Your guide to the CEBL as high-powered hoops returns to CBC

Welcome to Basketball Summer in Canada.

Yes, we’re capitalizing that as quasi-official branding, because hoops fans across the country will have an embarrassment of riches to choose from over the next few months as the Canadian Elite Basketball League returns for its eighth season and the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo tip off their inaugural campaign.

But while the Tempo will play games in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, the CEBL has coast-to-coast coverage with 10 teams representing six provinces.

Much has changed from the early days of the CEBL. Every game concludes in a made basket, as target-score endings — also known as Elam Endings — take full effect. Meanwhile, for the first time, the championship series will be a best-of-three, with the lower seed hosting Game 1 before the team with the better record heads home for Games 2 and 3.

The action begins Saturday when the Edmonton Stingers host the Winnipeg Sea Bears in the season opener. Live coverage begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBC-TV and CBC Gem, which will serve as your CEBL home throughout the season.

Here’s everything else you need to know:

Each team will play 24 games during the regular season, with the top four teams in each conference advancing to the playoffs.

The post-season format is simple — No. 1 plays No. 4 and No. 2 faces No. 3 in single-elimination games in each conference. The winners play each other in another one-game knockout, and the last teams standing meet in the final.

The Niagara River Lions are the two-time defending champions, joining the Edmonton Stingers (who went back-to-back in 2020 and 2021) as the only multi-time winners in league history.

Mark Cuban on why he decided to become part-owner of the CEBL's Brampton Honey Badgers

Whether the River