2007–08 British Basketball League season

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The 2007-08 BBL season, the 21st since the establishment of the British Basketball League, commenced on September 9, 2007, when the Plymouth Raiders succombed to the Guildford Heat in the inaugural BBL Cup Winners' Cup. The regular season started two weeks later on September 21 with 12 teams including new additions Birmingham Panthers, Everton Tigers and London Capital the later of whom stepped up from EBL Division 1 during the summer.

The Guildford Heat will be looking to retain the regular season Championship crown, as well as the BBL Cup, while Plymouth Raiders will be out to defend the BBL Trophy title they won during the previous season.

The post-season Playoff's will begin in April 2008, which will conclude with the BBL Finals Weekend, where Newcastle Eagles will be looking to defend their 2007 Playoff crown.

Notable occurrences

  • The league features three new teams, the Birmingham Panthers and Everton Tigers, both start-up franchises, and London Capital, who stepped up from the English Basketball League.
  • Just two weeks before the start of the season, London United's directors announced on September 5 that they have withdrawn from all competitions for the upcoming season because of financial difficulties.
  • A new pre-season competition, the BBL Cup Winners' Cup, a two-legged face-off between the previous winners of the BBL Cup and the BBL Trophy, opened the new season, with Guildford Heat claiming a 176-168 aggregate win over the Plymouth Raiders.
  • On October 2, just days before their inaugural home game, Birmingham Panthers finally secure a deal with the University of Wolverhampton, to use their Walsall Campus as a home venue. This comes after deals with two other venues had previously fallen through, and the club were banned by the league from relocating to Telford.[1]
  • Guildford made their debut in European competition (ULEB Cup) on November 6, just two years after they formed. They lost 84-68 away to Bosnians KK Bosna in Sarajevo.
  • During the early hours of Saturday November 10, Guildford star Brian Dux was involved in a serious car accident and slipped into a coma.[2] He was finally rushed to hospital over two hours after his car was found,[3] and put into immediate intensive care.
  • The BBL Cup Final took place at the National Indoor Arena, in Birmingham, on January 13, 2008. A sell-out crowd of over 6,000 people saw a valiant Milton Keynes Lions comeback over Newcastle Eagles to claim their first ever piece of silverware, with a 69-66 victory.

BBL Championship

Current standings

Last updated: February 10, 2008

Team Pld W L Home Away Pts
1. File:NewcastleEaglesLogo.png Northern Rock Newcastle Eagles 19 15 3 9-1 7-2 32
2. Marshall Milton Keynes Lions 19 13 6 7-3 6-3 26
3. Kularoos Plymouth Raiders 19 13 6 8-2 5-4 26
4. File:ScottishRocksLogo.png SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks 20 13 7 6-3 7-4 26
5. File:GuildfordHeatLogo.png Guildford Heat 19 12 5 6-3 8-2 28
6. File:EvertonTigersLogo.png Bibby Maritime Ltd Everton Tigers 20 11 9 8-4 3-5 22
7. File:SheffieldSharksLogo.png Attley's Sheffield Sharks 20 9 11 3-7 6-4 18
8. File:CheshireJetsLogo.png BiG Storage Cheshire Jets 18 7 11 2-7 5-4 14
9. File:LeicesterRidersLogo.png Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders 22 7 15 2-8 5-7 14
=. nPower Worcester Wolves 22 7 15 3-7 4-8 14
11. Paws London Capital 22 6 16 4-7 2-9 12
12. Team Birmingham Panthers 19 5 14 2-7 3-7 10

Playoffs

The post-season Playoffs will commence shortly after the end of the regular BBL Championship season, and will finish with the prestigious Finals Weekend, to be held this season at the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, on May 3rd and 4th.

BBL Cup Winners' Cup

The 2007-08 season saw the inauguration of the BBL's newest competition, the Cup Winners' Cup. The pre-season event, between last seasons winners of the BBL Cup and BBL Trophy, was staged over two legs with the winner determined by the final aggregate score.

Guildford Heat claimed the upper-hand in the first leg away to Plymouth Raiders with an 83-77 victory, despite being ahead by 18-points, Raiders kept fighting and eventually clawed the game back before losing in the final minutes.

The second leg in Guildford was an equally tight affair, but Heat's strength combined with Raiders' poor free-throw shooting, gave them a 93-91 victory, tallying up to an 176-168 win on aggregate.

Final

BBL Cup

For the 2007-08 edition of the BBL Cup, the top three ranking teams from last seasons BBL Championship - Guildford Heat, Sheffield Sharks and Newcastle Eagles - plus the Milton Keynes Lions, all received a bye into the Quarter-final, leaving the remaining eight clubs to battle it out in the First Round.

First Round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

BBL Trophy

This seasons BBL Trophy was slightly reformatted from the previous edition of the tournament. The first round now compromises of three groups of three and one group of four. Gone are the lower league clubs for the English Basketball League and Scottish Basketball League, with the exception of last years EBL Division 1 champions Worthing Thunder, who stepped in to fill the spot vacated by London United, who withdrew prior to the season opener.

Each team will play each other twice, once home and once away, and after each group campaign is completed, the top-team from each group will advance into the Semi-finals. If teams are tied on points (2 for a win, 0 for a loss), head-to-head results will come into play.

Group Stage

Group 1

Team Pts Pld W L Percent
1.Cheshire Jets 8 6 4 2 0.666
2.Plymouth Raiders 8 6 4 2 0.666
3.Milton Keynes Lions 6 6 3 3 0.500
4.Leicester Riders 2 6 1 5 0.166

Group 2

Team Pts Pld W L Percent
1.Guildford Heat 8 4 4 0 1.000
2.London Capital 4 4 2 2 0.500
3.Worthing Thunder 0 4 0 4 0.000

Group 3

Team Pts Pld W L Percent
1.Worcester Wolves 8 4 4 0 1.000
2.Sheffield Sharks 4 4 2 2 0.500
3.Birmingham Panthers 0 4 0 4 0.000

Group 4

Team Pts Pld W L Percent
1.Newcastle Eagles 6 4 3 1 0.750
2.Scottish Rocks 6 4 3 1 0.750
3.Everton Tigers 0 4 0 4 0.000

Semi-finals

Final

The Final for this seasons BBL Trophy will be held on March 2, 2008, at the Pavilions in Plymouth, being the first time the venue has hosted a major final. It will be a 'North-South' final contested between Newcastle Eagles and Guildford Heat.

Monthly awards

Month Coach Player
October United States United Kingdom Fabulous Flournoy (Newcastle) Trinidad and Tobago Shawn Myers (Cheshire)
November United States United Kingdom Sterling Davis (Scots Rocks) United States Anthony Paez (Worcester)
December United Kingdom Vince Macaulay-Razaq (Milton Keynes) United States Charles Smith (Newcastle)
January United States United Kingdom Sterling Davis (Scots Rocks) United States Nigeria Jayson Obazuaye (Cheshire)

Notes

  1. ^ Collin Tattum (2007). "Panthers banned from making Telford switch". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  2. ^ Harold McNeil (2007). "Ex-Canisius basketball star Brian Dux injured in car crash in England". The Buffalo News. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
  3. ^ Surrey Advertiser (2007). "Inquiry into 999 response while basketball pro remains in a coma". Surrey Advertiser. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
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2007-08 		Succeeded by

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