Baltic Basketball League

Baltic Basketball League (BBL) was the Baltic states basketball league founded in 2004. The league mainly focused on teams from the Baltic states, but teams from Sweden, Russia, Kazakhstan, Finland, and Belarus have participated in the Baltic League. After the 2017–18 season, the league announced that it was suspending its operations.[1]

Baltic Basketball League
SportBasketball
Founded2004
Ceased2018
No. of teams14
CountryEstonia
Latvia
Lithuania
ContinentEurope
Last
champion(s)
Lithuania Pieno žvaigždės
(1st title)
Most titlesLithuania Žalgiris Kaunas
(5 titles)
TV partner(s)Viasat Sport Baltic
Official websitebbl.net

History

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For the 2015–16 season, the format of the BBL included a regular season composed by two groups of seven teams that competed in a round-robin competition system, with each team facing their opponent twice. The teams qualified for the eight-finals based on their ranking after the regular season. Out of the five teams who participated in FIBA Europe Cup competition – Ventspils, Juventus, Šiauliai, Tartu Ülikool/Rock and Pieno žvaigždės – the latter three did not qualify for the FIBA Europe Cup playoffs and thus started playing at the start of the BBL playoffs, seeded respectively first, second and third based on last season's results.[2] All play-off games are played in home-and-away series.

Baltic Basketball League also featured a Baltic Basketball League Cup competition before the beginning of the regular season since 2008.

Teams

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These are the teams that participated in 2017–18 season:

Group Team City, Country Arena Head coach
Group A   AVIS Rapla Rapla, Estonia Sadolin Sports Hall   Aivar Kuusmaa
  Pärnu Sadam Pärnu, Estonia Pärnu Sports Hall   Heiko Rannula
  Betsafe/Liepāja Liepāja, Latvia Liepāja Olympic Center   Agris Galvanovskis
  Jūrmala Jūrmala, Latvia Jūrmala State Gymnasium   Mārtiņš Gulbis
  Šiauliai Šiauliai, Lithuania Šiauliai Arena   Antanas Sireika
  Vytautas Prienai/Birštonas, Lithuania Prienai Arena   Virginijus Šeškus
  Tsmoki-Minsk II Minsk, Belarus The team will play away   Rostislav Vergun
Group B   University of Tartu Tartu, Estonia University of Tartu Sports Hall   Priit Vene
  TLÜ/Kalev Tallinn, Estonia Kalev Sports Hall   Gert Kullamäe
  TTÜ Tallinn, Estonia TTÜ Sports Hall   Rait Käbin
  Valmiera/ORDO Valmiera, Latvia Vidzeme Olympic Center   Kristaps Valters
  Ogre Ogre, Latvia Ogre 1st Secondary School   Arturs Visockis-Rubenis
  Pieno žvaigždės Pasvalys, Lithuania Pieno žvaigždės Arena   Gediminas Petrauskas
  Barsy Atyrau Atyrau, Kazakhstan The team will play away   Aleksandar Vrzina

Baltic League champions

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Elite Division champions

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Season Champion Runner Up 1st leg 2nd leg Host City
2004–05   Žalgiris Kaunas   Lietuvos rytas 64–60   Vilnius
2005–06   Lietuvos rytas   Žalgiris Kaunas 86–74   Tallinn
2006–07   Lietuvos rytas   Žalgiris Kaunas 81–77   Rīga
2007–08   Žalgiris Kaunas   Lietuvos rytas 86–84   Šiauliai
2008–09   Lietuvos rytas   Žalgiris Kaunas 97–74   Tartu
2009–10   Žalgiris Kaunas   Lietuvos rytas 73–66   Vilnius
2010–11   Žalgiris Kaunas   VEF Rīga 75–67   Kaunas
2011–12   Žalgiris Kaunas   Lietuvos rytas 74–70   Šiauliai
2012–13   Ventspils   Prienai 91–69 70–73   Prienai &   Ventspils
2013–14   Šiauliai   Prienai 62–57 78–66   Prienai &   Šiauliai
2014–15   Šiauliai   Ventspils 68–70 88–80   Ventspils &   Šiauliai
2015–16   Šiauliai   Tartu Ülikool/Rock 74–81 102–76   Tartu &   Šiauliai
2016–17   Vytautas   Pieno žvaigždės 85–88 89–74   Prienai &   Pasvalys
2017–18   Pieno žvaigždės   Jūrmala 98–80 76–68   Jūrmala &   Pasvalys

Challenge Cup champions

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Season Champion Runner Up 1st leg 2nd leg Host City
2004–05   Panevėžys   Bumerangs/Gulbene/ASK 87–74   Panevėžys
2007–08   Nevėžis   VEF Rīga 81–68   Rīga
2008–09   Sakalai   VEF Rīga 84–77   Utena
2009–10   Norrköping Dolphins   Rūdupis 77–87 107–72   Prienai &   Norrköping
2010–11   Juventus   KK Kaunas 87–81 89–72   Kaunas &   Utena
2011–12   Lietkabelis   Rakvere Tarvas 89–74 71–82   Rakvere &   Panevėžys

BBL Cup winners

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Season Winner Finalist Score Host City
2008   Lietuvos rytas   Barons/LMT 80–78   Rīga
2009   Žalgiris Kaunas   Lietuvos rytas 83–78   Kaunas
2010   Tartu Ülikool/Rock   Lietuvos rytas 61–57   Tartu
2011   VEF Rīga   Tartu Ülikool 95–69   Tartu
2012   Rakvere Tarvas   Liepāja/Triobet 80–71   Rakvere
2013   Nevėžis   Tartu Ülikool/Rock 82–64   Kėdainiai
2014   Liepāja/Triobet   Tartu Ülikool/Rock 74–61   Liepāja
2015 Not held
2016   Valmiera/ORDO   Ventspils 66–64   Valmiera
2017 Not held

Baltic League awards

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Regular season MVP

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Season Player Team
2004–05   Tanoka Beard   Žalgiris Kaunas
2005–06   Darjuš Lavrinovič   Žalgiris Kaunas
2006–07   Travis Reed   Kalev/Cramo
2007–08   Vladimir Štimac   Valmiera
2008–09   Paulius Jankūnas   Žalgiris Kaunas
2009–10   Alex Renfroe   VEF Rīga
2010–11   Artsiom Parakhouski   VEF Rīga
2011–12   Valdas Vasylius   Šiauliai
2012–13   Gediminas Orelik   Prienai
2013–14   Travis Leslie   Šiauliai

Finals MVP

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Season Player Team
2004–05   Tanoka Beard   Žalgiris Kaunas
2005–06   Fred House   Lietuvos rytas
2006–07   Kareem Rush   Lietuvos rytas
2007–08   DeJuan Collins   Žalgiris Kaunas
2008–09   Chuck Eidson   Lietuvos rytas
2009–10   Marcus Brown   Žalgiris Kaunas
2010–11   Tadas Klimavičius   Žalgiris Kaunas
2011–12   Mantas Kalnietis   Žalgiris Kaunas
2012–13   Jānis Timma   Ventspils
2013–14   Travis Leslie   Šiauliai
2014–15   Gintaras Leonavičius   Šiauliai
2015–16   Rokas Giedraitis   Šiauliai
2016–17   Tomas Delininkaitis   Vytautas
2017–18   Jahenns Manigat   Pieno žvaigždės

Statistical leaders

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Statistics include regular season and play-off games

Points per game

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Rebounds per game

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Assists per game

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Urbonas, Donatas (13 June 2018). "Merdėjantis BBL turnyras stabdomas, LKL mąsto apie naują lygą". LRT.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  2. ^ "Triobet BBL Play-Off pairs confirmed". Baltic Basketball League. February 3, 2016.
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