.0 per game), total rebounds (40.6 per game) and defensive rebounds (27.4 per game), making the 63-year-old Martinez a worthy winner of his second EuroCup Coach of the Year award. He first took home this honor in 2016-17 after taking Valencia to the EuroCup Finals, and he’s done so again this season by guiding Valencia to the EuroCup Semifinals.
The previous winners of the award were Oktay Mahmuti of Benetton Treviso in 2009, Ilias Zouros of Panellinios in 2010, Aleksandar Petrovic of Cedevita Zagreb in 2011, Jure Zdovc of Spartak St. Petersburg in 2012, Fotis Katsikaris of Uxue Bilbao Basket in 2013, Andrea Trinchieri of UNICS Kazan in 2014, Maurizio Buscaglia of Dolomiti Energia Trento in 2016, Sasa Obradovic of Lokomotiv Kuban in 2018, Zvezdan Mitrovic of AS Monaco in 2021, Dusan Alimpijevic of Frutti Extra Bursaspor in 2022, Erdem Can of Turk Telekom Ankara in 2023, and Tuomas Iisalo of Paris Basketball in 2024.