NBL Canada Reveals Season Ten Schedule
The last NBL Canada match-up took place on March 11th 2020 and was between the Sudbury Five and London Lightning. That fixture that will kick off the tenth NBLC season when the league re-starts February 2022 after a prolonged absence.
With a gap of almost two years due to Coronavirus concerns, the NBLC has seen some notable off-season casualties: two teams left the league, two more are on hiatus. None of that has deterred the league and its remaining franchises from bringing basketball back to its communities. The four Central Division teams; KW Titans, London Lightning, Sudbury Five and Windsor Express, this time will be contesting the 2022 NBLC title.
The season opener will begin on February 5th 2022; at the same time the Express will make the journey to Kitchener to face the Titans, which will be followed by Windsor's home opener against the same team a week later. The Titans will then take on Sudbury and London, who will face rivals Windsor for the first time in 2022 at home on February 17th.
It won't be just a four-team competition, though. Throughout the season, all four teams will be paid a visit from eight teams of America's ever-growing minor operation, The Basketball League. These American will be making sporadic visits across the 2021-22 season, their results will count toward their TBL results but none will not be contending for the Canadian title.
Flint United and the Jamestown Jackals will be the first to touch down in Canada, when they will face Sudbury and KW respectively on February 24th. Windsor will face their first TBL opponents Dayton Flight on March 4th, two days later London will have their first inter-league match-up against the Lansig Pharoahs.
Toldeo Glass City and the Syracuse Stallions will debut in the NBLC on February 25th respectively against Sudbury and the Titans, the Kokombo Bobcats will first face Windsor on March 12th and at the end of March the Lightning will be the first to take on the Albany Patroons.
The regular season will come to an end on April 30th, with a match-up between the KW Titans and the Jamestown Jackals, the last meeting of NBLC teams being a repeat of the opening fixture two days earlier. From there, the playoffs will begin, the format of which has yet to be announced.
So the tenth NBL Canada season is set to be a very interesting celebration, with the addition of invitation teams potentially making for plenty of exciting games ahead. However the results fall in spring 2022, the return of the Canada's longest running basketball league has been a long time coming and the news of when and how it will be happening begins the tantalizing countdown to tip-off 2022.
Check back here for updates on the upcoming season as news of it unfolds.
Picture Credit: Derek Ruttan
