The Oldenburgs should have another advantage in the decisive phase of the season: they are, alongside the leaders from Bonn, the only team in the BBL that has played all 28 games of the season so far. All other teams still have games to catch up. Gießen, for example, also a direct competitor of Oldenburg in the fight for relegation, played three games less. Crailsheim, still in contention for the playoffs, is four games behind.
Mammoth program: Alba Berlin still with twelve BBL games
However, the toughest final program awaits Alba Berlin: The champions still have twelve games to play before the end of the regular season, the first of which is on Monday evening (April 4th, 2022) against Medi Bayreuth. On top of that there are two more games in the Euroleague.
Alba is currently in fifth place in the BBL, but has the fewest defeats in the league and could roll up the field from behind. The table therefore has only limited significance with six games to go.
23 game cancellations just because of Corona
According to the BBL, 23 games had to be canceled. This further upset the schedule, which is already strained due to many international games. Since the beginning of the year, almost all teams have had to complain about several absences week after week due to corona diseases and injuries.
Medi Bayreuth was particularly badly hit recently: The Bayreuth team only had six players ready for action in the game in Göttingen, and in the end they even had to go into extra time – where they ended up losing very narrowly. It was one of six defeats for Bayreuth in March alone. The playoffs, which were at least within reach up until then, should no longer be an issue for Bayreuth.
BBL extends season to May 10th
The BBL still has to tear down a tight remaining program in the remaining weeks, with six outstanding game days plus ten catch-up games. The season has therefore already been extended by ten days beyond the 34th matchday, until May 10th. By then, all games of the main round must be played. Otherwise, league boss Stefan Holz confirmed to the sports show, the table would have to be recalculated according to the quotient rule – as the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) has already done.
Descent could be suspended
Under certain circumstances, this could also have an impact on the relegation rule: if a team is in a relegation zone with fewer than 34 games at the end of the season, but they still had the mathematical chance of saving themselves in a catch-up game, they would not be relegated , said league boss Holz: “We have made clear regulations, unanimously with all clubs.“
Additional agreements when planning the game were now also necessary because of the Euroleague playoffs with FC Bayern: On April 26th or 27th, the Munich team will start their quarter-final series in Europe’s premier class, which in the most extreme case will last five games. Should Munich qualify for the Final Four (May 19 to May 21), the playoff series in the BBL, which start on May 13, would be interrupted.
BBL boss Holz: “Corona schedule equally difficult for all teams”
The league has until June 25 to wrap up the season. BBL Managing Director Holz assumes that the playoffs will be played to the end according to plan. And with a much lower burden than in the last season, which was also hit by Corona: At the end of the day, the teams had to play back-to-back in the playoffs, i.e. on two consecutive days.
“The Corona game plan is wild. But also equally difficult and unpredictable for all teams. It affects championship, playoffs, home game ranking, relegation“said Holz and also defended himself against the allegations of possible distortion of competition, which became loud after Bayern’s guest game in Oldenburg. The game was moved from Sunday to Saturday at the request of FC Bayern, according to Holz. And: It had no other possibility of appointment than this weekend.
FC Bayern – three games in the Euroleague until Friday
Bayern’s managing director Marko Pesic defended himself in the Süddeutsche Zeitung after the Oldenburg game, saying that the club also had to protect the health of the players in view of the enormous strain.
Bayern have three away games in the Euroleague until next Friday before they continue in the league against Gießen on Sunday. Giessen are penultimate in the table on a relegation zone – and would certainly not mind if Munich rested some of their stars again.