CEBL CHAMPION HONEY BADGERS BEGIN BCLA GROUP STAGE IN MEXICO

FIBA’s Basketball Champions League Americas (BCLA) first window begins today. CEBL champion Brampton Honey Badgers will represent Canada in group stage action as they take on Libertadores of Mexico this evening at 9 p.m. ET in Queretaro, Mexico. They will follow up Friday’s game with a match up against Real Estelí of Nicaragua on Saturday, also at 9 p.m. ET. Both games will be streamed live on CEBL+ and on the CEBL Mobile app available on iOS and Android devices. 

The Honey Badgers are one of 12 teams representing seven countries across the continent that will be participating in four groups of three that will play group stages in December, January and February, playing a total of 36 games. The top two teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals which will be held in March. The BCLA is the best continental league in the Americas and is created through a partnership involving FIBA, federations and leagues. 

The Honey Badgers will be joined in Group A by Real Estelí and Libertadores. Real Estelí come into the BCLA fresh off of claiming their fifth consecutive Nicaraguan League title. After making it to the BCLA Final in 2020-2021, Real Estelí is looking to improve upon a quarterfinal finish in 2021-2022. Libertadores come to this year’s BCLAs from the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional (LNBP) of Mexico where they’ve reached the playoff quarterfinal in each of the last two seasons. 

While Real Estelí and Libertadores have each participated in the BCLA before, this will be an international debut for the Honey Badgers and the second time a CEBL team will be participating in the competition after the Edmonton Stingers represented Canada in 2021. The Honey Badgers come to the BCLA after winning the 2022 CEBL Championship title this past August.

“Winning the CEBL Championship is an amazing achievement and one that leads to an incredible opportunity on the world stage,” CEBL Commissioner and co-founder Mike Morreale said. “Last year proved that the CEBL can compete against the best FIBA teams in the Americas, and in 2023 we are coming to win.”

The Honey Badgers roster will feature Alex Campbell, David Nesbitt, Gelvis Solano, Jahvon Henry-Blair, Jaylen Babb-Harrison, Jordan Williams, Jordy Tshimanga, Joshua Ibarra, Murphy Burnatowski, Sean Miller-Moore and Stefan Smith. Of the 11 players participating, there are seven Canadians on the roster, including Campbell and Burnatowski who both played in the BCLA in 2021 with the Stingers. Henry-Blair helped the Canadian Senior Men’s National Team qualify for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup in November, while Babb-Harrison played with Canada in the 2022 FIBA Basketball AmeriCup where Canada had a fourth-place finish.

Ryan Schmidt, the reigning CEBL coach of the year of the Honey Badgers will be unavailable for the BCLA due to his commitment to coaching the London Lions in the British Basketball League this winter. Sheldon Cassimy, Schmidt’s lead assistant with the Honey Badgers, will man the sideline for the Honey Badgers, alongside associate head coach Mike Taylor and assistant coaches Mike Fraser and Mike De Giorgio.

“I am grateful to CEBL Commission Mike Morreale and Honey Badgers General Manager Jermaine Anderson for entrusting me with leading our Basketball Champions League Americas team against other top teams from Central and South America,” Cassimy said. “It is a tremendous honour to represent Canada on the international stage.”

After the first window in Mexico, the second window will take place in Nicaragua in January, and then Canada will host the third window in February as Brampton will play host to both teams in Brampton at the CAA Centre. After the three group stage windows, the top two ranked teams in each group will advance into the quarterfinals and play in a best-of-three game series to determine the four teams that will qualify for the Final Four. The Final Four will be single-elimination where the winners will advance to a championship game.  The 2023 BCLA champion will earn a spot in the 2024 FIBA International Cup. 

While this is only the first of three windows of group play, it marks the first step for a Honey Badgers team that wants to make it out of the group stage for the first time in CEBL’s BCLA history. 

All games will be live-streamed internationally on CEBL’s OTT platform, CEBL+ and on the CEBL Mobile, the official app of the CEBL.

The competition window hosted by Canada at the CAA Centre in Brampton and will begin February 7 when Brampton takes on Real Estelí. The two visiting teams, Real Estelí and Libertadores, will then face each other February 8, while the Honey Badgers play Libertadores on February 9. Fans are encouraged to take advantage of a 33% discount on game tickets as 3-game packs are now on sale for all three games. All tickets can be purchased via the link here.

A league created by Canadians for Canadians with a mission to develop Canadian players, coaches, sports executives and referees, the CEBL boasts the highest percentage of Canadian players of any pro league in the country with 71 percent of its 2022 rosters being Canadian. Players bring experience from the NBA, NBA G League, top international pro leagues, the Canadian National team program, and top NCAA programs as well as U Sports. Nine players have moved from the CEBL into the NBA following a CEBL season, and 28 CEBL players attended NBA G League training camps during October. The CEBL season runs May through August. More information about the CEBL is available at CEBL.ca and @cebleague on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook & YouTube.