Basketball: NBBF Rolls Out Dates For 2019 Season

EDENWOBODO CHUKWUEBUKA PATRICK

The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has said that registration of players has commenced ahead of the 2019 basketball season for the Total National Division 1 and 2 Men’s leagues as well as the Zenith Women Basketball League.

The registration for the Total National Division 2 league which started on Saturday, June 8th will end 17th of June 2019, while that of players for the Total National Division 2 and Zenith Women Basketball leagues which started on the same day will end on the 28th of June 2019 ahead of the new season.

With 74 teams set to participate in Division 2, state preliminaries will be played between June 21st and July 27th 2019, while the Zonal playoffs will be held between August 4th and 25th of before going on a break for the FIBA Men’s World Cup and the Afrobasket for Women.

The Conference playoffs will take place from October 18th to 27th before the National Finals coming up from November 11th to 18th after which 4 teams will be promoted to Division 1.

The 12 teams in the Total National Division 1 will have their players’ registration through affiliated State Basketball Associations ahead of the conference playoffs starting from July 2nd to 18th.

The National finals will run from September 16th and 30th at a venue to be decided by the federation.

In the Zenith Women’s Basketball League, First Bank Club of Lagos will begin their title defence on the 1st of July.

The 2019 season will see the introduction of a home and away format with the 24 teams divided into 4 groups.

The Conference playoffs (4 teams in each group) divided into the traditional Atlantic and Savannah Conferences will be played in a round robin format between August 27 and September 20, 2019 immediately after the 2019 Afrobasket Women’s break.

The National finals come 10 days later on September 30th with the final slated for October 5th.

Registration for the Men’s Premier League begins on Monday, June 10th and ends on June 24th through the State Basketball Associations.

Regular season will be between July 8th and August 14th before the FIBA World Cup break.

Conference playoffs will be decided between September 21st and October 2nd before the semifinals which will run from October 15th to 24th.

The semifinals stage made up of the top 4 teams at the end of the conference playoffs will play the best of 3 games.

Four teams will proceed to the National Final to be decided between the November 2nd and 9th 2019.