2021 BAL season

2021 BAL season
The Kigali Arena in Kigali hosted the entire competition
Season	2021
Teams	12
Games played	26[1]
Dates	16 – 30 May 2021
Final positions
Champions	Zamalek 1st title
Runners-up	US Monastir
Third place	Petro de Luanda
Fourth place	Patriots
Awards
MVP	Walter Hodge
Statistical leaders
Points Terrell Stoglin 30.8 Rebounds Ibrahima Thomas 12.0 Assists Myck Kabongo 6.8
Records
Highest attendance	1,789 US Monastir 63–76 Zamalek (30 May 2021)
← 2018–19 (Africa League) 2022 →

The 2021 BAL season was the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The league is a joint effort between the National Basketball Association (NBA) and FIBA.^[2] Since this season, it is the highest tier continental league of Africa, replacing the FIBA Africa Basketball League. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was rescheduled from 2020 to 2021 and was held completely in Kigali, Rwanda.

In its first season, the league consisted of 12 teams and was scheduled to begin in March 2020. The qualifying rounds for the season were held in October and December 2019. The national champion of each African country has the opportunity to qualify through the qualifying rounds. Meanwhile, six national champions directly qualified for the regular season.

On 3 March 2020, the BAL announced that it was postponing its inaugural season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[3] The BAL started its league more than one year later, on 16 May 2021.^[4] Zamalek won the first-ever BAL championship after beating US Monastir in the Finals.

Overview[]

On 1 August 2019, the seven host cities for the BAL season were announced.^[5] Additionally, it was revealed that the inaugural BAL Final Four will be played in the Kigali Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.

BAL president, Amadou Gallo Fall, announced at the NBA All-Star 2020 Africa Luncheon in Chicago, that the season will tip off on 13 March 2020.^[6]

On 20 February 2020, it was announced that the twelve teams were drawn in two conferences named Sahara and Nile Conference.^[7]

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic[]

On 3 March 2020, the BAL announced it was postponing its inaugural season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[8] The decision was made following recommendations of the Senegalese government.

In November, the start of the inaugural season was delayed once again and the new season was moved to a later to be announced date in 2021.^[9] In March it was announced the league would commence in May 2021. The complete event will be held in the Kigali Arena and the regular season has changed to a group format with three groups of four.^[1] All twelve teams were hosted in a bubble in which all players are regularly tested for COVID-19. All games are broadcast live by ESPN Africa.^[10]

Qualification[]

The twelve teams for the inaugural BAL season had to qualify in their domestic competitions to be able to play in the league, similar to the other FIBA-organised competitions. Six teams qualified directly as their national champions while an additional six teams qualified through regional qualifying tournaments.

Direct qualification[]

FIBA announced that the national champions of six member associations would be directly qualified for the regular season. These teams are from countries which are also hosts cities for the regular season, except for Final Four host Rwanda.^[5] On 23 October 2019, AS Douanes won the Senegalese national championship to qualify.^[11]

Directly qualified teams

No. Country Team Notes 1  Angola Petro de Luanda Directly Qualified 2  Egypt Zamalek 3  Morocco AS Salé

No. Country Team Notes 4  Nigeria Rivers Hoopers Directly Qualified 5  Senegal AS Douanes 6  Tunisia US Monastir

Qualifying tournaments[]

Each of the FIBA Africa member associations was able to register one team from its country to participate in the qualifying tournaments. A total of 31 teams played in the first round, which was divided into six groups in six different host cities.^[12] The qualification tournaments started on 16 October and will end 21 December 2019.

Teams and countries playing in the 2020 BAL Qualifying Tournaments

No. Country Team Notes 1  Algeria GS Pétroliers Qualified 2  Benin ASPAC 3  Botswana Dolphins 4  Burundi Dynamo 5  Cameroon FAP Qualified 6  CAF Withdrew 7  Comoros Usoni 8  DR Congo ASB Mazembe 9  Ethiopia Hawassa City 10  Gabon Manga 11  Ghana Braves of Customs 12  Guinea SLAC 13  Ivory Coast ABC 14  Kenya KPA 15  Liberia NPA Pythons 16  Libya Al-Nasr Benghazi

No. Country Team Notes 17  Madagascar GNBC Qualified 18  Malawi Brave Hearts Withdrew 19  Mali AS Police Qualified 20  Mozambique Ferroviário de Maputo Qualified 21  Namibia Lions Club 22  Niger AS Nigelec 23  Rwanda Patriots Qualified 24  Seychelles Beau Vallon Heat 25  South Africa Jozi Nuggets 26  South Sudan Cobra 27  Tanzania JKT 28  Uganda City Oilers 29  Zambia UNZA Pacers 30  Zimbabwe Mercenaries 31  Equatorial Guinea Virgen Maria de Africa

Teams[]

Qualified teams[]

Team	Home city	Qualified as	Qualified on
US Monastir	Monastir, Tunisia	Winners of the 2018–19 Championnat National A	1 May 2019
Zamalek	Cairo, Egypt	Winners of the 2018–19 Egyptian Super League	4 May 2019
Petro de Luanda	Luanda, Angola	Winners of the 2018–19 Angolan Basketball League	25 May 2019
AS Salé	Salé, Morocco	Winners of the 2018–19 Division Excellence	30 May 2019
AS Douanes	Dakar, Senegal	Winners of the 2019 Nationale 1 season	23 October 2019
Rivers Hoopers	Port Harcourt, Nigeria	Winners of the 2019 NBBF President Cup	17 November 2019[13]
GS Pétroliers	Algiers, Algeria	West Division winners	30 November 2019[14]
FAP	Yaoundé, Cameroon	West Division runners-up	30 November 2019[14]
AS Police	Bamako, Mali	West Division third place	1 December 2019[15]
Patriots	Kigali, Rwanda	East Division winners	21 December 2019
GNBC	Antsirabe, Madagascar	East Division runners-up	21 December 2019[16]
Ferroviário de Maputo	Maputo, Mozambique	East Division third place	22 December 2019

Personnel and sponsorship[]

Team	Head coach	Team captain
AS Douanes	Pabi Gueye[17]	Alkaly Ndour
AS Salé	Said El Bouzidi[18]	Zakaria El Masbahi
AS Police	Babacar Kanouté[17]	Badra Samaké[19]
FAP	Lazare Adingono[20]	Ebaku Akumenzoh
Ferroviário de Maputo	Milagre Macome[17]	Custódio Muchate
GNBC	Lova Navalona Raharidera[17]	Francis Mory
GS Pétroliers	Sofiane Boulahia[21]	Mustapha Adrar
Patriots	Alan Major[22]	Aristide Mugabe
Petro de Luanda	José Neto[23]	Leonel Paulo
Rivers Hoopers	Ogoh Odaudu[17]	Belema Alamin
US Monastir	Mounir Ben Slimen	Radhouane Slimane
Zamalek	Augustí Julbe[20]	Haytham Elsaharty

Foreign players[]

Each BAL team was allowed to have four foreign players on its roster, including only two non-African players.

Team
	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4
AS Douanes	Chris Cokley[24]	[24]	[24]
AS Salé	Ra'Shad James[25]	Terrell Stoglin[26]	Johndre Jefferson[25]
AS Police	Ibrahima Thomas[25]	[27]	[25]
FAP	Abdoulaye Harouna[28]	[28]
Ferroviário de Maputo	Adjehi Baru[29]	Álvaro Masa[29]	[29]	Myck Kabongo
GNBC	Cameron Ridley[30]
GS Pétroliers
Patriots	Jermaine Cole[31]	Bush Wamukota[32]	Brandon Costner[31]
Petro de Luanda	Ryan Richards[33]	[25]
Rivers Hoopers	Robinson Opong[34]	Chris Daniels[35]	[35]
US Monastir	Ater Majok[20]	Wael Arakji[20]	Chris Crawford[25]
Zamalek	Chinemelu Elonu[36]	Michael Fakuade[37]	Walter Hodge[20]	Mouloukou Diabate[38]

Venues[]

On 1 August 2019, the NBA announced the seven host cities for the regular season.^[5] Six cities in six countries would host the regular season games, with three assigned to each conference. The Kigali Arena in Kigali, Rwanda was announced as venue for the inaugural Final Four. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, it was later decided that the entire event was to played at the Kigali Arena.^[1]

Initial venues of the inaugural BAL season

Arena	Capacity	Location
Dakar Arena	15,000	Dakar, Senegal
Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex	16,500	Cairo, Egypt
Salle El Bouâzzaoui	2,000	Salé, Morocco
Kilamba Arena	12,270	Luanda, Angola
Kigali Arena (Final Four)	10,000	Kigali, Rwanda
National Stadium	3,000[39]	Lagos, Nigeria
Mohamed-Mzali Sports Hall	4,075	Monastir, Tunisia

Qualifying Tournaments[]

In the qualifying rounds, 32 teams from 32 countries participated in the West and East Division. The first round began 15 October and ended 3 November 2019, with sixteen teams advancing to the second round. The second-round games began 26 November and will end 22 December 2019, with six teams qualifying for the regular season.

Rosters[]

Transactions[]

Group phase[]

Initially, it was planned that in the regular season, twelve teams play in two Conferences with six teams each. Each team will play five games, one against each opponent, inside its conference. The top three teams from each conference advance to the Super 6.^[40] The games will be played in six arenas divided over the African continent.^[40] The regular season will start in March 2020.

The format was changed to a group phase as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In three groups of four each team plays the other one time and the first, second and best third-placed teams advance to the playoffs.^[1]

Group A[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	US Monastir	3	3	0	303	211	+92	6	Advance to playoffs
2	Patriots (H)	3	2	1	236	223	+13	5
3	Rivers Hoopers	3	1	2	210	251	−41	4
4	GNBC	3	0	3	207	271	−64	3

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Group B[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Petro de Luanda	3	3	0	247	208	+39	6	Advance to playoffs
2	AS Salé	3	2	1	253	260	−7	5
3	FAP	3	1	2	235	218	+17	4
4	AS Police	3	0	3	210	259	−49	3

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Group C[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Zamalek	3	3	0	254	181	+73	6	Advance to playoffs
2	Ferroviário de Maputo	3	2	1	229	218	+11	5
3	AS Douanes	3	1	2	230	250	−20	4
4	GS Pétroliers	3	0	3	213	277	−64	3

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Ranking of third-placed teams[]

Pos	Grp	Team v t	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	B	FAP	3	1	2	235	218	+17	4	Advance to playoffs
2	C	AS Douanes	3	1	2	230	250	−20	4
3	A	Rivers Hoopers	3	1	2	210	251	−41	4

Playoffs[]

All eight qualified teams from the group stage were ranked and seeded. The play-offs games are all played in a single-elimination format.^[1][41] The playoffs begin on 26 May and end on 30 May 2021 with the Final.^[42]

Bracket[]

	Quarterfinals v t				Semifinals				Finals
	27 May
	1 US Monastir	86
					29 May
	8 AS Douanes	62
					1 US Monastir	87
	27 May
					4 Patriots	46
	4 Patriots	73
									30 May
	5 Ferroviário de Maputo	71
									1 US Monastir	63
	26 May
									2 Zamalek	76
	2 Zamalek	82
					29 May
	7 FAP	53
					2 Zamalek	89
	26 May
					3 Petro de Luanda	71			Third place game
	3 Petro de Luanda	79
									30 May
	6 AS Salé	72
									4 Patriots	68
									3 Petro de Luanda	97

Awards[]

• Most Valuable Player: Walter Hodge (Zamalek)^[43]
• Defensive Player of the Year: Anas Mahmoud (Zamalek)
• Sportsmanship Award: Makrem Ben Romdhane (US Monastir)
• Scoring Champion: Terrell Stoglin (AS Salé)
• All-BAL First Team:
  • Omar Abada (US Monastir)
  • Walter Hodge (Zamalek)
  • Wael Arakji (US Monastir)
  • Makrem Ben Romdhane (US Monastir)
  • Anas Mahmoud (Zamalek)

Statistics[]

^[44]

Individual statistic leaders[]

Category	Player	Team(s)	Statistic
Points per game	Terrell Stoglin	AS Salé	30.8
Rebounds per game	Ibrahima Thomas	AS Police	12.0
Assists per game	Myck Kabongo	Ferroviário de Maputo	6.8
Steals per game	Bara Diop	AS Douanes	2.5
Blocks per game	Anas Mahmoud	Zamalek	3.2
Turnovers per game	Demarcus Holland	Ferroviário de Maputo	4.3
Minutes per game	Demarcus Holland	Ferroviário de Maputo	36.2
FG%	Mohab Yasser	Zamalek	69.7%
3P%	Mouloukou Diabate	Zamalek	59.1%

Individual game highs[]

Category	Player	Team	Statistic
Points	Terrell Stoglin	AS Salé	40
Rebounds	Jone Pedro	Petro de Luanda	17
	Ibrahima Thomas	AS Police
Assists	Myck Kabongo	Ferroviário de Maptuo	12
Steals	Mokhtar Ghyaza	US Monastir	5
Blocks	Anas Mahmoud	Zamalek	5
Three pointers	Radhouane Slimane	US Monastir	6
	Aristide Mugabe	Patriots

References[]