59,000 kilometers traveled in 8 and a half months!

In the summer of 2025, after 3 consecutive seasons in the EuroCup, U-BT Cluj-Napoca formalized the decision to also play in the Adriatic League, a regional competition with strong teams from the Euroleague and EuroCup.

U-BT Cluj-Napoca played 35 away matches this season, 25 outside Romania

Mihai Silvășan's team requested and received the right to skip the regular season of the National Men's Basketball League and enter the playoffs directly, but even so, the effort made was huge.

According to GSP calculations, U-BT Cluj-Napoca traveled around 59,000 kilometers in the 2025-2026 season. Given that the circumference of the Earth is 40,000 kilometersthat means the “students” have circled the planet once and are halfway through the second “go around”.

From September 19, 2025 to June 3, 2026, i.e. in 256 days, the black and whites covered more than 59,000 kilometers – an average of 230 kilometers/day for 8 and a half months. This aspect was also caused by the fact that both Cluj and other cities, especially in the Balkans, are not well connected.

Therefore, the players and staff of U-BT often had to change two or three planes to reach their desired destination. The longest trip was, without question, the one to Dubai.

Then, they flew from Cluj to Warsaw and from Warsaw to Wroclaw, where they played against Slask. Then from Wroclaw they flew to Frankfurt and from there to Dubai. On their return, the people from Cluj flew Dubai-Istanbul, respectively Istanbul-Cluj. In total, this trip was over 9000 kilometers.

Mihai Silvășan, the coach of U-BT Cluj-Napoca: “We were away from home for 100 or so days”

“Andrei Bălan (the physical trainer of U-BT Cluj-Napoca) actually made a statistic. We were away from home for 100 or so days. That's a lot,” said Silvășan, at the press conference after winning the 6th consecutive title and the 8th in the club's history.

“We stayed together a lot in hotels and things weren't always rosy, but we always tried to find solutions and move forward victoriouslyi. I think it was a successful, tiring season, especially for me in many ways,” added the 41-year-old coach.

The season started on September 20, in Brașov, when U-BT Cluj-Napoca defeated CSO Voluntari 80-75 and won the Romanian Super Cup. Then, on February 18, in Oradea, Cluj beat CSM Oradea 85-84 and won the Romanian Cup.

The 3rd trophy of the season came on June 3rd when U-BT beat their archrival 74-72, closed out the LNBM finals with a score of 3-1 and defended their national title.

Externally, U-BT Cluj-Napoca qualified for the “quarters” in both the EuroCup and the ABA League. In the EuroCup, Transylvania came close to beating Bahcesehir Istanbul but lost 75-72 and in the ABA League they were beaten 2-1 by Buducnost Podgorica.

U-BT Cluj-Napoca's trips abroad in the 2025-2026 season

• Klaipeda (Lithuania) vs. Neptune

• Ljubljana (Slovenia) vs. Krka and Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana (twice)

• Wroclaw (Poland) vs. Slask Wroclaw

• Dubai (United Arab Emirates) vs. Dubai Basketball

• Split (Croatia) vs. KK Split

• Hamburg (Germany) vs. Hamburg

• Podgorica (Montenegro) vs. KK Derby and Buducnost (three times)

• Belgrade (Serbia) vs. Partizan, Red Star and FMP

• Thessaloniki (Greece) vs. Aris Thessaloniki

• Istanbul (Turkey) vs. Bahcesehir Istanbul (twice)

• Venice (Italy) vs. Human Reyer Venice

• Laktasi (Bosnia and Herzegovina) vs. KK Igokea

• Manresa (Spain) vs. BAXI Manresa

• Jerusalem (Israel) vs. Hapoel Jerusalem

• Cacak (Serbia) vs. Borac Cacak

• Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) vs. KK Bosna

Internally, U-BT traveled to Brașov for the Romanian Super Cup, to Oradea for the Romanian Cup and the LNBM final, to Sibiu for the “quarters” of the championship, and to Craiova for the LNBM semifinals.

U-BT Cluj-Napoca played 61 matches in the 2025-2026 seasonhaving a record of 37 wins and 24 losses:

Dusan Miletic, the Serbian pivot of the Romanian championis the only basketball player from Silvășan's team who played in all 61 matches.

Dusan Miletic, the pivot of U-BT Cluj-Napoca/Photo: u-bt.basketball

Mihai Silvășan, proud of his team's resilience: “The chemistry was very good”

Asked by GSP.ro about this statistic and what brings him the most pride at the end of this season, Silvășan answered as follows:

I think the resilience we showed. It was an extremely difficult time in January. We had a lot of away games. If I remember correctly, out of 8 matches played, 7 were away. And out of the 8 matches, we lost I think 7. The last victory was the one against Borac, just before the decisive match against Aris.

Believe me it was not an easy period to manage, but the resilience we showed and what these boys were able to do immediately after that period, in the match against Aris that we dominated and we managed to qualify for the EuroCup playoffs, as well as by winning the Romanian Cup, was a source of pride and I think it would have been for any coach.

Ultimately, you want to create a team that you enjoy working with. This team really has that quality, we haven't had any big character or behavior problems at any point in the season. The chemistry was very good, the desire for victory very high and I am glad that each of the members of this team leaves with something positive

– Mihai Silvasan

Mihai Silvășan, at the press conference after winning the title/Photo: David Istrate (GSP.ro)