The Basketball Cup, for sponsorship reasons the TOTO Basketball Cup and formerly the NBB Cup (Dutch: NBB-Beker), is an annual cup competition for Dutchbasketball teams organised by the Basketball Nederland. Every team in the Netherlands can participate by signing up for the preliminary rounds. Professional basketball teams from the Dutch Basketball League (DBL) enter the tournament in the fourth round. From 1977 until 1990 professional teams were not allowed to participate in the competition.
The tournament is organized in a knock-out format, with quarter- and semi-finals being two-legged series while the final is played in a single game. Heroes Den Bosch holds the record for most cup titles with eight cups. During the 2020–21 season, the tournament was not played and was replaced by the DBL Cup, featuring only the twelve DBL teams.
Format
In the first, second and third round teams from the Dutch second, third and fourth division participate. From the fourth round, teams from the Dutch Basketball League (DBL) enter the competition.[1] Quarter- and semi-finals are played in a two-legged format. When a team form a tier lower than the DBL played a DBL team, one win is sufficient for the latter to advance to the next round.
Finals
From 1986 to 1993, the final was played over two legs with both finalists playing one game at home and one game away. From 2005 to 2013, the venue was fixed as the Topsportcentrum in Almere hosted the final every year.
^In the 1974–75 season, Arke Stars Enschede won the Cup, but RZ was marked as cup winner so the team could play in the 1975–76 FIBA European Champions Cup.
^DBV Rowic was known as "Snel Reizen" for sponsorship reasons.
^The 1997 final was not played after Donar refused to play after it already sent home their American players. Amsterdam automatically won the game 20–0.
^Donar and Aris Leeuwarden had qualified for the final of the 2019–20 season before it was cancelled.[3] The final was supposed to be played on 10 January 2021, however Aris refused to play that day.[4]
Teams in italic are inactive or dissolved, teams in bold currently play in the BNXT League (the highest level league of basketball in the Netherlands). Four teams active at the highest level have won the Dutch Cup, namely Heroes Den Bosch, Donar, ZZ Leiden and BAL.