2023_BAL_season

2023 BAL season

2023 BAL season

3rd season of the Basketball Africa League

The 2023 BAL season, also known as BAL Season 3, was the third season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL).[1] The season began on 11 March 2023 and ended on 27 May 2023. The playoffs were played in the BK Arena in Kigali, which hosted the final stage for a third season in a row. The regular season was played in Dakar, Senega and Cairo, Egypt, both venues hosted a conference for a second year in a row.

Quick Facts League, Season ...

Al Ahly defeated AS Douanes in the final, which was played in the BK Arena in Kigali, for a first-ever BAL title.[2] As the winners, Al Ahly automatically qualified for the 2023 FIBA Intercontinental Cup Singapore.[3]

US Monastir were the defending champions, having won their first title in the previous edition, but were eliminated in the Sahara Conference.

Qualification

Main article: 2023 BAL qualification

The first round of the qualifying stage consists of 20 teams that play in four groups of five, each held in different cities. In the Elite 16, the teams are joined by 6 teams that qualified during the previous 2022 BAL qualification. Two groups of five teams are played to determine the six teams that advance to the main tournament.[4]

On 21 September 2021, FIBA Africa announced the 26 teams in the qualifying tournaments as well as the six countries that would qualify directly.[4]

East Division

Group phase

More information Group A (Niamey), Group B (Yaoundé) ...

Elite 16

More information Group A (Abidjan), Group B (Abidjan) ...

Final round

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
18 November 2022
 
 
Central African Republic Bangui Sporting Club61
 
19 November 2022
 
Guinea SLAC69
 
Guinea SLAC70
 
18 November 2022
 
Ivory Coast ABC Fighters81
 
Mali Stade Malien59
 
 
Ivory Coast ABC Fighters62
 
Third place game
 
 
19 November 2022
 
 
Central African Republic Bangui Sporting Club59
 
 
Mali Stade Malien62

East Division

Group phase

More information Group A (Dar es Salaam), Group B (Antananarivo) ...

Elite 16

More information Group C (Johannesburg), Group D (Johannesburg) ...

Final round

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
26 November
 
 
Burundi Urunani62
 
27 November
 
Mozambique Ferroviário da Beira68
 
Mozambique Ferroviário da Beira71
 
26 November
 
South Africa Cape Town Tigers81
 
Uganda City Oilers69
 
 
South Africa Cape Town Tigers75
 
Third place game
 
 
27 November
 
 
Burundi Urunani62
 
 
Uganda City Oilers71

Teams

Petro de Luanda was the first team to qualify for the season when it won the Angolan League on 10 May 2022.[5] The last qualified team was City Oilers who captured the third place in the Road to BAL East Division on 27 November 2022. The twelve teams of the 2023 BAL season were officially confirmed on 13 February 2023.[6] After an absence of a Nigerian representative in the 2022 season due to FIBA's punishment of the Nigeria Basketball Federation,[7] Kwara Falcons was directly qualified as winners of the Nigerian Premier League.[8]

Al Ahly, Kwara Falcons, ABC Fighters and Stade Malien will make their debut in the competition. ABC Fighters is the first team from Ivory Coast to play in the BAL, while City Oilers is the first team from Uganda.[9][6]

Two teams, defending champions US Monastir and runners-up Petro de Luanda, appear in their third consecutive season.

More information Team, Method of qualification ...

Personnel

Augustí Julbe of Al Ahly was the only coach this season to already have won a BAL championship, as he won the 2021 title with Zamalek.

More information Team, Head coach ...

Foreign and Elevate players

Each BAL team was allowed to have four foreign players on its roster, including only two non-African players. Players in italics were signed only for the playoffs. If players have multiple nationalities, the nationality of an African nation is shown.

Each team also featured one player from the NBA Academy Africa, under the BAL Elevate program.[24] The players were drafted in an online meeting by the teams and the official list were announced on 28 February 2023.[25]

More information Team, Players ...

Notes

  1. The ABC Fighters played the regular season with Chudier Bile (South Sudan), Alex Robinson (United States) and Chris Obekpa (Nigeria) as import players. They switched the three players ahead of the playoffs.[26][27]
  2. The Cape Town Tigers played in the regular season with Josh Hall as an import player, however, Hall was released and replaced with Marvin Smith Jr. ahead of the playoffs.


Notable transactions

Pre-season

US Monastir, as champions of the 2022 BAL season, participated in the 2023 FIBA Intercontinental Cup. It was the second time a BAL team participated in the FIBA Intercontinental Cup. In the competition, played in February and hosted in La Laguna in Spain, Monastir finished fourth after two losses against CB Canarias and Rio Grande Valley Vipers.[57]

ESPN declared Petro de Luanda, last year's runners-up, as the title favourites in their annual season preview.[58]

Combine

The league hosted their official second BAL Combine on 15 and 16 January 2023 at The One Ball Training Center in Paris.[59] The combine featured 30 players and was directed by former NBA head coach Quin Snyder.[60] Several players signed a contract with a BAL team after participating in the Combine.[61]

More information Player, Team ...

Schedule

The schedule for the 2023 season was officially released on 13 February 2023.[6]

More information Phase, Round ...

Regular season

The regular season is played from 11 March to 6 May 2023. The twelve teams are divided into two conferences of six teams each. Teams in each group play each other one time, whereafter the top four teams advance to the playoffs.

More information Tiebreakers ...

Sahara Conference

Main article: 2023 BAL Sahara Conference

The games of the Sahara Conference were played from 11 March to 21 March 2023 and were hosted in the Dakar Arena in Dakar, Senegal for a second consecutive season. Stade Malien finished as Conference winner, due to their head-to-head point difference that determined the ranking of five teams with a 3–2 record. The defending BAL champions, US Monastir, missed the playoffs after they lost on the last game day.

More information Pos, Pld ...
Source: BAL, Flashscore
(H) Hosts
Notes:
  1. Five tied teams were ranked on point differential in the games against each other: 1) Stade Malien +13; 2) AS Douanes +12; 3) REG –4; 4) ABC Fighters –4; 5) US Monastir –18.

Nile Conference

Main article: 2023 BAL Nile Conference

The games of the Nile Conference will be played from 26 April to 6 May 2023 and will be played in the Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall in 6th of October, Cairo, Egypt.

Petro de Luanda went undefeated and won the conference, after defeating four teams with a margin of at least 17 points. In the most notable match-up of the conference, Petro de Luanda defeated Al Ahly on a buzzer-beater by Gerson Gonçalves.

More information Pos, Pld ...
Source: BAL, Flashscore
(H) Hosts
Notes:
  1. Head-to-head: Ferroviário da Beira defeated Cape Town Tigers 82–76 on 3 May 2023.
  2. Head-to-head: SLAC defeated City Oilers 96–68 on 2 May 2023.

Playoffs

Main article: 2023 BAL Playoffs

The playoffs were held from 21 May to 27 May 2023 in the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda for the third consecutive season.

Bracket

 
QuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinal
 
          
 
21 May
 
 
Egypt Al Ahly94
 
25 May
 
Rwanda REG77
 
Egypt Al Ahly78
 
21 May
 
Mali Stade Malien73
 
Mali Stade Malien78
 
27 May
 
South Africa Cape Town Tigers69
 
Egypt Al Ahly80
 
22 May
 
Senegal AS Douanes65
 
Angola Petro de Luanda88
 
25 May
 
Ivory Coast ABC Fighters84
 
Angola Petro de Luanda86
 
22 May
 
Senegal AS Douanes92 Third place game
 
Senegal AS Douanes93
 
26 May
 
Mozambique Ferroviário da Beira73
 
Angola Petro de Luanda65
 
 
Mali Stade Malien73
 

Individual awards

Nuni Omot received the BAL Hakeem Olajuwon Most Valuable Player Award

The winner of the Coach of the Year award was announced on 26 May.[63] The Defensive Player of the Year, Sportsmanship Award and Most Valuable Player were announced on 27 May. The BAL's community service award, the Ubuntu Award, was decided by an online fan vote and the winner was announced on 30 January 2024.[64]

Statistics

Individual statistic leaders

More information Category, Player ...

Individual game highs

More information Category, Player ...

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