Premier A Slovenian Basketball League

Premier A Slovenian Basketball League
Country	Slovenia
Founded	1991
Number of teams	13
Website	[kzs-zveza.si Official website]

The Premier A Slovenian Basketball League (Template:Lang-sl), abbreviated as 1. A SKL and known for sponsorship reasons as the UPC Telemach League (Template:Lang-sl), is the top-level professional men's basketball league in Slovenia. The league, operated by the Basketball Federation of Slovenia, consists of 13 clubs, with the best-known internationally being the traditionally dominant Union Olimpija of Ljubljana, a regular Euroleague representative.

The league was founded in 1991, shortly after Slovenia gained its independence from Yugoslavia.

Competition format

The league is conducted in two phases.

Regular season

In the first phase, 12 teams compete in a home-and-away round-robin series (22 games in all) with the country's representative in the Euroleague, currently Union Olimpija, being exempt from this stage. Although some leagues in the region, such as that of Serbia, exempt all of the country's representatives in the Adriatic League from the first phase of the league season, the Slovenia league exempts only the Euroleague representative. (The country currently has two representatives in the Adriatic League—Olimpija and Helios Domžale.)

All teams advance from the regular season to one of two postseason stages, depending on their league position.

Second phase

The top seven teams from the regular season are joined by the Euroleague representative in the second phase. These teams start the second phase from scratch, with no results carrying over from the regular season. Each team plays a total of 14 games in this phase; as in the regular season, a home-and-away round-robin is used.

The top four teams at the end of this stage advance to the semifinals, conducted as a best-of-three playoff. The semifinal winners advance to the best-of-five championship finals, with the winners being crowned league champion.

This years final featured KK Union Olimpija and KK Krka. Krka won the finals in 5 games with 3–2 and was crowned as champion.

Playouts

The bottom five teams play a home-and-away round-robin series with one another; these teams' results from the regular season carry over to the playouts. At the end of the playout phase, the bottom finisher is automatically relegated to the second level of the Slovenian league system, the 1. B SKL. That team is replaced in the following season's league by the 1. B SKL champion. The second-from-bottom finisher enters a home-and-away round-robin mini-league with the second- and third-place teams from the second league, with the team finishing on top of the mini-league taking up a place in the next year's 1. A SKL.

Clubs (2010–11)

Team	Home city	Stadium	Capacity
Elektra	Šoštanj	Šoštanj Sport Hall	600
Geoplin Slovan	Ljubljana	Kodeljevo Sport Hall	1,000
Helios Domžale	Domžale	Hala komunalnega centra Domžale	2,500
Krka	Novo mesto	Leon Štukelj Hall	1,500
Maribor Messer	Maribor	Tabor Hall	3,800
Parklji	Ljubljana	ŠRC Ježica	300
Hopsi Polzela	Polzela	Polzela Sport Hall	1,800
Šentjur	Šentjur	Hruševec Sport Hall	450
LTHcast Mercator	Škofja Loka	Poden Hall	500
Union Olimpija	Ljubljana	Arena Stožice	12,480
Zlatorog Laško	Laško	Tri Lilije Hall	2,500

Past champions

Champions 1991–Present

Year	Champion	Runner Up	Aggregate
1991/92	Smelt Olimpija	Optimizem Postojna	3–0
1992/93	Smelt Olimpija	Slovenica Koper	3–1
1993/94	Smelt Olimpija	Tam Bus Maribor	3–0
1994/95	Smelt Olimpija	Kovinotehna Savinjska Polzela	3–0
1995/96	Smelt Olimpija	Interier Krško	3–1
1996/97	Smelt Olimpija	Kovinotehna Savinjska Polzela	3–0
1997/98	Union Olimpija	Kovinotehna Savinjska Polzela	3–0
1998/99	Union Olimpija	Pivovarna Laško	3–0
1999/00	Krka Telekom	Pivovarna Laško	3–1
2000/01	Union Olimpija	Krka Telekom	3–0
2001/02	Union Olimpija	Krka	3–0
2002/03	Krka	Union Olimpija	3–2
2003/04	Union Olimpija	Pivovarna Laško	3–0
2004/05	Union Olimpija	Geoplin Slovan	3–2
2005/06	Union Olimpija	Geoplin Slovan	3–2
2006/07	Helios Domžale	Union Olimpija	3–2
2007/08	Union Olimpija	Helios Domžale	3–1
2008/09	Union Olimpija	Helios Domžale	3–0
2009/10	Krka	Union Olimpija	3–2
2010/11	Krka	Union Olimpija	3–2

Finals appearances

Num	Team	W	L
19	Union Olimpija	15	4
6	Krka	4	2
3	Helios Domžale	1	2
3	Hopsi Polzela	0	3
3	Pivovarna Laško	0	3
2	Geoplin Slovan	0	2
1	Optimizem Postojna	0	1
1	Slovenica Koper	0	1
1	Tam Bus Maribor	0	1
1	Interier Krško	0	1

Club	Winners	Winning Years
Union Olimpija	15	1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1997,1998,1999,2001,2002,2004,2005,2006,2008,2009
Krka Novo Mesto	4	2000, 2003, 2010, 2011
Helios Domžale	1	2007

See Also

Slovenian Basketball Cup

Sources

• Official site of Slovenian Basketball Federation — most of site in Slovene; news feed also in English
  • Template:Sl icon Competition system

1. REDIRECTTemplate:Men's professional basketball leagues