The Club Scene: Artland Dragons
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  Tucked away in north-central Germany is the small 13,000-person town of Quakenbrück, home of the Artland Dragons, one of the biggest surprises of this season's ULEB Cup. In its first experience playing European competition, head coach Chris Fleming's team survived difficult Group H of the regular season with victories over Benetton Tamoil, BC Kyiv, ASK Riga and Pau-Orthez, the latter twice. And then Artland clinched a surprise home win over favored Triumph Lyubertsy in the first leg of the Last 32. Not only is Artland a new face on the European landscape, but the club didn't make its first-division debut in Germany until 2003. Although he is American, Fleming is clearly the public face of the club, after having played seven years for Artland before becoming head coach in 2000 - a total of 13 years all told in Quackenbruck. Fleming's men nearly grabbed the German championship last season, losing to Brose Baskets Bamberg in the Finals after sweeping regular season champion Alba Berlin in the first round and then-reigning title-holder RheinEnergie Koln in the semifinals. It all led to the ULEB Cup, and an international debut that few people in Artland ever expected and which could not go much better than it is. "The really nice part of it was to see how much the people, the fans, the club who did so much work for so little or no money, how much they really enjoyed the run," Fleming said. "That was really nice."
Quakenbrück's basketball history goes back to its founding in the mid-1950s and its first official game in 1958 as part of the Osnabruck city league. Quakenbrück TSV - as the club was called back then - slowly made its way through Germany's lower leagues in the 1960s and reached the second division in the mid-1970s with former German national team player Helmut Uhlig as coach. The three years in the second division were crowned by a victory over Bayer Leverkusen in the Round of 16 of the German Cup. Quakenbrück returned to the lower depths of the German system during the 1980s and  early 1990s before finally returning to the second division in 1996. Another highlight came in 1998 when Artland - with Fleming as a player - knocked off first- division side TV Tatami Rhondorf in the German Cup. A couple weeks later, Artland lost 65-63 against DJK Wurzburg as Dirk Nowitzki tallied 33 points.
The club remained in the second division going into the next millennium but saw a change at the top as Fleming took over the bench in 2000 - his first job as a head coach. In his third season in charge, Fleming guided Artland to a perfect 30-0 season and promotion to the first division for the 2003-04 season. The debutant from Quakenbrück was more than respectable with its first German League season, positioning itself for a playoff spot until the final day of the regular season, only to lose out after both Köln and Leverkusen won to reach the post-season. Artland reached the playoffs the next season only to lose to reigning champion Frankfurt Skyliners in the first round. The following season - 2005-06 - Fleming again guided Artland into the playoffs only to lose in a fifth and final game against Bremerhaven in the first round. That season was enhanced by a semifinal run in the German Cup.
Artland's drastic rise continued last season as the Dragons shrugged off a season full of injuries and reached the final of the German Cup, starting a summer fairy tale. Dragons also made the playoffs for the third straight season as the eighth and last seed. But Fleming's troops shocked regular season champion Alba Berlin with a 3-0 sweep in the first round and then survived defending champion RheinEnergie Köln 3-2 in the semifinals. Had star guard Filiberto Rivera not gone down with an injury, many observers believe Dragons would have beaten Bamberg in the playoff finals, too. In the current 2007-08 domestic campaign, Artland won eight straight games early in the season and is now tied for first place with Alba  Berlin.
The man in the middle of all this success has been Fleming, who is spending his 13th season as a player and coach in the small town. The American says it's been an honor being able to grow with the club as a coach while also watching the people behind the scenes enjoy the success. But he also says his run to the promised land has been more of a thing of luck of being in the right place at the right time. "I coached some youth teams within the club while I was playing," Fleming recalled. "I played in the second league and my vision was simply to get the team to the first league. That's what I really wanted to do. We had a lot of people really committed to that. I am thankful that the club lived with my coaching mistakes at that time. It was a good chance for me to learn patience."
One of the main reasons is continuity, as the club has always tried to keep most of its core players. This off-season, Artland lost Rivera and Adam Hess but Lamont McIntosh, Chad Prewitt and Jan Rohdewald remained in the mix. Another reason for the steady improvements is a better infrastructure, including more staff, a practice facility the team moved into before last season and a second assistant coach. Even though he's been the face of the success, Fleming says Artland is structured well enough to continue its super play - and more success in Europe.
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Friday, February 22, 2008
David Hein, Germany
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