Feb. 22 local sports: CEBL draft; Spartans tryouts; Welland Tigers hockey; Fairview bowling
CEBL Draft Reveal Announced
The Canadian Elite Basketball League will be holding its 2019 Entry Draft Reveal March 23 in Hamilton at the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
It will also be live streamed on CEBL.tv.
“It’s an exciting time for our league as fans will get a first-hand look at the top players that will play in our inaugural season,” said CEBL CEO Mike Morreale. “Team general managers and other officials will be joined by celebrities and influencers, Canadian basketball officials, community leaders, media, and sponsors for a monumental night in the history of basketball in our country. This will be a unique event for a unique league, and one that can be experienced by people around the world through a live stream.”
The CEBL’s six clubs will take part in the draft March 16 with each club phoning in their picks to the league office. The selections will be held in confidence until the March 23.
The draft order for the 13-round draft will determined by a blind draw and announced publicly on Wednesday, March 6 at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Once the draft order has been determined, the 13-round draft will follow a snake format, with teams selecting one through six in Round One followed by sixth through first in Round Two and so forth.
The teams in Edmonton, Guelph, Hamilton, Fraser Valley (Abbotsford), Saskatchewan (Saskatoon), and Niagara (St. Catharines) will play a 20-game regular season from May 9 to Aug. 15, culminating with a league championship playoff at a site to be announced.
The first four rounds of the draft will see teams selecting players from their own regions. The three eastern clubs must select players based in Ontario and east, while the three western clubs must select players from Manitoba to the west.
Rounds five through 11 will allow teams to select players from any region of the world and rounds 12 and 13 will see teams pick athletes currently playing at U SPORTS programs across Canada.
“There is no dearth of talent when it comes to basketball in this country,” said Joe Raso, the CEBL’s director of basketball operations. “Thanks to the league making key partnerships with Canada Basketball and U SPORTS, I am extremely excited to see how our rosters take shape as the CEBL becomes an elite platform for the development of the sport in this country”.