ITA - No road leads to play-offs for Roma

ROME (Lega A) - When the Lega A post-season tips off this week, one club that had hopes of challenging for the title won't even be involved.

Only the top eight sides make it to the play-offs in Italy and ninth-place Lottomatica Roma, by virtue of their late-season swoon, won't be among them.

Roma played in the Euroleague and even made it to the Top 16 this year but their form in Italy was patchy at best. Four wins in their last 10 games wasn't good enough.

Victory at Montepaschi Siena on Sunday would have punched the Romans' ticket to the play-offs but Simone Pianigiani's team, which had already locked up the regular season title, won 83-73.

"I am very sorry and sad," said Roma coach Saso Filipovski, "and even more so because the results on the other courts did not help us, nor the defeat by Siena on Thursday in (Dinamo) Sassari was predictable: a different result would have got the qualification (for Roma)."

Roma will now have to consider the way forward and Filipovski, who replaced Matteo Boniciollo in January, isn't sure if he'll be in charge next season.

"What will happen now?" he said, "I do not know, I have another year of my contract, but the president (Claudio Toti) will decide on the future of the club."

Filipovski began the season as an assistant coach at CSKA Moscow to Dusko Vujosevic but left when the head coach and CSKA Moscow agreed to go separate ways.

There was some good news after the Roma defeat and that was the club announcement that Italy international Luigi Datome did not suffer damage to his ribs or spleen after getting hit in the game at Montepaschi.

Italy's play-offs get underway on Wednesday when Bennet Cantu host Cimberio Varese and Dinamo Sassari visit Armani Jeans Milano.

Coby Carl, formerly of CB Granada in Spain, has joined Armani Jeans for the play-offs following the season-ending injury to Lithuania international Jonas Maciulis.

FIBA