Basketball National League Resumes with Confusing Second-Round Format

VICTORIA, Seychelles — The basketball national league resumed over the weekend, with this season’s champions to be decided through a play-off series which will feature only the top six teams, based on the results of the first-round league. The bottom clubs will engage in a best-of-three league between themselves to determine the bottom-of-the-table ranking.

As confusing as it looks, the second-round fixtures will feature two groups, the Even Cup and the Odd Cup, in a best-of-three round robin league. The Even Cup group is made up of Beau Vallon Heat, Drifters and Baya, while the Odd Cup group features PLS Hawks, Mont Fleuri Dawgz and Praslin. Each team will play three times against each other, totalling nine matches per group, or 27 matches overall, with the group winners advancing to the play-off series, which could be stretched to a seventh, or decider, match.

According to the Seychelles Basketball Federation (SBF) executive committee, the decision to amend the league was taken during a recent meeting with members of the teams. The federation acknowledged that the format is unusual and noted that whatever is happening at the moment is very inappropriate for Seychelles, given that the country does not have a professional league and the players have day jobs. The federation said it would continue to engage with teams and players to ensure that the format, while unusual, delivers a fair and exciting conclusion to the season.