The 2020 BAL Qualifying Tournaments were the inaugural qualifying tournaments of the
Basketball Africa League (BAL), the newly launched premier basketball league of Africa jointly organized by the
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
and
FIBA. While the NBA will co-organise from the regular season, the qualifiers are completely organised by
FIBA Africa.
A total of 31 teams
[ from 31 countries participate in the qualifying tournaments in order to determine which six teams will play in the 2020 BAL regular season, along with six directly placed six teams. The qualifying tournaments are divided into the ]First round
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
and Second round
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds e ...
, which run from 16 October until 21 December 2019.
Team allocation
A total of 31 teams from 31 countries played in the qualifying tournaments. League positions after eventual playoffs of the previous season shown in parentheses. On 9 October 2019 the official list of participating teams in the qualifying rounds was announced by FIBA.
First round
In the first round, thirtytwo teams participate in six groups divided over two geographical divisions (West and East). Groups were selected by geographical criteria. The winners and runners-up of each group qualify for the second round
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds e ...
while four other teams were invited with wild cards, chosen by FIBA.
The first games were played at 15 October and the last on 3 November 2019.
West Division
Group A
Venue: Bamako, Mali
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Group B
Venue: Cotonou
Cotonou (; fon, Kútɔ̀nú) is a city in Benin. Its official population count was 679,012 inhabitants in 2012; however, over two million people live in the larger urban area.
The urban area continues to expand, notably toward the west. The ci ...
, Benin
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Group C
Venue: Libreville
Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon. Occupying in the northwestern province of Estuaire, Libreville is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea. As of the 2013 census, its population was 703,904.
The area has been inh ...
, Gabon
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Division West
Group D
Venue: Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...
, Tanzania
Group E
Venue: Johannesburg, South Africa
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Group F
Venue: Antananarivo, Madagascar
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Second round
In the Second Round (also referred to as "Elite 16" by FIBA), the sixteen teams that advanced from the first round teams play in four groups of four, divided over two geographical divisions. The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals. Winners of each semi-finals qualify for the regular season while the losers play in a third place game for the final regular season spot. On 7 November, FIBA announced the four wild card receivers.
The Division West tournament will be played at the Kigali Arena in the Rwandan city of Kigali
Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...
. The Division East tournament is played in the Multipurpose Sports Complex in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The Elite 16 will start on 26 November and end 22 December 2019.
Qualified teams
The draw was held on 21 November in Abidjan.
West Division – Group G
Group A
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Group B
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Final round
Qualification finals
=Semi-finals
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=Third place game
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=Final
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East Division – Group H
Group A
Group B
Final round
;Qualification finals
=Semi-finals
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=Third place game
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=Final
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Statistical leaders
:''As retrieved from FIBA.''
Individual statistics leaders
Individual game highs
Notes
References
{{Basketball Africa League
2020 Q
Qualifiers
2019 in African basketball
2020 in African basketball
2019–20 in basketball leagues