International Basketball League

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This article is about the International Basketball League formed in 2004. See International Basketball League (1999-2001) for information on the original unrelated International Basketball League.

International Basketball League

Sport	Basketball
Founded	2004
Inaugural season	2005
No. of teams	18
Country(ies)	United States Canada People's Republic of China Japan
Most recent champion(s)	Elkhart Express
Official website	www.iblhoopsonline.com

The International Basketball League is a professional men's spring basketball league featuring teams from the West Coast, Rocky Mountains, Western Canada, and the Midwest. They also feature teams from the People's Republic of China and Japan which will temporarily relocate to the USA for the IBL season. The IBL season runs from the end of March through June with playoffs in July.

1 History
2 Teams
3 IBL Champions
- 3.1 Championships by Team
4 Notable People
5 Final Regular Season Standings
6 Minor notes
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] History

Founded by Portland area sports promoter Mikal Duilio, the league features rules designed to create a fast-paced, high-scoring brand of basketball. Duilio first began planning for the league with a series of test games in Portland and Seattle in November of 2003. These games featured a mixture of traditional college and NBA rules, plus three rules created specifically for the league:

1. The "Immediate Inbound" Rule: After a made basket, the referee will throw the ball to a nearby player, instead of a player throwing in the ball from under the basket, to eliminate wasted time.
2. Instead of six timeouts as in an NBA game, teams are limited to only a single timeout per quarter.
3. A 22-second shot clock is used instead of the NBA's 24. A defensive non-shooting foul or kicked ball resets it to 12.

The test games proved popular and resulted in the founding of the IBL in August of 2004. Founded with 8 teams, the league expanded to 17 by the start of the season in April of 2005. Each team played approximately 20 regular season games, most of them centered around their home region, with the teams with the two best records playing in a championship game at the end of the season. The Battle Creek Knights won the inaugural title by going undefeated in the regular season and beating the Dayton Jets in the finals.

In the league's first year, the up-tempo rules resulted in the average team scoring 126.9 points per game, nearly 30 points more than the NBA team average in 2004-05, and slightly higher than the NBA record for points per game by a team in a single season, set by the Denver Nuggets in 1981-82.

[edit] Teams

[edit] Current Teams

Team	City	Arena	Founded
East
Battle Creek Knights	Battle Creek, Michigan	Kellogg Arena	2005
Elkhart Express	Elkhart, Indiana	North Side Gymnasium	2006
Holland Blast	Holland, Michigan	Holland Civic Center	2006
Windy City Soldiers	Kankakee, Illinois	Kankakee Community Center	2007^[1]
Midwest
Team	City	Arena	Founded
Elgin Racers	Elgin, Illinois	Lindner Fitness Center	2005^[2]
Gary Steelheads	Gary, Indiana	Genesis Convention Center	2000^[3]
Grand Rapids Flight	Grand Rapids, Michigan	DeltaPlex Arena	2005
USA All-Stars	USA	N/A	2008
Southwest
Team	City	Arena	Founded
Central Oregon Hotshots	Bend, Oregon	Mountain View High School	2005
Las Vegas Stars	Las Vegas, Nevada	Centennial Hills Community Center	2007
Los Angeles Lightning	Thousand Oaks, California	Gilbert Sports Arena	2008
Portland Chinooks	Portland, Oregon	multiple	2005
Shanxi Zhongyu	Taiyuan, Shanxi, China / Blue River, Oregon, USA	N/A	2004
West
Team	City	Arena	Founded
Bellingham Slam	Bellingham, Washington	Whatcom Pavilion	2005^[4]
Edmonton Chill	Edmonton, Alberta	MacEwan Sports Centre	2008
Jazz of Tacoma	Tacoma, Washington	Mount Tahoma High School	2007
Snohomish County Explosion	Monroe, Washington	Monroe Sports Arena	2007^[5]
Vancouver Volcanoes	Vancouver, Washington	O'Connell Sports Center	2005

[edit] Coming in 2009

Team	City	Arena	1st Season
Arizona Flame	Casa Grande, Arizona	TBA	2007, suspended operations for the 2008 season and will return in 2009. ^[6]
Eugene Chargers	Eugene, Oregon	Morse Events Center	2006, suspended operations for the 2008 season and will return in 2009.
Vancouver Titans	Langley, British Columbia	Langley Events Centre	2009
Nippon Tornadoes	Matsuyama City, Japan/Blue River, Oregon	N/A	2009
Olympia Reign	Olympia, Washington	TBA	2008
Salem Stampede	Salem, Oregon	McKay High School	2006-07, suspended operations for the 2008 season and will return in 2009.
Seattle Mountaineers	Seattle, Washington	Bellevue Community College	2006-07, suspended operations for the 2008 season and will return in 2009.
Washington Raptors	Chehalis, Washington	multiple	2007, suspended operations for the 2008 season and will return in 2009.
West Coast Highflyers	TBA	TBA	2008

[edit] Joined other leagues

Akron Cougars (joined the Universal Basketball League)
Santa Barbara Breakers (joined the West Coast Pro Basketball League)
West Virginia Wild (joined the National Professional Basketball League)

[edit] Complete team list

Akron Cougars (2007), as Cuyahoga Falls Cougars (2005-06)
Akron Energy (2007)
Akron Lightning (2005)
Arizona Flame (2008), as Scottsdale Flame (2007); as Phoenix Flame (2007)
Arizona Lightning (2007)
Aurora Cavalry (2006)
Battle Creek Knights (2005-present)
Bellingham Slam (2008-present)
Cedar Valley Jaguars (2005-06)
Central Oregon Hotshots (2005-present)
Chico Force (2005-07)
Colorado Crossover (2006-07)
Dayton Jets (2005-06)
Des Moines Heat (2005)
Detroit Pros (2005)
Edmonton Chill (2008-present)
Elgin Racers (2007-present), as Windy City Dawgs (2005-06)
Elkhart Express (2006-present)
Eugene Chargers (2006-07)
Holland Blast (2006-present)
Hub City Hurricanes (2007)
Gary Steelheads (2008-present)
Grand Rapids Flight (2005-present)
Lake County Lakers (2006)
Langley Titans (2008-present)
Lansing Capitals (2006-07)

Las Vegas Stars (2007-present)
L.A. Lightning (2008-present)
Macomb County Mustangs (2005-06)
Mahoning Valley Wildcats (2005)
Marysville Meteors (2007), as Columbus Cyclones (2006)
Nippon Tornado (2008-present)
Portland Chinooks (2005-present)
Oakland Slammers (2005-06)
Olympia Reign (2008-present)
Salem Stampede (2006-07)
Santa Barbara Breakers (2007)
Saskatoon Prairie Wolves (2008)
Seattle Mountaineers (2006-07)
Shaanxi Kylins (2008)
Shanxi Zhongyu (2008-present)
Snohomish County Explosion (2008-present), as Everett Explosion (2007)
Tacoma Jazz (2007-present)
Tacoma Jets (2007), as Tacoma Thunder (2005-06)
Tri Valley Titans (2007), as Tri City Ballers (2006); as San Jose Ballers (2005)
USA All-Stars (2008-present)
Vancouver Volcanoes (2005-present)
Washington Raptors (2007)
West Coast Highflyers (2008-present)
West Virginia Wild (2006)
Windy City Soldiers (2008-present), as Chicago Heights Soldiers (2007)

[edit] IBL Champions

Year	Champion	Score	Runner-Up
2005	Battle Creek Knights	124-121	Dayton Jets
2006	Elkhart Express	119-108 (OT)	Columbus Cyclones
2007	Elkhart Express	113-109	Portland Chinooks

[edit] Championships by Team

Team	Championships	Years
Elkhart Express	2	2006, 2007
Battle Creek Knights	1	2005

[edit] Notable People

[edit] Commissioners

Mikal Duilio - Commissioner from 2004-Present

[edit] Players

Kyle Keyes, point guard for the Snohomish County Explosion, is the son of famous adult film actor Johnny Keyes.

[edit] Coaches

Logan Vander Velden, head coach of the Battle Creek Knights and former Los Angeles Clipper ^[7]
Rob Ridnour, head coach of the Bellingham Slam and father of Seattle Sonics guard Luke Ridnour

[edit] Final Regular Season Standings

See article IBL Regular Season Standings

[edit] Minor notes

^ The Windy City Soldiers were originally the Chicago Heights Soldiers and relocated from Chicago Heights, Illinois in 2007.
^ The Elgin Racers were originally the Windy City Dawgs and relocated from Chicago, Illinois in 2006.
^ The Gary Steelheads started out in the Continental Basketball Association franchise and played the 2007 season in the United States Basketball League. They joined the IBL for the 2008 season.
^ The Bellingham Slam played their first two seasons in the American Basketball Association and moved to IBL in 2007.
^ The Snohomish County Explosion were originally the Everett Explosion and relocated from Everett, Washington in 2007.
^ The Arizona Flame were originally the Phoenix Flame and relocated from Phoenix, Arizona in 2007.
^ 27 Dec 2007. "Vander Velden takes the helm in Battle Creek." IBLHoopsOnline. 24 Oct. 2006. International Basketball League. <http://www.iblhoopsonline.com/documents/MicrosoftWord-VanderVeldentakesthehelminBattleCreek.pdf>.