The British Basketball League Cup, often shortened to the BBL Cup, is an annual

cup competition A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

for

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, ...

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 ...

teams organised by the United Kingdom's top professional league, 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 ...

. It is one of two peripheral competitions operated by the League during the regular season, with the other being the

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 ...

. The competition is usually played as a single game knock-out tournament, and is only contested by members of the British Basketball League. The final takes place in early January at the

Arena Birmingham 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 ...

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 West ...

History

The competition was established in 2003 following the British Basketball League's (BBL) decision to withdraw its members from the annual

National Cup The English National Cup is an annual basketball knock-out competition held between professional, semi-professional and amateur teams from the various divisions of the National Basketball League. For most of the competition's history, the draw has ...

tournament after a disagreement regarding import-players merged with its organiser, the

English Basketball Association Basketball England (BE, formally ''England Basketball'')Haribo Haribo ( ) is a German confectionery company founded by Hans Riegel Sr.. It began in Kessenich, Bonn, Germany. The name "Haribo" is a syllabic abbreviation formed from Hans Riegel Bonn. The company created the first gummy candy in 1960 in the for ...

, the new competition was named the Haribo Cup and saw all ten BBL clubs compete in a single game knock-out format.

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 ...

were crowned as the Cup's first victor's after an 83-70 win over

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 Ar ...

at Birmingham's

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 ...

. Rocks were again finalists, and Runners-up, in the 2005 edition of the Cup which had been rebranded with its current name as the BBL Cup and was won by

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 Bask ...

, who had been hugely successful in the predecessor competition, the

, in recent years. In 2006,

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 ...

claimed a historic win over

London Towers London Towers were a professional basketball team based in London, England. They enjoyed considerable success in the 1990s and early 2000s, collecting 3 titles in the British Basketball League (BBL) as well as regularly competing in European c ...

as part of their "clean-sweep" of all four BBL competitions in their quadruple-winning season. The 2007 edition of the BBL Cup Final was the closest yet and saw

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 te ...

win their first piece of silverware in franchise history, whilst Scottish Rocks finished as Runners-up for the third time in four seasons. The following year saw perhaps the biggest upset in Cup Final history as underdogs

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 ...

sneaked to a 69-66 victory over favourites Newcastle. It would be the Lions' first Cup win, largely helped by their offence hitting 13 three-pointers.

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 compe ...

continued the new winner every year tradition by thrashing

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 lo ...

with a blow-out score of 103-49 in the 2009 Cup Final. The 54-point gap between the two debutants is the largest winning margin in Cup history. Due to the intake of expansion franchises, the 2009–10 season saw an expanded First Round featuring 13 teams, the most teams ever competing for the BBL Cup in its history. It was also the first edition to not feature a new Champion as the Sheffield Sharks claimed their second Cup with a close 89-86 victory over

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 ...

in the Final. The following season saw Sheffield become the first team to successfully retain the Cup whilst their MVP winning star

Steve Dagostino ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

set a new record for the most points scored in a Final, posting 35. However that record only stood for one year as in the 2012 Final, as Newcastle's Charles Smith led his team to a 115-94 victory over Plymouth with an individual points tally of 39. Smith's record is currently still standing, whilst Newcastle also recorded the highest points scored for a team in any BBL final.

Leicester Riders Leicester Riders are a British professional basketball team and the oldest club in the British Basketball League (BBL). Established in 1967, the club have played in various locations around Leicestershire before moving to their current purpose- ...

claimed their first Cup title in the 2013 Final, with a close 85-80 victory over previous winners Newcastle Eagles. The Riders were led by MVP

Jay Cousinard A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian m ...

who posted 17 points for the first-time winners, and although dominating for much of the game, they survived a late Eagles comeback to hold on for the five-point win. Riders retained their title in 2014 with a three-point victory over Eagles again, becoming only the second team to win back-to-back Finals (the first was Sheffield Sharks in 2011).

Format

The competition is a

knockout tournament A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking ...

with pairings drawn completely at random – there are no

seeds A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm pl ...

, and a draw takes place after the majority of fixtures have been played in each round. When there are an uneven number of member clubs in the British Basketball League, some pre-selected teams will receive

byes In cricket, a bye is a type of extra. It is a run scored by the batting team when the ball has not been hit by the batter and the ball has not hit the batter's body. Scoring byes Usually, if the ball passes the batter without being deflected, th ...

into the next round. The Cup final is played at the

, usually in early January.

Finals

Results by team

References

External links