About Connecticut Basketball
Teaching Winning Habits
The Connecticut Basketball Conference will tip-off its 18th season in December 2024 making it one of the oldest (and largest) travel and high school basketball leagues in New England. It plays more than 2,000 games in its winter season, providing various town/travel, high school and AAU basketball related opportunities for girls and boys who seek competitive experiences and are qualified, both by ability and desire, to compete in a competitive basketball environment. For town/travel, our boys and girls teams compete in the 4th-8th Grade Divisions.
Our Mission
The goal of our Program is to teach winning habits (as there is no class in any school entitled, "perserverance", "grit", or "drive"). Accordingly, we view the basketball court as a class room--that happens to have lines painted on the floor--in wihch the kids will learn the lessons that will endure a lifetime.
Our Program
The princple components of our Program are as follows:
- Regular Season. Regular Season play begins the first week of December and runs until the third week of February. We typically play on Fridays (junior divisions only), Saturdays and Sundays.
- Post-Season Our post-season is referred to as our "Conference Tournament" which begins the final week of February (opening round games) and runs for two weekends, ending in the first weekend of March (Final Four & Championship Games). All teams qualify for this single-elimination tournament. Teams that finish the regular season with a winning record are placed in an "NCAA Bracket" with all the other teams that finish above .500. Teams that finish below .500 are placed in an "NIT Bracket" and battle for the NIT crown.
- Tournament Play. Connecticut Basketball sponsors the following in-season tournaments--all of which are New England Championship qualifiers: (i) Pre-Season Turkey Shoot (Thanksgiving Tournament); (ii) Santa's Shootout; (iii) New Years Day Hangover-The-Rim Classic and (iv) MLK Day Memorial.
- Special Events/Annual All-Star Game. Our annual All-Star Classic for all grade levels is played on President's Day in either Berlin, CT or Middletown, CT.
- Community Service Events. All community service events are mandatory for all member Clubs: (i) Annual Food Drive (December); (ii) Coaches Versus Cancer Pink-Out (February); (iii) Shoot for a Better Future Scholarships (March).
Team Eligibility & Requirements
Our Club and Team eligibility requirements are as follows:
- All players from any Club or team must be from the same town. (Any exception to this rule but be expressly approved by Connecticut Basketball's President.)
- Players are strictly prohibited from "playing down" but are permitted (and encouraged) to "play up."
- Clubs and teams must provide proof of insurance and keep said insurance in good standing.
- Clubs and teams must execute a League waiver and release of liability at the beginning of each season.
Scheduling
Our League centrally schedules all League games and scheduling (and divisional placement) are based on: (1) town size (and location); (2) analytics regarding a team's prior performance; and (3) other relevant data, including changes in a team's composition from year to year.
Following an analysis of these factors, Connecticut Basketball produces a schedule for each team which which posts in November and runs from December through the first week of March.
Each teams' schedule is predominantly made up of teams within their geographic region. However, we typically "meet in the middle" at neutral sites in Berlin or New Britain, etc. to enable teams in the far reaches of Eastern Connecticut to play teams from the far reaches of Western Connecticut.
A "full schedule" for a team that hosts 8 home dates and can play without restrictions (Friday, Saturday or Sunday) is 16-20 League games (with the majority of these teams playing more than 20 games). These teams typically play a minimum of two games) per weekend.
A "partial" schedule is 10 to 15 games.
Fees
We try to run our League "at-cost."
Accordingly, if you have home gym and commit to 6-8 home dates, the fee for new teams is $235 per team plus a playoff fee of $115 per team. (Note: All Final Four & Championship games are played at League neutral sites.)
If you do not have a home gym, your home games would be played at one of our neutral sites where you would play 6 "home games" and the remainder of your schedule would be road games. This option however is far more expensive as you will be paying for the 6 home games as it costs approximately $217 dollars to play a game ($100 for court; $100 for referees; $17-$34 for staff).
Note: All other major Leagues charge three to five times this amount.
To apply for admission, please complete our on-line application at www.ctbball.org, click on registrations and select
New Team Applications. Your completed application will be electronically transmitted to our League President, Gary Collins at garyhughcollins@gmail.com.
We unfortunately do not accept all teams that apply to Connecticut Basketball and our application deadline is September 30th.
We look forward to seeing you on the court!
Connecticut Basketball Conference
