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International Basketball League

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This article is about the International Basketball League formed in 2004. See International Basketball League (1999-2001) for information on the original unrelated International Basketball League.
International Basketball League
File:InternationalBasketballLeaguelogo.png
International Basketball League logo
SportBasketball
Founded2004
First season2005
No. of teams18
Country United States
 Canada
 People's Republic of China
 Japan
Most recent
champion(s)
Los Angeles Lightning
Most titlesElkhart Express (2)
Official websitewww.iblhoopsonline.com

The International Basketball League is a professional men's spring basketball league featuring teams from the West Coast, Rocky Mountains, Western Canada, and the Midwest. They also feature teams from the People's Republic of China and Japan which will temporarily relocate to the USA for the IBL season. The IBL season runs from the end of March through June with playoffs in July.

History

Founded by Portland area sports promoter Mikal Duilio, the league features rules designed to create a fast-paced, high-scoring brand of basketball. Duilio first began planning for the league with a series of test games in Portland and Seattle in November 2003. These games featured a mixture of traditional college and NBA rules, plus three rules created specifically for the league:

  • 1. The "Immediate Inbound" Rule: After a made basket, the referee will throw the ball to a nearby player, instead of a player throwing in the ball from under the basket, to eliminate wasted time.
  • 2. Instead of six timeouts as in an NBA game, teams are limited to only a single timeout per quarter.
  • 3. A 20-second shot clock is used instead of the NBA's 24. A defensive non-shooting foul or kicked ball resets it to 12.

The test games proved popular and resulted in the founding of the IBL in August of 2004. Founded with 8 teams, the league expanded to 17 by the start of the season in April 2005. Each team played approximately 20 regular season games, most of them centered around their home region, with the teams with the two best records playing in a championship game at the end of the season. The Battle Creek Knights won the inaugural title by going undefeated in the regular season and beating the Dayton Jets in the finals.

In the league's first year, the up-tempo rules resulted in the average team scoring 126.9 points per game, nearly 30 points more than the NBA team average in 2004-05, and slightly higher than the NBA record for points per game by a team in a single season, set by the Denver Nuggets in 1981-82.

Teams

Current Teams

North
Team City Arena Founded
Bellingham Slam Bellingham, Washington Whatcom Pavilion 2005[1]
Snohomish County Explosion Monroe, Washington Monroe Sports Arena 2007[2]
USA All-Stars Portland, Oregon Warner Pacific College, Salvation Army Corps Community Center 2008
Vancouver Titans Langley, British Columbia Langley Event Centre 2009
South
Team City Arena Founded
Central Oregon Hotshots Bend, Oregon Mountain View High School 2005
Oregon Waves Beaverton, Oregon Beaverton Hoop YMCA 2009
Shanxi Zhongyu Taiyuan, Shanxi, China / Springfield, Oregon, USA Salvation Army Corps Community Center 2004
Vancouver Volcanoes Vancouver, Washington O'Connell Sports Center 2005
East
Team City Arena Founded
Grand Rapids Flight Grand Rapids, Michigan DeltaPlex Arena (4,416) 2004
Holland Blast Holland, Michigan Holland Civic Center (2,700) 2006
Kankakee County Soldiers Kankakee, Illinois Kankakee Community Center 2007[3]
Nippon Tornadoes Matsuyama City, Japan/Blue River, Oregon N/A 2009
West
Team City Arena Founded
Edmonton Energy Edmonton, Alberta MacEwan Sports Centre 2009
Los Angeles Lightning Thousand Oaks, California Gilbert Sports Arena 2008
Seattle Mountaineers Seattle, Washington N/A (travel team) 2006, suspended operations for the 2008 season and returned in 2009 as a traveling team.
Tacoma Tide Tacoma, Washington Stadium High School 2009

Future Teams

Team City Arena 1st Season
Arizona Flame Scottsdale, Arizona Scottsdale YMCA 2007, played a partial schedule in 2008 and 2009 and will return to full-time action in 2010.[4]
Elgin Racers Elgin, Illinois Lindner Fitness Center 2005, suspended operations for the 2009 season and will return in 2010. [5]
Eugene Chargers Eugene, Oregon Morse Events Center 2006, suspended operations for the 2008 and 2009 seasons and will return in 2010.
Gary Steelheads Gary, Indiana Genesis Convention Center 2000[6] They will sit out the 2009 season and return in 2010.
Nevada Pride Henderson, Nevada Henderson International School 2009, will play a partial schedule in their inaugural season before playing a full schedule in 2010.
Olympia Reign Olympia, Washington Squaxin Island Indian Community Gym & Evergreen State College 2008, played a partial schedule in 2008 and 2009 before playing a full schedule in 2010.
Phoenix Red Rock Raptors Phoenix, Arizona TBD 2009, will play a partial schedule in their inaugural season before playing a full schedule in 2010.
Salem Stampede Salem, Oregon McKay High School 2006-07, suspended operations for the 2008 season and will return in 2009.
Southern Illinois Truth Flora, Illinois Salem High School, East Richland High School, Flora High School, & Mount Vernon High School 2009, will play a partial schedule in their inaugural season before playing a full schedule in 2010.
Yamhill High Flyers McMinnville, Oregon Patton Middle School 2009, will play a partial schedule in their inaugural season before playing a full schedule in 2010.

Joined other leagues

Complete team list

IBL Champions

Year Champion Score Runner-Up
2005 Battle Creek Knights 124-121 Dayton Jets
2006 Elkhart Express 119-108 (OT) Columbus Cyclones
2007 Elkhart Express 113-109 Portland Chinooks
2008 Bellingham Slam 118-111 Elkhart Express

Championships by Team

Team Championships Years
Elkhart Express 2 2006, 2007
Battle Creek Knights 1 2005
Bellingham Slam 1 2008
Los Angeles Lightning 1 2009

Notable people

Commissioners

Players

Coaches

Final Regular Season Standings

See article IBL Regular Season Standings

Minor notes

  1. ^ The Bellingham Slam played their first two seasons in the American Basketball Association and moved to IBL in 2007.
  2. ^ The Snohomish County Explosion were originally the Everett Explosion and relocated from Everett, Washington in 2007.
  3. ^ The Kankakee County Soldiers were previously the Windy City Soldiers in 2008 and the Chicago Heights Soldiers in 2007. The team was relocated from Chicago Heights, Illinois to their current location after the 2007 season.
  4. ^ The Flame were originally the Phoenix Flame and relocated from Phoenix, Arizona in 2008.
  5. ^ The Racers were originally the Windy City Dawgs and relocated from Chicago, Illinois in 2006.
  6. ^ The Gary Steelheads started out in the Continental Basketball Association franchise and played the 2007 season in the United States Basketball League. They joined the IBL for the 2008 season.
  7. ^ 27 Dec 2007. "Vander Velden takes the helm in Battle Creek." IBLHoopsOnline. 24 Oct. 2006. International Basketball League. <http://www.iblhoopsonline.com/documents/MicrosoftWord-VanderVeldentakesthehelminBattleCreek.pdf>.

See also

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