QTSV Quakenbrück, widely known as 'Artland Dragons is a professional basketball club based in Quakenbrück, Germany. The club' s home arena is the Artland Arena, which has a capacity of 3,000 spectators.[1] From 2003 till 2015 the club played in the Basketball Bundesliga and in several European competitions.

Artland Dragons
Artland Dragons logo
LeaguesProA
Founded1955; 69 years ago (1955)
HistoryQTSV Quakenbrück
(1955–2003)
Artland Dragons
(2003–present)
ArenaArtland-Arena
Capacity3,000
LocationQuakenbrück, Germany
Team colorsBlack, Red and White
     
PresidentMarius Kröger
2018–19 positionProA, 11th of 16
Championships1 German Cup
Websiteartland-dragons.de

On May 3, 2015, the club announced that it would fold.[2] Ultimately, the management decided to continue operations in the third tier Bundesliga ProB.[3][4]

In 2018, the Dragons were promoted to the ProA.

History

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Basketball has a long tradition in Quakenbrück. It was first played in the Artland-Gymnasium school. The basketball section of the sports club QTSV Quakenbrück was established in 1955. In the 1970s, the first men's team got their first achievement, by being promoted to the second German League, where they stayed for three seasons.

After a long time without great success, Günter 'Ice' Kollmann, former German basketball player and junior national team member, supported the QTSV team as a main sponsor. By continuous work on the youth education in the 1980s, the team had major successes in the 1990s. In 1994, the team was promoted to the second regional league, followed by promotion to the first regional league one season later, and promotion to the second national league another season later. In 2003, the promotion to the highest national league was made and the name of the club changed officially to Artland Dragons from QTSV Quakenbrück. QTSV then became a smaller partner club in a lower regional league.

In the seasons 1995–96 and 2002–03, the team was unbeaten in its league.

Starting from the 2003–04 season, the Artland Dragons played in the first tier BBL a long time. In the 2006–07 season, the team managed to end 2nd in the regular season and played in the BBL Finals. The team lost 3–1 to first seeded Brose Baskets Bamberg. Starting from the 2007–08 season, the team also played in European competitions for 8 straight years.

In May 2015, the club unexpectedly announced that it would dissolve the professional basketball club. The reasons for the closure included that the Dragons could not keep up with the growing budgets of other BBL teams, due to the club's small arena and lack of big sponsors.[5] Eventually, the team decided to move back to the third division ProB.

 
In June 2024, British head coach Vincent Macaulay took over the reigns for the Artland Dragons. He started out with a ProA winning streak of 4 games.
 
Dragons huddle in October 2024.

Logos

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Trophies

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German Bundesliga

  • Runners-up (1): 2007

German Cup

  • Winners (1): 2008
    • Runners-up (1): 2007

Season by season

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Season Tier League Pos. German Cup European competitions
2000–01 2 2. BBL 2nd
2001–02 2 2. BBL 3rd
2002–03 2 2. BBL 1st
2003–04 1 Bundesliga 9th
2004–05 1 Bundesliga 6th
2005–06 1 Bundesliga 5th Fourth position
2006–07 1 Bundesliga 2nd Runner-up
2007–08 1 Bundesliga 5th Champion 2 ULEB Cup
RS
2008–09 1 Bundesliga 9th 2 Eurocup
RS
2009–10 1 Bundesliga 9th 3 EuroChallenge
RS
2010–11 1 Bundesliga 4th Third position 3 EuroChallenge
QR
2011–12 1 Bundesliga 3rd Quarterfinalist 3 EuroChallenge
QF
2012–13 1 Bundesliga 6th Fourth position 2 Eurocup
RS
2013–14 1 Bundesliga 4th Quarterfinalist 2 Eurocup
RS
2014–15 1 Bundesliga 11th[a] 2 Eurocup
RS
2015–16 3 ProB 6th
2016–17 3 ProB 2nd
2017–18 3 ProB 5th
2018–19 2 ProA 11th
2019–20 2 ProA 14th
2020–21 2 ProA 8th
2021–22 2 ProA 15th
2022–23 2 ProA 6th
2023–24 2 ProA First round
  1. ^ Resigned its position in the Bundesliga.

Players

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Current roster

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Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Artland Dragons roster
Players Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. Wt. Age
SG 0   Watkins, Anthony
PF 1   Green, Tajh
PG 4   Döding, Thorben 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) 25 – (1999-03-07)7 March 1999
SG 6   Cracknell, Troy
PG 9   Anthony, Buzz
C 11   Oehle, Robert
SG 12   Johnson, Taylor
PF 14   Thomas, Brandon
PF 15   West, Lamont
SG 22   Möller, Marvin 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 22 – (2002-09-26)26 September 2002
C 25   Kolo, Yasin
SF 50   Grüttner, Joanic
Head coach
Assistant coach(es)

Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  •   Injured

Updated: October 1, 2024

Notable players

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Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Criteria

To appear in this section a player must have either:

  • Set a club record or won an individual award while at the club
  • Played at least one official international match for their national team at any time
  • Played at least one official NBA match at any time.

Partner & youth team

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The Partner club of the Artland Dragons is the local basketball club "QTSV", with a men's team playing in the regional league, and a women's team playing in the second German women's league. There are also a variety of other teams (youth and adults, also wheelchair basketball). The youth team of the Artland Dragons is the "Young Dragons", which plays in the NBBL, the German youth team league (Nachwuchs Basketball Bundesliga).

Cheerleader squad and team mascot

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The cheerleader squad is called "The Flames". It is trained by Annette Schone. The team mascot is a dragon called, "Tobi der Drache" (Tobi the Dragon).

References

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  1. ^ Website Artland Dragons
  2. ^ "Rückzug aus der Beko BBL: Artland Dragons stellen Profispielbetrieb ein". beko-bbl.de. 3 May 2015.
  3. ^ "McCray nach Ludwigsburg: Artland Dragons starten in der ProB".
  4. ^ Quakenbrücker TSV erhält ProB-Lizenz
  5. ^ Keine Chance für Basketball
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