The group draws for the 2026 Zhejiang City Basketball League, or "ZheBA", are displayed at the draw ceremony in Hangzhou on Aug 24. [Photo/Hangzhou Daily]

The provincial championship stage of the 2026 Zhejiang City Basketball League, known as "ZheBA", will begin on Sept 4, with Hangzhou hosting Taizhou in the opening game.

The draw for the championship was held in Hangzhou on Aug 24. The provincial championship has expanded to 28 teams, comprising 11 city select teams and 17 teams representing counties, county-level cities, and districts.

In addition to the winner of each prefecture-level city's qualifier, runners-up from Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Jinhua, Taizhou, and Jiaxing also qualified for the provincial championship. The 28 teams have been divided into four groups of seven.

The group draws for the 2026 Zhejiang City Basketball League are shown in the illustration. [Illustration created with AI]

Under the draw rules, last season's semifinalists Hangzhou, Lishui, Wenzhou, and Fuyang were placed in groups A, B, C, and D, respectively. The other four quarterfinalists, Cangnan, Zhuji, Yongkang, and Taizhou, were drawn next, followed by the remaining teams.

Each group can include no more than three city select teams, and teams from the same prefecture-level city cannot be placed in the same group.

The provincial championship will use a home-and-away double round-robin format and run through January 2027. The top four teams in each group will advance to the knockout stage.