With 2024 shaping up to be another massive year for basketball in New Zealand – both domestically and on the world stage – Basketball New Zealand (BBNZ) has today released their annual Tournaments Calendar for the coming year.
Age Group Championships
One of the highlights of the tournaments calendar is the age group tournaments, which sees the top young Kiwi players representing their regions in national tournaments throughout Aotearoa.
One notable change to the 2024 calendar has been in the age category naming conventions; with the age group national championships re-named to Under 14 / 16 / 18 / 20 from 1 January 2024. This follows the BBNZ Annual General Meeting in May this year, where a change to the age category naming conventions was voted on and passed by the Associations.
It is important to note that the age eligibility for these tournaments remains the same; the change is only to the naming of these categories. The age eligibility for BBNZ tournaments can be viewed at: http://bbnz.link/AgeDefinitions
3×3 Regionals
BBNZ is excited to announce the addition of the BBNZ 3×3 Secondary Schools Regionals (Northern, Central & Southern) for 2024.
3×3 has shown significant growth in the Secondary Schools age group in recent times – with a record 184 teams and over 900 players participating in the Secondary Schools Nationals in March this year – so BBNZ have restructured this event to accommodate more teams playing closer to their region.
From 2024, there will be three regional qualifying tournaments, hosted in Auckland, Hutt Valley and Ashburton, with the top 4 boys and girls teams from each regional event qualifying for the 3×3 Secondary Schools Nationals to be held in Wellington.
The addition of these regional competitions allows greater access by schools to 3×3 competition, particularly for those in the Lower North and South Islands, and to promote continued growth.
U18 Nationals
After review with its High Performance team, BBNZ has made the decision to keep U18 Nationals in the first week of the July School Holidays (10-13 July).
With the FIBA U17 Men’s World Cup finishing on 7 July, this provides a pathway for the NZ U17 Men’s team players to play at this U18 Nationals tournament. Unfortunately, this also means that NZ U17 Women’s team squad – who have their World Cup from 13-21 July – will not be able to compete in the U18 Nationals in 2024.
Both male and female players are eligible to play for their Associations at the U20 Nationals from 31 May – 3 June, but the boys must choose either U18 or U20 Nationals; they cannot play both.
