The Rams have been pooled alongside Illawarra, Wagga, Bathurst, Canberra, Queanbeyan, Shoalhaven and Lithgow and will meet each team home and away in a 14-match series before the finalists are determined.

First up for the Dubbo side will be a trip to Illawarra on Saturday, March 5, to face the Hawks while their final game will be at Queanbeyan against the Yowies on Saturday, July 23.

The first home game at the Sports World Woolshed will be played on Saturday, March 19 against the Wagga Heat.

"It's a pretty tough pool and there's plenty of travel in there but we just have to deal with that," Rams guard Daniel Medway said.

"There's no double-headers in there, which is strange because I thought our away games against Illawarra and Shoalhaven could have been played on a Saturday/Sunday so we could have just done one trip.

"There was also talk of perhaps having a centralised weekend where all the teams came together to cut down the travel but that didn't happen.

"I'm sure there's reasons behind all of that. The good thing is we now know when we start and can ramp up our training and our preparations accordingly."

A first-up assignment against Illawarra won't be easy for the Rams, with the Hawks featuring a number of players that play in competitions a rung or two below the National Basketball League (NBL).

But the task of beating Wagga may be made a little easier, with talk that star Heat import Gage Daye won't be lining up with the franchise.

"It's going to be interesting to see who is and who isn't playing in each team but we know there will be no easy games," Medway said.

"Having Illawarra first up will be a good test for us as they're always reasonably strong.

"It depends who is available week-to-week though as well. A lot of times the teams we played when we were on the road were different to what we'd face when they had to come to us."