The fourth edition of the Basketball Africa League will see the introduction of a new host nation, as South African capital Pretoria gets ready to welcome the Kalahari Conference, starting March 9, including Cape Town Tigers.
The Tigers have competed in the two previous BAL editions, and will be on familiar ground at the SunBet Arena, taking on newcomers BC Dynamo of Burundi on the opening day. Morocco's FUS Rabat will face perennial favourites and last year's fourth-place team, Petro de Luanda of Angola.
The fourth BAL season will feature a record 48 games in Pretoria; Cairo, Egypt; Dakar, Senegal; and Kigali, Rwanda, marking the first BAL games in South Africa and the first time the league will play games in four different countries.
The 12 teams have been divided into three conferences of four teams each. Seven of the teams have competed in the BAL before, two of which - Petro de Luanda (Angola) and US Monastir (Tunisia) - will be competing for a record fourth season. Five teams are making their BAL debut, including the first BAL teams from Burundi, Central African Republic and Libya.
Each conference will play a 12-game group phase during which each team will face the other three teams in its conference twice. New this season, the home team in each market will play on every gameday, including on the weekends.
The inaugural Kalahari Conference group phase will take place from Saturday, March 9 - Sunday, March 17 at the SunBet Arena. The Nile Conference group phase will take place from Friday, April 19 - Saturday, April 27 at Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex in Cairo. The Sahara Conference group phase will take place from Saturday, May 4 - Sunday, May 12 at the Dakar Arena in Dakar.
The top two teams from each conference and the top two third-place teams from across the three conferences will travel to BK Arena in Kigali for four seeding games followed by an eight-game, single-elimination Playoffs and Finals from Friday, May 24 - Saturday, June 1.
Conference teams:
Kalahari: Cape Town Tigers, FUS Rabat, Dynamo BC, Petro de Luanda
Nile: Al Ahly (defending champs), Al Ahly Ly, City Oilers, Bangui SC
Sahara: ARP Rwanda, AS Douanes, Rivers Hoopers, US Monastir