Basketball Academie Limburg, commonly known as BAL, is a Dutch

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

club based in

Weert Weert (; li, Wieërt ) is a municipality and city in the southeastern Netherlands located in the western part of the province of Limburg. It lies on the Eindhoven–Maastricht railway line, and is also astride the Zuid-Willemsvaart canal. Popu ...

in the province of

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

. The club was founded in 2013 as an academy to develop youth players from the province of Limburg. The club entered the

Dutch Basketball League The Dutch Basketball League (DBL), formerly the Eredivisie, was the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands, run by the Federatie Eredivisie Basketball (FEB). Since 2021, the league has been replaced by the Belgian-Dutch BNXT Le ...

for the 2017–18 season after the dissolution of the professional team

BSW British Standard Whitworth (BSW) is an imperial-unit-based screw thread standard, devised and specified by Joseph Whitworth in 1841 and later adopted as a British Standard. It was the world's first national screw thread standard, and is the basis ...

. Currently, the team plays in the

BNXT League The BNXT League, for sponsorship reasons the betFirst BNXT League, is a professional basketball league in Belgium and the Netherlands. The league is the first tier in both the Dutch and Belgian system, replacing the Dutch Basketball League, DBL a ...

. In 2021, BAL won its first-ever trophy when it won the DBL Cup in surprising fashion as the team was ranked eight in the DBL that season.

History

Foundation

The club was established on 9 April 2013 to function as a club for regional talent from the province of

. In its first years, the team played with several youth teams in domestic competitions. In the 2017 offseason the professional club

from Weert and BAL intended a merger, which would integrate BSW into BAL. Following BSW going defunct during this offseason, BAL decided to take its place in the DBL. As BAL played in the same home arena and the team consisted of several of the same players, the team can be considered a

phoenix club The Phoenix Building and Cincinnati Club are two historic buildings in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The membership of these two clubs was chiefly Jewish. Located at 812 Race Street, the Phoenix Building was constructed in 1893, desi ...

Radenko Varagić Radenko Varagić (born 23 September 1973) is a Serbian-Dutch basketball coach. He currently serves as a head coach for BAL Weert of the BNXT League. Coaching career Born in Serbia, Varagić started his coaching career in 2015 with Ribnica ...

coached the team.

First DBL seasons

In its debut season, BAL finished in the ninth and last place in the DBL, winning 4 out of its 32 games. The team consisted of a selection of young promising players, such as guard

Sam van Dijk Sam van Dijk (; born 28 August 1996) is a Dutch professional basketball player. Early career Van Dijk played for DAS Delft and Lokomotief Rijswijk. In the 2015–16 season, he played for the Rotterdam Basketbal under-24 and Punch Delft. Professi ...

who was named the

DBL Most Improved Player The Dutch Basketball League Most Improved Player is an award that is yearly given to the most improved player in the DBL, the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = ...

in the club's debut season. On 1 August 2018, BAL signed its first ever foreign player when American center Tony Washington signed for one year. In its second season, BAL once again finished last in the DBL with this time five wins in 2018–19. In the 2020–21 season, BAL reached the playoffs for the first time after finishing in the eight seed. This season the team also won the

2021 DBL Cup The 2020–21 DBL Cup was the 53rd edition of the Netherlands' national basketball cup tournament. This season the format was changed due to the compressed playing schedule caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Only teams from the Dutch Basketb ...

, the club's first-ever trophy. In the semi-finals, BAL upset first-seeded

ZZ Leiden ZZ Leiden Basketball, also known as Zorg en Zekerheid Leiden, is a basketball club based in Leiden, Netherlands. The club plays in the BNXT League, the domestic first tier league. Their home games are played at Vijf Meihal, which has 2,000 seats. ...

and in the final the team was too strong for

Yoast United Yoast United is a Dutch basketball club based in Bemmel, Gelderland. Established in 2020, the team plays in the BNXT League, the highest level of basketball in the Netherlands. Home games are played at De Kooi, which has a capacity of 650 people. ...

. Trevor Jasinsky led the team in scoring in the final with 27 points. Since the 2021–22 season, BAL plays in the

, in which the national leagues of Belgium and the Netherlands have been merged.

Honours

DBL Cup *Champions (1):

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Dutch Supercup The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national footbal ...

*Runners-up (1):

Season by season

Players

Current roster

Individual awards

; BNXT League Rising Star of the Year * Sander Hollanders – 2022 ;

– 2018 ;

DBL All-Rookie Team The DBL All-Rookie Team is a team constituted by the best rookies in a season of the Dutch Basketball League The Dutch Basketball League (DBL), formerly the Eredivisie, was the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands, run by th ...

*Jacco Fritz – 2018 *Nino Gorissen – 2018 *Ivan Simic – 2019

Top scorers by seasons

The following players led BAL in scoring in each DBL season:

Club records

Bold denotes still active with team. As of 14 April 2021:

Notes

References

External links

Eurobasket.com BAL Page
{{coord, 51.254740, 5.679090, display=title Basketball teams established in 2013 2013 establishments in the Netherlands Dutch Basketball League teams Basketball teams in the Netherlands Sports clubs in Weert