12 teams will compete in the highest men’s league in the 2024/25 season that will start on September 20th.
The game mode remains the same for the men’s National 1. Atfer the regular season, the top 8 teams will compete in a play-off format while the bottom 4 teams will play in the play-down.
New rules
With the application of the new rules voted by the clubs concerning the professional and NON JICL players, all clubs will play with a maximum of 2 professional players in the women’s and men’s first league as well as the men’s National 2. A team can play with a mximum of 4 NON JICL players, 2 of them can be professional players.
The favorites
National team head coach Ken Diederich thinks that the favorites to win the championship title remain the same clubs: „Steinsel, Esch, Etzella are the three strongest teams, Sparta, T71, Résidence, Contern and Arantia should be the main candidates to enter the play-offs. A lot is possible during a season, I think that Heffingen, Mamer, the Musel Pikes and Mondorf are the team that might compete in the play-down. » As we have seen over the last years, the final decisions to enter the 8-team play-off is usually decided on the final game day of the regular season which makes the race thrilling over the first 22 game days.
Main off-season changes
There have not been plenty off-season moves in the men’s competition. Most teams will start the season with the same head coach, only the Musel Pikes (Alfredo Pecorino) and Arantia Larochette (Karolis Abramavicius) will enter the season with a new coach. While plenty of teams have changed their professional players, only a few JICL players have retired or will wear a different jersey.
JICL MVP candidates
Ken Diederich does not expect a surprise in the race for the most valuable JICL player. „Thomas Grün, Philippe Gutenkauf, Oliver Vujakovic, Bob Melcher and Alex Laurent, these 5 candidates are clearly the favorites, all of them have the ball in their hands a lot. Maybe a Sparta-player can enter the race, Max Logelin, Mike Feipel, Yannick Verbeelen, they have multiple guys that have the talent to be in the conversation. » Philippe Gutenkauf of Etzella Ettelbruck is the defending MVP, we’ll see if he can win the title once again at the end of the regular season.
Players abroad
Multiple luxembourgish players are playing abroad in the 2024/25 season. Malcolm Kreps continues to play professional in the BNXT league, Ben Kovac has decided to play in France next season. Ivan Delgado and Davy Rocha will also play professional basketball, more information on both of these players will follow soon. Ken Diederich notes that multiple future prospects for the national team are currently playing overseas (Luke and Max Jungers), or in Europe (Namik Murativic, Dorian Grosber, Matteo McSwain, Noah Daleiden Stansbury). „The competition to make the national team roster is going to become more and more competitive in the future.“ The men’s national team will be in action on November ( more information –> National teams will be in action in November, February and May )
First game day
On game day 1, the two promoted teams Mondorf and Heffingen will play at home on Friday evening to start the season.
Friday, September 20th
20:00 Avanti Mondorf – Sparta Bertrange
20:30 US Heffingen – Résidence Walfer
Saturday, September 21st
20:15 T71 Dudelange – Mambra Mamer
20:15 Musel Pikes – Amicale Steinsel
20:30 AB Contern – Basket Esch
20:30 Etzella Ettelbruck – Arantia Larochette
