Kwara Falcons know foes as BAL announces Teams, Conferences, Game Schedule ahead of 2023 Season 

The Basketball Africa League (BAL) on Monday announced the top 12 club teams from 12 African countries that will compete in the 2023 BAL season, which will tip off on March 11 at the Dakar Arena in Dakar, Senegal. 

The upcoming season will once again feature a total of 38 games in Dakar, Cairo, Egypt, and Kigali, Rwanda, over three months in 2023.   

The 12 teams include defending BAL champion US Monastir (Tunisia) and five other teams returning from the 2022 season. 

 Five teams will compete in the BAL for the first time, including the first BAL teams from Côte d’Ivoire and Uganda: Abidjan Basket Club (Côte d’Ivoire), Al Ahly (Egypt), City Oilers (Uganda), Kwara Falcons (Nigeria) and Stade Malien (Mali). AS Douanes (Senegal) returns to the BAL after participating in the inaugural season in 2021. 

The season opener will feature AS Douanes taking on Abidjan Basket Club on March 11 and US Monastir will begin its title defense on Sunday, March 12 against Stade Malien.

The 12 teams will again be divided into two conferences – the Sahara Conference and the Nile Conference.  Each conference will play a 15-game group phase during which each team will face the other five teams in its conference once. 

The Sahara Conference's group phase will take place at the Dakar Arena from March 11 to 21, and the Nile Conference’s group phase will take place at Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex in Cairo from April 26 to May 6. 

The top four teams from each conference will qualify for the BAL Playoffs and Finals, which will feature a single-elimitournamentamentnt at BK Arena in Kigali from May 21 to 27.