12 club teams from 12 African countries that will compete in the 2023 BAL season,The Basketball Africa League made this announcement on Monday. The league which will kick off on Saturday, March 11 at in Dakar, Senegal, and will feature a total of 38 games in cities like Dakar; Cairo, Egypt and Kigali, Rwanda over three months in 2023.
The 12 teams participating includes defending Basketball African league champions US Monastir (Tunisia) and five other teams returning from the 2022 season.
Five teams will compete in the BAL for the first time which includes Ivory Coast and Uganda: Abidjan Basket Club (Ivory Coast), Al Ahly (Egypt), City Oilers (Uganda), Kwara Falcons (Nigeria) and Stade Malien (Mali). AS Douanes (Senegal) return to the competition after participating in the inaugural season in 2021.
The season opener will feature AS Douanes taking on Abidjan Basket Club on March 11, while US Monastir will begin their title defense on Sunday, March 12 against Stade Malien.
The 12 teams will be divided into two conferences – the Sahara Conference and the Nile Conference. Each conference will play a 15-game group phase during which each team will face the other five teams in its conference once. The top four teams from each conference will qualify for the BAL Playoffs and Finals, which will feature a single-elimination tournament at BK Arena in Kigali from May 21 to 27.
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