The Israeli Basketball State Cup (Hebrew: גביע המדינה בכדורסל) is the second most important basketball competition in Israel, after Ligat HaAl. The tournament began in the 1955-56 season, and is run by the Israel Basketball Association.
The tournament format consists of teams facing each other for a one game elimination match. The winner advances to the second round, which also consists of one game elimination match. The winner of the second round advances to the quarter final stage.
The first and second round pairings are selected by a random draw. According to the rules of the draw, the previous season's State Cup champions and Super League champions may not meet before the final phase. If the previous year's State Cup and Ligat HaAl were both won by the same team (as has often happened in the past), the champions and the finalists from the State Cup Ligat HaAl may not meet until the final phase.
Read more about Israeli Basketball State Cup: State Cup History
Famous quotes containing the words israeli, basketball, state and/or cup:
“...I want to see a film, they send the Israeli army reserves to escort me! What kind of life is this?”
—Golda Meir (1898–1978)
“Perhaps basketball and poetry have just a few things in common, but the most important is the possibility of transcendence. The opposite is labor. In writing, every writer knows when he or she is laboring to achieve an effect. You want to get from here to there, but find yourself willing it, forcing it. The equivalent in basketball is aiming your shot, a kind of strained and usually ineffective purposefulness. What you want is to be in some kind of flow, each next moment a discovery.”
—Stephen Dunn (b. 1939)
“In his sleeves, which were long,
He had twenty-four packs,—
Which was coming it strong,
Yet I state but the facts;
And we found on his nails, which were taper,
What is frequent in tapers,—that’s wax.”
—Bret Harte (1836–1902)
“In poorer lands
No one touches the water of life.
It has no taste
And though it refreshes absolutely
It is a cup that must also pass
Until everybody
Gets some advantage....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)