The 2007–08 BBL season, the 21st since the establishment of the

British Basketball League The British Basketball League (BBL) is a men's professional basketball league in Great Britain and represents the highest level of play in the countries. The league is contested by 10 teams from England and Scotland. There are no clubs howeve ...

, commenced on 9 September 2007, when the

Plymouth Raiders The Plymouth Raiders was a professional basketball team based in Plymouth, England. The team competed in the British Basketball League, the country's premier basketball competition. The club was founded in 1983 through a merger between two l ...

succumbed to the

Guildford Heat The Surrey Scorchers are an English professional basketball team based in Guildford, Surrey, that compete in the British Basketball League. The team was established in 2005 as the Guildford Heat by fans of former British Basketball League team ...

in the inaugural

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

competition. The regular season started two weeks later on 21 September with 12 teams including new additions

Birmingham Panthers The Birmingham Panthers (official name Team Birmingham Panthers) was a professional basketball club based in the city of Birmingham, England . Established in 2007, the franchise competed in Britain's top-tier league, the British Basketball Leag ...

Everton Tigers The Mersey Tigers were a professional basketball team based in the city of Liverpool, England. The club was established in 2007 as a start-up franchise of the British Basketball League, the country's elite competition. The Tigers started comp ...

and London Capital the later of whom stepped up from EBL Division 1 during the summer. After just one season in the top-flight, London United were forced to drop out due to the loss of its financial backer just weeks before the start of the season. Guildford's participation in the ULEB Cup saw a British team return to European competition for the first time since

Brighton Bears Brighton Bears was a British basketball team based in Brighton, Sussex. From 1984 to 1999 the club was known as the Worthing Bears and was based in the town of Worthing, 12 miles west of Brighton. The Bears played in the top-flight British Bas ...

' appearance in the same competition in the 2003–04 season. Out of their depth, the Heat finished their European adventure with a 0–10 record. On the domestic scene Guildford continued their dominance, collecting the Cup Winners' Cup,

BBL Trophy The British Basketball League Trophy, often shortened to the BBL Trophy, is an annual cup competition for British basketball teams organised by the United Kingdom's top professional league, the British Basketball League. It is one of two peripher ...

and the Play-off crown.

Newcastle Eagles The Newcastle Eagles are a professional basketball team based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Playing in the top-tier British Basketball League and holding the franchise for Tyne & Wear, they are the most successful team in the League's histor ...

were Champions of the League's regular season campaign, whilst rookie teams Everton and London ended with respectable 7th and 9th-place finishes. The League also secured a live broadcasting contract with

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previ ...

midway through the campaign which saw one televised game a week screened on live on their network.

Teams

Notable occurrences

* The league features three new teams, the

and

, 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 5 September that they have withdrawn from all competitions for the upcoming season because of financial difficulties, leaving new team Capital as London's sole representatives. * A new pre-season competition, the

, a two-legged face-off between the current holders of the

BBL Cup The British Basketball League Cup, often shortened to the BBL Cup, is an annual cup competition for British basketball teams organised by the United Kingdom's top professional league, the British Basketball League. It is one of two peripheral co ...

and the

, opened the new season, with

claiming a 176-168 aggregate win over

. * On 2 October, just days before their inaugural home game, Birmingham Panthers finally secured a deal with the

University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire in England. The roots of the university lie in the Wolverhampton Tradesmen's and Mech ...

, to use their Walsall Campus as a home venue. This came after deals with two other venues had previously fallen through, and the League rejected a proposal for relocation to

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in t ...

. * Guildford made their debut in European competition ( ULEB Cup) on 6 November, just two years after they ere established. They lost 84–68 away to Bosnian team

KK Bosna KK Bosna Meridianbet ( bs, Košarkaški klub Bosna Meridianbet) is a professional basketball team based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the most successful Bosnian club of all time, having been the EuroLeague champion by winning the ...

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

. * During the early hours of 10 November, Guildford star

Brian Dux Brian Dux (born April 7, 1981 in Orchard Park, New York) is an American professional basketball player, and formerly playing for the Guildford Heat in the British Basketball League. College career Dux attended Canisius College where he starred ...

was involved in a serious car accident and fell into a coma. He was finally rushed to hospital over two hours after his car was found, and put into immediate intensive care. * The BBL Cup Final took place at the

National Indoor Arena Arena Birmingham (known for sponsorship reasons as Utilita Arena Birmingham, and previously as The Barclaycard Arena and originally as the National Indoor Arena) is an indoor arena and sporting venue in central Birmingham, United Kingdom. It ...

, in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, on 13 January 2008. A sell-out crowd of over 6,000 people saw a valiant

Milton Keynes Lions London Lions are a British professional basketball team based in Stratford, East London, England, and compete in the British Basketball League, the top tier of British basketball. The team was originally founded in 1977 as the Hemel Hempstead ...

comeback over

to claim their first ever piece of silverware, with a 69–66 victory. * A television deal was struck on 17 February with international broadcaster

which began with the 2008 Trophy Final and saw one game a week shown live on

Setanta Sports 2 Eir Sport 2 (stylised as eir Sport 2, formerly Setanta Sports 1) was an Irish pay television channel owned by Setanta Sports Channel Ireland. * Despite having an earlier attempt to relocate to

blocked by the BBL, Birmingham Panthers played their first game at Telford's TCAT Arena on 17 February against Newcastle Eagles, who stormed to a 59–104 victory. The temporary move suggested the franchise may relocate to Telford after just one season in

. * Guildford triumphed with their first ever BBL Trophy victory over Newcastle at the

Plymouth Pavilions Plymouth Pavilions is an entertainment and sports complex in Plymouth, Devon, England. It has an ice rink and indoor arena. The arena is used as an entertainment venue and also for corporate hire. The Pavilions is built on the site of the form ...

on 2 March. In front of a sell-out crowd and broadcast live on Setanta Sports 2, the Heat ran out 86-79 winners in the action-packed final.

BBL Championship (Tier 1)

Final standings

Playoffs

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Third-place game

Final

National League Division 1 (Tier 2)

Final standings

National League Division 2 (Tier 3)

Final standings

Cup Winners' Cup

The 2007–08 season saw the inauguration of the BBL's newest competition, the

. The pre-season event between last season's winners of the

and

was staged over two legs with the winner determined by the final aggregate score.

claimed the upper-hand in the first leg away to

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 Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

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 a 176–168 win on aggregate.

BBL Cup

For the 2007–08 edition of the

, the top three ranking teams from last season's BBL Championship –

Sheffield Sharks The Sheffield Sharks, currently known as "B.Braun Sheffield Sharks" for sponsorship reasons, are a professional basketball team from the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The Sharks play in the British Basketball League and play thei ...

and

– plus the

, 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 season's

was slightly reformatted from the previous edition of the tournament. The first round comprised three groups of three and one group of four. Gone were the lower league clubs for the English Basketball League and Scottish Basketball League, with the exception of the previous year's EBL Division 1 champions

Worthing Thunder The Worthing Thunder are an English professional basketball team based in Worthing, West Sussex. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball League (NBL). Founded in 1999 as the Worthing Rebels after the Worthing Bears had relocated to Br ...

, who stepped in to fill the spot vacated by London United, who withdrew prior to the season opener. Each team played each other twice, once home and once away, and after each group campaign is completed, the top team from each group advanced into the semi-finals. If teams tied on points (2 for a win, 0 for a loss), head-to-head results would come into play.

Group stage

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4

Semi-finals

Final

The Final for this season's BBL Trophy was held on 2 March 2008, at the

Pavilions In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to ...

, the first time the venue has hosted a major final. It was a 'North-South' final contested between

and

, and was broadcast live on television, on

Setanta Sports 2 Eir Sport 2 (stylised as eir Sport 2, formerly Setanta Sports 1) was an Irish pay television channel owned by Setanta Sports Channel Ireland.E. J. Harrison and Daniel Gilbert, overhauled the Eagles for their first trophy of the season, after the league and cup double of last season. Harrison scored 10 of his 25 points in the closing quarter with Gilbert scoring 3 in the last minute to cement the trophy for the Heat.

Lynard Stewart Lynard Stewart (born May 12, 1976) is an American former professional basketball player and current high school basketball coach. Playing career The 6'8" forward/center played at Temple University, where he graduated in 1998, before signing a pro ...

led all scorers in the match with 26 points, but this was not enough for Newcastle as

Fabulous Flournoy Fabulous Flournoy (born 31 July 1973) is a former professional basketball player who currently serves as assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors. He was previously the player-coach for the Newcastle Eagles, who compete in the British Basketball ...

's men went down in their second consecutive final after losing to

in the

final.

Statistics leaders

Monthly awards

Seasonal awards

* Most Valuable Player:

(

) * Coach of the Year: Vince Macaulay-Razaq (

) * All-Star First Team: **

(

) **

Anthony Paez Anthony Paez (born June 18, 1984, in Brooklyn, New York, United States) is a professional basketball player, currently starring in Hungary for Dombóvár KC of the Hungarian Basketball League. He attended college at Stephen F. Austin from 2004-2 ...

( Worcester Wolves) **

Andrew Lasker Andrew "Drew" Lasker (born November 20, 1982) is an American professional basketball player who played for the Newcastle Eagles in the British Basketball League (BBL). Born in Katy, Texas, he attended Point Loma Nazarene University from 2002 to ...

(

) ** Danny Gilbert (

) ** Robert Yanders (

Scottish Rocks The Caledonia Gladiators are a professional basketball club in Glasgow, Scotland. The Gladiators compete in the British Basketball League, the top tier of British basketball. Since 2012, the team have played their home games at the Emirates ...

) * All-Star Second Team: **

Tony Dorsey Anthony Jerald Dorsey (born July 15, 1970) is an American-born British former professional basketball player. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia. At a height of 6'7" (2.01 m) tall, and a weight of 220 lbs. (100 kg), he played at the pow ...

(

) ** Jayson Obazuaye (

Cheshire Jets The Cheshire Phoenix are a professional basketball team based in Ellesmere Port, England. Founded in 1984, they are members of the British Basketball League and play their home games at the Cheshire Oaks Arena. From 1993 until 2015 the team was ...

) ** Yorick Williams (

) ** E.J. Morrison (

) ** James Life ( Worcester Wolves)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2007-08 British Basketball League season British Basketball League seasons 1

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...