Leuven Bears

Leuven Bears
Leagues	BNXT League
Founded	1999 (1999)
History	List Telindus Leuven (1999–2001) Vastiau-Godeau Leuven (2001–2003) Basket Groot Leuven (2003–2007) Spotter Leuven (2007–2009) Leuven Bears (2009–present)
Arena	Sportoase
Capacity	3,400
Location	Leuven, Belgium
Team colors	Black, Orange, White
Main sponsor	Stella Artois
President	Ben De Goignies
Head coach	Eddy Casteels
Championships	1 Belgian Cup
Website	leuvenbears.be
Home Away

Leuven Bears, for sponsorship reasons also called Stella Artois Leuven Bears, is a Belgian professional basketball club from Leuven. The club competes in the BNXT League, the highest tier in Belgian basketball.

History

The team has played in the Belgian First Division since 1999 and has participated in the Belgian Cup since 1954, winning the tournament in 2005. The Belgian Cup victory earned the team a place in the 2005–06 FIBA EuroCup where it finished fourth in its opening-round group and was eliminated.

Since the 2021–22 season, Leuven plays in the BNXT League, in which the national leagues of Belgium and the Netherlands have been merged.

Honours and titles

• Belgian Cup
  • Winners (1): 2004–05

Season by season

A home game of Leuven Bears in February 2017

Season	Tier	League	Pos.	Belgian Cup	European competitions
2002–03	1	BLB	5th
2003–04	1	BLB	9th
2004–05	1	BLB	6th
2005–06	1	BLB	8th		3 FIBA EuroCup
2006–07	1	BLB	10th
2007–08	1	BLB	9th
2008–09	1	BLB	6th
2009–10	1	BLB	9th
2010–11	1	BLB	6th
2011–12	1	BLB	6th	Semifinalist
2012–13	1	BLB	6th	Quarterfinalist
2013–14	1	BLB	7th	Quarterfinalist
2014–15	1	BLB	11th	Quarterfinalist
2015–16	1	BLB	11th	Quarterfinalist
2016–17	1	BLB	9th	Quarterfinalist
2017–18	1	BLB	10th	Round of 16
2018–19	1	BLB	9th	Quarterfinalist
2019–20	1	BLB	6th	Quarterfinalist
2020–21	1	BLB	6th	Semifinalist
2021–22	1	BNXT League

Players

Current roster

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

Leuven Bears roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. PG 4 Willems, Wouter 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) 24 – (2000-03-30)30 March 2000 PG 5 Heath, Joshua 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) 29 – (1994-12-28)28 December 1994 G 7 Allen, KeVaughn 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 28 – (1995-10-10)10 October 1995 PF 9 Fulkerson, John 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 26 – (1997-04-29)29 April 1997 SF 10 Nunes, Tiago 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 22 – (2002-01-15)15 January 2002 PG 11 Bucumi, Roel 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 20 – (2003-08-11)11 August 2003 C 12 Vanderhaegen, Thibault 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 26 – (1998-02-16)16 February 1998 PF 14 Kherrazi, Mohamed 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 33 – (1990-06-29)29 June 1990 C 15 Stilmant, Kevin 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 24 – (2000-02-29)29 February 2000 SG 21 Snyers, Darnell 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) 25 – (1998-06-16)16 June 1998 SF 22 Janssens, Thomas 21 – (2002-06-23)23 June 2002 SF 23 Nunes, Remco 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 22 – (2002-01-15)15 January 2002 PG 24 Ven, Lucas 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) 23 – (2001-04-07)7 April 2001 C 25 Schrevens, Arne 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in) 21 – (2002-07-08)8 July 2002	Head coach Eddy Casteels Assistant coach(es) Jill Lorent Legend (C) Team captain Injured

Notable players

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality 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.

• Ismael Bako
• D. J. Mbenga
• Hans Vanwijn
• Stanley Pringle
• Ibrahima Fall Faye
• Jonathan Dubas
• Tu Holloway
• John Tofi
• Hugh Robertson
• Ryan Kriener

List of head coaches

Period	Coach	Nat.
2005–2007	Peter van Noord
2008–2010	Ivica Skelin
2016–2018	Ferried Naciri
2018–present	Eddy Casteels

External links

• Official site (in Dutch)
• Eurobasket.com team page