Costa Rica Basketball 101

Updated 10/1/15
A few pointers about the structure of Costa Rican basketball:

• The best way to explain the league's structure is to think about European soccer. It's a very similar structure and philosophy.
• A few years ago, the league had eight teams, but that number has dwindled down to six. I compare it roughly to DII ball in the NCAA, though I think the better teams can compete with a low level DI school. The six teams projected to be in the league this year are:
• Ferreteria Brenes Barva, seven-time champs, Barva Web Page
• Escazu 
• Liceo de Costa Rica
• Copenae USJ San Ramon, defending champion
• Grecia
• Limon Sharks
• Typically, the bottom team each year drops down to Second Division and the top Second Division team comes up to First Division. The Second Division season has dragged on this year, but it looks like the winner may take the challenge of coming up to First Division.
• The season is divided into two "tournaments": Apertura and Clausura. Each tournament consists of a home and away series against every other team (that would be a total of 10 games for the mathematically challenged). The top four teams move on to the playoffs for a best two out of three series. The winner of each tournament meet at the end of the season in a Best of 5 series. If the same team wins both tourneys, they are automatically crowned the national champ.
• In an attempt to develop young players, the league has a rule that you need to play local players under the age of 21 a certain amount of minutes per game, which factors out to be 10 minutes per game. That throws a major wrench into your coaching plans. Thankfully, that playing time is cumulative and not per game, but still you have to consider it carefully in making substitutions.
• We play twice a week, usually on Tuesdays and Friday/Saturday. However with very busy gyms and all sorts of unforeseen circumstances pop up, it's not uncommon to have games rescheduled frequently (though the league has done a better job of keeping a firm schedule the last few years). 
• I would estimate that about 70% of the players are not paid more than a token amount to cover for their gas money. There is only one team that is pretty much professionalized, that would be perennial powerhouse Ferreteria Brenes Barva although we can add San Ramon to the list. 
• On a related note, basketball in Costa Rica is not well funded. Most teams struggle to put together the funds to operate a team, and it's not like that takes that much money. There just isn't that much interest in sponsors to fund basketball. Only one team runs a smooth operation (Barva); they have an excellent group of administrators that have been effective at attracting sponsors.
• TV coverage has been inconsistent; there use to be two games per week on TV, but last year coverage went dark. Super Cable Grecia broadcasts some of the games for Grecia and San Ramon. Channel 42 has broadcast the games for Barva in the past.
• Each team is allowed to have two foreigners per team. That can range from basketball mercenaries to expats who have played hoops and want to try their local league. We've had a few former D1 players (including the famous John Chappell) play in our league in the last five years. 
• In the past, we had a categorization scheme that was designed to spread out the talent. However, this system, while noble in its intent, did not work very well and you had all sorts of weird by-products that led to severe mis-pricing of player talent. The federation decided to ice the system for two years which led to a lot of player changes this past offseason. 
• Reffing in the league is...uneven to put it mildly. Verticality is a foreign concept. Once players develop a certain reputation with players , good and bad, it's almost impossible to change that perception among league refs.