AUS – Future looking brighter Down Under with eight-team NBL

MASCOT (NBL) – Australia have had one of the strongest national sides in the world for years with most of the players coming out of the country's National Basketball League (NBL).

Now new Boomers coach Brett Brown knows that he will still be able to count on the domestic league, a new-look NBL, to give national team hopefuls vital minutes on the court.

A week after learning that the Melbourne Tigers would join the NBL to make it an eight-team competition, the league has announced the 2009-2010 fixture list.

Financial problems had raised concerns about the immediate future of the NBL but the release of the new schedule should allay fears about the competition moving forward.

Basketball Australia Chief Executive Officer Larry Sengstock said: “Compiling a fixture (list) is always a difficult process, but the eight clubs have worked closely with our office and at a feverish pace to produce a strong schedule for 2009/10 which we are all very pleased with.

“This rapid turnaround of the fixture (list) following the exciting events of last week means clubs now have reasonable lead times to sell their season ticket packages and promote their home games, which should help attract strong crowds.

"Whilst there is still plenty of work to be done before tip-off on September 24, we can now start to swing the focus back to where it should be - on our on-court product, which is truly world class.”

There will be 20 rounds in the new NBL campaign, which gets underway when the New Zealand Breakers host the Cairns Taipans at the North Shore Events Centre on September 24.

Each team will play 28 games – 14 at home and 14 on the road – with four contests against every team.

The top four teams at the end of the regular season will advance to the 2010 NBL Finals.

The new system of play for the play-offs will pit the number one ranked team against the fourth seed and number three versus number two in best-of-three semi-finals series.

The winners of each last-four showdown will then face off in a best-of-three Grand Final series.

FIBA