Those looking for a renaissance in Croatian basketball may soon pinpoint 2002-03 as the season when and Zadar as one of the places where things started looking up again. That is quite appropriate for the place where Croatian basketball was born in 1930, and where the club was constituted in 1945. From its ascension to the Yugoslav first division in 1957 to today, Zadar's reputation has been of a basketball hotbed with a team that can rise up and capture trophies at any given moment. The most successful era was no doubt the decade between 1965 and 1975, when Zadar won no fewer than five Yugoslav League titles under the leadership of legends names Kresimir Kosic and Pino Giergia. Despite some of the most arduous competitions in the world during the 1980's, Zadar would add a fifth domestic crown in 1986, in the same year that its rival Cibona was strong enough to conquer Europe for a second straight season. Zadar had already made noise on the European stage itself, having taken third place in Europe in 1968 and having made the semifinals of the Korac Cup in 1982 and 1986. Zadar became a fixture in the relaunched Croatian League in the 1990s, but could only outlast Cibona to two trophies, the 1998 and 2000 national cups. In 2002-03, however, Zadar became the first Croatian team to win a multinational competition in more than a decade when it upset some big names to take the Adriatic League title. Riding a wave, Zadar also took another Croatian Cup, its third in six years. In the first edition of the ULEB Cup, Zadar was nearly as dangerous, tying on victories but losing on points in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Pamesa Valencia. Its season ended with a semifinal loss in the Croatian League playoffs, but Zadar had already sounded its name loud and clear once more across the continental basketball landscape.

TROPHY CASE:

(*) Goodyear League
2003
(*) Croatian Cup
1998, 2000, 2003
(*) Yugoslavian League
1965, 1967, 1968, 1974, 1975, 1986
(*) Yugoslavian Cup
1970

 

2001/02		overall		FG2			FG3			FT			Rebs					Blck		Foul
		Pts	%	M	A	%	M	A	%	M	A	%	D	O	Ass	St	To	Fv	Ag	Cm	Rv	Val
1	Krka	87	52.5	26	44	59.1	6	17	35.3	17	25	68.0	18	8	12	14	16	4	0	18	0	72
2	@Slovan	92	38.6	14	39	35.9	13	31	41.9	25	35	71.4	20	13	3	6	12	3	0	21	0	51
3	Triglav	98	54.8	33	51	64.7	7	22	31.8	11	19	57.9	27	8	27	15	12	1	0	19	0	104
4	@Budućnost	88	50.9	19	27	70.4	10	30	33.3	20	27	74.1	12	6	2	5	11	3	0	29	0	41
5	Split	102	52.2	24	45	53.3	12	24	50.0	18	25	72.0	21	8	24	8	11	1	0	24	0	89
6	@Laško	67	39.3	18	39	46.2	6	22	27.3	13	20	65.0	16	7	3	14	19	4	0	18	0	30
7	Cibona	84	54.7	27	44	61.4	8	20	40.0	6	11	54.5	15	12	14	18	16	5	0	21	0	77
8	@Olimpija	65	38.8	14	33	42.4	5	16	31.3	22	29	75.9	15	5	4	8	15	0	0	17	0	28
9	Bosna	80	41.7	22	41	53.7	8	31	25.8	12	13	92.3	25	7	16	16	13	3	0	21	0	70
10	Dita	86	41.7	21	44	47.7	4	16	25.0	32	42	76.2	22	9	13	8	17	3	0	28	0	51
11	@Široki	76	56.6	25	37	67.6	5	16	31.3	11	17	64.7	22	3	13	2	15	0	0	21	0	51
12	@Krka	60	33.9	19	43	44.2	2	19	10.5	16	21	76.2	12	12	8	9	14	0	0	20	0	21
13	Slovan	74	37.9	17	41	41.5	8	25	32.0	16	21	76.2	22	13	11	13	14	1	0	16	0	58
14	@Triglav	96	49.3	28	54	51.9	8	19	42.1	16	21	76.2	18	12	3	2	11	1	0	18	0	61
15	Budućnost	79	50.0	20	36	55.6	9	22	40.9	12	15	80.0	20	6	13	14	14	2	0	18	0	70
16	@Split	78	42.4	23	47	48.9	5	19	26.3	17	24	70.8	21	10	11	16	17	3	0	24	0	53
17	Laško	76	44.6	18	37	48.6	7	19	36.8	19	26	73.1	15	12	11	10	16	0	0	20	0	50
18	@Cibona	73	37.5	20	50	40.0	7	22	31.8	12	19	63.2	16	17	14	10	21	0	0	23	0	34
19	Olimpija	72	48.3	24	48	50.0	4	10	40.0	12	20	60.0	18	10	12	14	23	1	0	23	0	43
20	@Bosna	109	60.3	25	43	58.1	13	20	65.0	20	26	76.9	17	10	13	14	12	2	0	24	0	98
21	@Dita	80	43.9	16	36	44.4	9	21	42.9	21	22	95.5	17	6	16	9	11	0	0	19	0	65
22	Široki	88	50.8	25	40	62.5	7	23	30.4	17	23	73.9	20	6	14	11	12	1	0	19	0	72
22	12:10 Total	1810	46.3	478	919		163	464		365	501		409	200	257	236	322	38	0	461	0	1289
	Average	82.3	46.3	52.0			35.1			72.9			18.6	9.1	11.7	10.7	14.6	1.7	0.0	21.0	0.0	58.6
	Season max	109	60.3	70.4%			65.0%			95.5%			27	17	27	18	23	5	0	29	0	104

2001/02				overall		FG2			FG3			FT			Rebs					Blck		Foul
		GP	Min	Pts	%	M	A	%	M	A	%	M	A	%	D	O	Ass	St	To	Fv	Ag	Cm	Rv	Val
4	Banić, M.	4	09:15	0	0.0	0	1	0.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	2	0	-2
4	Knežević, T.	9	104:20	23	54.5	4	8	50.0	2	3	66.7	9	12	75.0	4	2	4	3	2	0	0	11	0	15
5	Vladović, J.	8	84:11	22	33.3	3	11	27.3	4	10	40.0	4	6	66.7	7	2	10	8	14	0	0	12	0	7
5	Milačić, D.	2	41:52	19	35.0	7	15	46.7	0	5	0.0	5	7	71.4	0	0	7	2	4	0	0	4	0	5
6	Popović, M.	17	446:58	192	38.1	26	63	41.3	33	92	35.9	41	52	78.8	19	7	61	33	39	0	0	51	0	115
6	Škalabrin, I.	7	54:13	9	25.0	1	6	16.7	1	2	50.0	4	8	50.0	1	1	8	7	6	0	0	13	0	-3
7	Robinson, R.	12	340:05	159	39.1	40	76	52.6	14	62	22.6	37	43	86.0	26	4	50	23	50	2	0	38	0	86
8	Perinčić, H.	21	638:56	245	49.2	53	100	53.0	34	77	44.2	37	51	72.5	64	19	17	38	34	0	0	48	0	197
9	Vrsaljko, M.	6	48:22	13	31.3	5	8	62.5	0	8	0.0	3	3	100.0	4	3	1	2	3	0	0	3	0	6
9	Bocevski, D.	6	126:04	35	38.7	7	18	38.9	5	13	38.5	6	7	85.7	12	5	8	8	4	1	0	27	0	18
10	Špralja, Š.	15	81:37	25	55.6	10	18	55.6	0	0	0	5	7	71.4	3	6	0	2	5	0	0	14	0	7
11	Marcelić, D.	16	577:37	285	41.2	52	103	50.5	44	130	33.8	49	57	86.0	50	16	48	31	29	0	0	40	0	216
11	Ružić, J.	6	209:15	95	52.2	20	35	57.1	15	32	46.9	10	15	66.7	27	8	5	9	12	0	0	15	0	80
12	Dijan, T.	11	129:04	29	38.5	10	24	41.7	0	2	0.0	9	14	64.3	12	2	13	5	18	0	0	14	0	8
13	Ružić, T.	21	651:29	250	57.1	87	144	60.4	10	26	38.5	46	59	78.0	75	48	11	28	27	17	0	69	0	247
14	Odouk, I.	18	406:58	151	53.5	54	100	54.0	0	1	0.0	43	85	50.6	51	27	4	23	39	12	0	51	0	89
15	Grgat, I.	21	483:23	258	52.6	99	189	52.4	1	1	100.0	57	75	76.0	53	50	10	13	35	6	0	49	0	198

FG2, FG3 - Field Goals; FT - Free Throws; Min - Minutes; Pts - Points; M - Made; A - Attempted; Blck - Blocks; Fv - in Favoure of; Ag - Against; Foul - Foul; Cm - Committed; Rv - Received; Rebs - Rebounds; D - Defensive; O - Offensive; Ass - Assists; St - Steals; To - Turnover; Val - rank Value;