BAL
BAL logo
LeaguesBNXT League
Founded9 April 2013 (2013-04-09)
HistoryBAL
(2013–present)
ArenaSporthal Boshoven
Capacity1,000
LocationWeert, Limburg, Netherlands
PresidentJeroen van Veen[1]
Head coachRadenko Varagić
2021–22 positionBNXT League, 15th of 21
Championships1 Dutch Cup
Websitebasketballacademielimburg.nl
Former logo of the club, used until 2017

Basketball Academie Limburg, commonly known as BAL, is a Dutch basketball club based in Weert in the province of Limburg. The club was founded in 2013 as an academy to develop youth players from the province of Limburg. The club entered the Dutch Basketball League for the 2017–18 season after the dissolution of the professional team BSW. Currently, the team plays in the BNXT League.

In 2021, BAL won its first-ever trophy when it won the DBL Cup in surprising fashion as the team was ranked eight in the DBL that season.[2]

History

Foundation

The club was established on 9 April 2013 to function as a club for regional talent from the province of Limburg. In its first years, the team played with several youth teams in domestic competitions.

In the 2017 offseason the professional club BSW from Weert and BAL intended a merger, which would integrate BSW into BAL.[3] Following BSW going defunct during this offseason, BAL decided to take its place in the DBL. As BAL played in the same home arena and the team consisted of several of the same players, the team can be considered a phoenix club. Radenko Varagić coached the team.

First DBL seasons

In its debut season, BAL finished in the ninth and last place in the DBL, winning 4 out of its 32 games. The team consisted of a selection of young promising players, such as guard Sam van Dijk who was named the DBL Most Improved Player in the club's debut season. On 1 August 2018, BAL signed its first ever foreign player when American center Tony Washington signed for one year.[4] In its second season, BAL once again finished last in the DBL with this time five wins in 2018–19.

In the 2020–21 season, BAL reached the playoffs for the first time after finishing in the eight seed. This season the team also won the 2021 DBL Cup, the club's first-ever trophy.[2] In the semi-finals, BAL upset first-seeded ZZ Leiden and in the final the team was too strong for Yoast United. Trevor Jasinsky led the team in scoring in the final with 27 points.

Since the 2021–22 season, BAL plays in the BNXT League, in which the national leagues of Belgium and the Netherlands have been merged.[5]

Honours

DBL Cup[2]

Dutch Supercup

  • Runners-up (1): 2021

Season by season

Key
Champions
Playoff berth
(X)National ranking standings
MIPMost Improved Player
RSRising Star of the Year
Season Tier League Regular season National playoffs Dutch Cup BNXT playoffs Head coach Individual awards
Finish Played Wins Losses Win%
BAL
2017–18 1 DBL 8th 32 4 28 .125 – Withdrew – Radenko Varagić Sam van Dijk (MIP)
2018–19 1 DBL 9th 34 5 29 .147 – Eightfinals –
2019–20[note 1] 1 DBL 6th 24 9 15 .375 – Eightfinals –
2020–21 1 DBL 8th 21 12 9 .571 Lost quarterfinals to ZZ Leiden (148–183) Champions
2021–22 1 BNXT League 15th
(7th)		 30 11 19 .367 – Fourth Round Won first round (Yoast, 163–152)
Lost second round (Feyenoord, 138–158)		 Sander Hollanders (RS)
2022–23 1 BNXT League 18th 28 7 21 .250 – Fourth Round Lost, first round (Liège Basket, 161–188) Oshean Brathwaite (RS)

Players

Current roster

BAL roster
PlayersCoaches
Pos.No.Nat.NameHt.Age
C 2 United States Miller, Walker 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 26 – (1997-08-16)16 August 1997
F 3 United States Frederick, Tyler 2.00 m (6 ft 7 in) 30 – (1993-09-23)23 September 1993
G 4 Netherlands van den Heuvel, Max 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) 21 – (2002-10-03)3 October 2002
SF 6 Netherlands Brathwaite, Oshean 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) 21 – (2002-05-28)28 May 2002
F 7 Netherlands Tholel, Revelinio 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 24 – (1999-09-01)1 September 1999
PG 8 Netherlands Strojil, Armin 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 20 – (2003-06-24)24 June 2003
PF 10 Germany Masnic, Neil 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 23 – (2000-05-10)10 May 2000
SG 11 Netherlands Vogelaar, Renars 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 19 – (2004-02-09)9 February 2004
G 12 United States Wilson, Marques 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) 25 – (1998-07-12)12 July 1998
F/C 14 Netherlands van Holst, Niels 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 19 – (2004-08-26)26 August 2004
C 16 Netherlands Hintzbergen, Stijn 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in) 22 – (2001-06-10)10 June 2001
G/F 27 Bulgaria Matushev, Aleksandar 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) 23 – (2000-05-12)12 May 2000
Head coach
Assistant coach(es)
  • Netherlands Koen van Gerwen
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (DP) Development player
  • (I) Import player
  • Injured Injured
Updated: October 20, 2022

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationality not displayed.

Individual awards

BNXT League Rising Star of the Year
DBL Most Improved Player
DBL All-Rookie Team
  • Jacco Fritz – 2018
  • Nino Gorissen – 2018
  • Ivan Simic – 2019

Top scorers by seasons

The following players led BAL in scoring in each DBL season:[6]

Season Name PPG
2017–18Netherlands Sam van Dijk 12.2
2018–19United States Tony Washington 12.2
2019–20United States Trey Burch-Manning 14.5
2020–21United States Trevor Jasinsky 15.8
2021–22 Republic of Ireland D. J. Mitchell
16.0

Club records

Bold denotes still active with team. As of 14 April 2021:

Category Player Record
Games playedWietze Nossek120
Points scoredWietze Nossek754
ReboundsRoel Aarts443
AssistsRoel van Overbeek329
StealsRoel van Overbeek94
BlocksRoel Aarts41
Three-point field goalsSander Hollanders141

Notes

  1. ↑ The 2019–20 season was ended prematurely in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

  1. ↑ BAL verwelkomt plan voor invoering BENE-League
  2. 1 2 3 "Basketball Academie Limburg uit Weert verovert nationale beker". nos.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  3. ↑ "BSW wordt Basketbal Academie Limburg en wil nieuwe hal". L1Limburg.nl. Retrieved 2017-10-17.
  4. ↑ "BAL Weert haalt Amerikaanse center in huis". 1Limburg - Nieuws en sport uit Limburg. 1 August 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  5. ↑ "Licenties BNXT League 2021-2022 toegekend". Basketball League (in Dutch). Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  6. ↑ "Basketball Academie Limburg Stats - RealGM". basketball.realgm.com. Retrieved 9 June 2021.

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