Josh Heytvelt, KK Zagreb (Croatia)

[stretchlimo]

I see it's time to roll out a new Heytvelt thread!

Josh joins KK Zagreb in the midst of the Adriatic League season. Here's a little bit from the wiki entry about the league:

Liga ABA, also known as Adriatic League, currently known as the NLB Liga ABA for sponsorship reasons, is a top-level regional basketball league that features teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

The league exists alongside scaled-down versions of domestic leagues in each country (Košarkaška liga Srbije, A1 Liga, Prvenstvo BiH, 1. SKL, Opportunity Liga). All of its teams join their country's own competitions in late spring after the Adriatic League regular season and post-season have been completed.

...

Like most European leagues, the regular season consists of a double round-robin schedule, with each team playing every other team home and away. The top teams in the league then advance to a playoff round to crown the league champion.

From 2002 through 2004, four teams qualified, and the playoffs were termed the "Final Four"; starting in 2005, eight teams advanced to the "Final Eight" round. All playoff rounds consist of one-off knockout matches, unusual among European leagues. However, since all Adriatic League clubs play in domestic leagues at the same time, and many also play in the Euroleague, the current format has the virtue of limiting fixture congestion for the playoff sides.

Josh got his feet wet with the new club yesterday, playing 10 minutes and scoring 7 points (plus 4 rebounds & 1 assist). Zagreb beat Krka 104-82 and moved into 2nd place (at least %-wise) in a very tight league race:





Good luck to Josh in Zagreb.



(And nice to see him sportin' #42 again!)

[ID ZAGFAN]

Great thread!

Thanks for the info and the great pic!

ZaGranny

[Zaglaw]

Engaged to Claire Raap

Either when the Lady Zags played on TV or on the radio broadcast last week, the announcer said that Claire Raap had gotten engaged to Josh over the summer.

[ID ZAGFAN]

This great article on Claire was linked on the women's forum.

Either when the Lady Zags played on TV or on the radio broadcast last week, the announcer said that Claire Raap had gotten engaged to Josh over the summer.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/201...-chances-zags/

ZaGranny

[stretchlimo]

Josh got the start for KK Zagreb on Saturday and scored 23 points, including 6 of 10 on threes. Zagreb lost though, 98-81 in Serbia against Hemofarm.

Josh's game logs with Zagreb:



46 points in only 64 minutes. (now if he could just avoid the fouls...)

[stretchlimo]

Josh had another really good game today, this time in the semis of the Krešimir Ćosić Cup, Croatia's one-and-done national basketball tournament. Zagreb defeated Cibona 93-86, and Josh had 17 points & 6 rebounds. I watched part of this game online, but didn't link to it, because the feed was crummy. However, got to see Josh stick several outside j's, plus make a very heads-up defensive play late in the game, where he swiped a Cibona shot attempt off the rim. (As you may know, in foreign ball, shots that bounce around on the rim are fair game, and you don't have to worry about a goaltending call like you would here.)

Zagreb will play Zadar for the Cup championship tomorrow.

[ZagNative]

Thanks for figuring that out! I knew something was afoot out there, but I couldn't pin it down through the language barrier.

Josh sure looks great, but I have to go see if I can find a photo of him smiling. Must not be his best look, because he sure seems to avoid it in photos.

[stretchlimo]

Just to follow up...

Zagreb won the Cup title game today over Zadar, 91-85. Josh had 9 points and 8 rebounds, including 3 defensive rebounds in the final minute. He iced the game with 2 free throws with 12 seconds left.

Zagreb's Mario Kasun led all scorers with 27. Too bad that guy was never able to suit up at GU. Heckuva player.

And while it's not a smiling pic, ZN, at least you get some teeth!

[stretchlimo]

way, way overdue update...

When Josh signed on with KK Zagreb, the team was in the middle of the Adriatic League regular season, which concluded in mid-March. Zagreb just missed out on the league's Final Four, finishing in 5th place. Here's how Josh's Adriatic League numbers ended up:



**************************************************

After the Adriatic League, Zagreb began play in Croatia's A1 League, where it finished the regular season in 3rd place with an 11-3 record. With Mario Kasun missing some action due to injury, Josh got more playing time in A1 and turned in the following regular-season stats:



(Josh missed one game - on May 3 - with what was google-translated as "problems with his back".)

**************************************************

So that briefly catches you up to the present, where the Croatia A1 playoffs are set to begin on Tuesday. Zagreb will face Zadar in the best-of-3 semifinals.

If Zagreb can win the Croatian playoffs, that should nail them a spot in the Euroleague next season. Croatia has a point system (which combines results from the Adriatic League, A1 League, Croatian Cup, and other competitions) to determine its top qualifier for a Euroleague contract, and Zagreb currently sits atop the leaderboard (shown here, along with the points available from the upcoming Croatian playoffs):



So, lots to play for this week. Not sure if Kasun is returning from injury, but hopefully Josh can help the team to victory regardless.

[ZagNative]

Wow! Fantastic research, Stretch! Thank you so much for the update and for putting things in perspective.

Go Josh!

[Vizagra]

Looking at Stretchlimos pictures, its good to see he is still using the right hand on the left side. It's one of my biggest pet peeves...ugh.

[stretchlimo]

Somebody was in the zone today...





Josh & Co. will look to close out the semifinal series on Saturday.

[stretchlimo]

nice goin', Josh

14 points and 9 boards as Zagreb sweeps Zadar 2-0 to advance to the Croatian Championship finals.

[stretchlimo]

#3-seed Zagreb versus #1-seed Cedevita

Best-of-5 Croatian Championship finals are underway. Josh’s team took the opener today 73-58. Only 2 points (1-3 FGs) in 28 minutes for Josh, with 5 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 blocked shot. He did get mention in the game recap for helping to neutralize Cedevita’s frontcourt. Google-translated:

Zoric again achieved double-double figures (18 points and 12 rebounds), was completely expelled from the game and neutralize centarski tandem Cedevite (Žižić - Edwards), in which he had great help from Josh Heytvelta.

Game 2 on Wednesday.

[stretchlimo]

KK Zagreb is one win away from its first ever Croatian league title after today’s 82-72 victory over Cedevita. Josh nailed 3 threes to help his team take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 finals.




The task of closing out the series appears to have gotten more difficult, though. According to the translated recap, it looks like one of Josh’s teammates (Babic) went down with an ankle injury late in the game. Another teammate (Mulaomerovic) apparently took a finger to the eye. So Josh and the other remaining “Ants” (yep, the team’s nickname) may have to pull ironman duty the rest of the series. Hopefully it only lasts one more game.